Sarah’s Health Notes: Practise safe sun
You know the thing. We all do. And it’s pretty well the same advice every year (yawn…) but it’s equally important every year. So please - pretty PLEASE! - take sun protection seriously.
The villain? UV radiation from sunshine. The crime? Skin ageing – not fatal but not gorgeous either (and trying to overcome the effects can be very expensive). And more seriously, potentially causing skin cancer, which can be fatal. The means? Causing DNA damage in your skin cells, what scientists call a ‘UV signature’.
Now, that DNA damage is two-faced – one smiley, the other potentially nasty. The upside: skin cells called melanocytes distribute melanin, a pigment, to other cells so you get a tan, which, for most people, has a feel good factor in buckets. But the downside: ‘You only get the tan if you have the DNA damage,’ said Professor Richard Marais, a skin cancer expert.
Skin cancer comes in two main forms: non melanoma, which includes basal cell, squamous cell and some more rare types, and malignant melanoma. There’s a high cure rate for the former, but the latter still presents a challenge. One of the important things to do is to check your moles regularly, as I wrote about last week (see here).
The other vital thing you can do is to protect your skin. (Eyes need protection too, but that’s for another week.) And just because it’s so important, I’m going to say it again. So here is advice from Cancer Research UK about enjoying the sun safely:
In the UK, the sun’s UV rays are the strongest between 11am and 3pm from early April and late September. During this time, the sun may be strong enough to cause damage. Take extra care to protect your skin, especially if you get sunburnt easily.
1 Spend time in the shade, especially between 11am and 3pm in the UK.
2 Cover up with clothes, a wide-brimmed hat and wraparound sunglasses.
3 Use a sunscreen with at least SPF15 [we use SPF30-50] and 4 or 5 stars. Apply generously, reapply regularly and use in combination with shade and clothing.
A couple of things we’d add here: some vulnerable parts of your body tend to get forgotten, such as eyelids, ears and the back of your neck. Also, if you’ve been brightening up your face, neck and dec by removing the surface layer with a peel or retinol, remember you need to apply at least an SPF30 every day.
Going back to tanning, while we absolutely advocate sun preps we also know how much better we feel with a hint of a tint. There’s no need to go short on this with the range of fab self tans. For our tried and tested Beauty Bible Award winners, see here.
