How much do you really know about the sun and what does it do to your skin?
Hello Beautiful, Yes it has been a while and it isn’t me if I haven’t mentioned that in every single post. I guess I should do a little life update before I jump right into our next topic about your skin and the sun. I was working in a lab and it was incredibly busy since my last post in October. :/ I was busy until the time I left industry to enroll in an accelerated Emergency Medical Technician Program. The classes occurred 3 days a week, about 12 hours a day, and it went on for 5 weeks. It was intense but absolutely fun. I learned an incredible amount about pre-hospital medical care. I’ll be taking my national test some time in August and that means I’ll be able to start working as an EMT. I could write a separate blog on it another day. Let me know if you’d like to hear about it!
Now it’s Summer and classes and research start up again so trying to rest and fit in as many adventures as I can! This next topic is about protecting our skin from the sun and I think about this in preparing for ALL of my adventures.
So, what do we actually know about sunscreen and sunblock? Amazingly, people do not take sunscreen/sunblock as seriously as they should.
Some tidbits about the Sun
The Sun, at this point in time, is considered middle-aged. It has been around for about 4 billion years and will continue for about another 5 billion years. It is actually a star that is a bit more than 300,000 times more dense than Earth. The sun emits a few different types of light; infrared, visible and ultraviolet. You might have seen these types on your sunscreen bottle or it just says broad spectrum. It is good to know what types of light your sunscreen protects against. Our Earth’s atmosphere does a good job of blocking ~70% of the sun’s UV lights; the big bads. That means that there is still a good amount of UV coming through. Please see this NCBI article to learn the differences between UV-A and UV-B.
UV Radiation and your skin
You’ve been told you can get vitamins from the Sun. That is true. Well, your skin is able to START making vitamin D using the components of the sun light. However, over-exposure from tanning, for example, can cause mutations to DNA. It is very difficult to find the motivation to fight against something you can barely notice in the short-run, but hopefully the image below can show how real and detrimental UV exposure is without protection. Once your DNA changes, a type of frenzy could happen where the cells replicate uncontrollably and, simply, that’s what we call cancer. If that doesn’t scare ya, then maybe the thought of aging will. There are different cellular defects that are caused and I suggest doing your own research! Holler if you’d like for me to break down a certain topic.
Products
I won’t go into too much here because a member of The AEDITION had reached out to me and I am glad they did. They go over the importance of sunscreen/sunblock, what ingredients are critical, and the differences between sunscreen and sunblock. You can read their article HERE!
There are two products I have used for years and years and it is the Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Moisturizer with SPF 15 mixed with Raspberry Seed Oil (also on Amazon but slightly cheaper on the actual site) with SPF ranging from 28-50. My Aveeno moisturizer doesn’t have the sun protection factor to be considered sufficient and anything beyond 30, like my raspberry seed oil, is best. I use this mixture year-round for my face and neck. For everywhere else, I like to use Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch Sunscreen SPF 45 or the sunscreen stick which is SPF 70 and much more convenient. I am incredibly particular with the lip moisturizer I use because my lips are very sensitive. If I’m not using the lip balm I’ve made myself, it has to be Neutrogena Lip Moisturizer SPF 15.
Many people think sunscreen/sunblock is needed only on sunny days. NOT TRUE. The sun will always be present in the day. Whether or not there are clouds, you are getting light exposure. I apply an ample amount of sunscreen during all four seasons, sunny days and stormy days.
That’s all today folks! If you want to find out what I use most in the Summer, check out my Waterproof Favorites! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you’re protecting your DNA well!
Until next time! š
Crystal
