If you could give your friends and family an invisible "bulletproof vest" that would keep them safe from dangers they can't see, you would do it in a heartbeat, right? Your job would be much easier if you had a safe way to make sure your loved ones are safe all day, every day. And what if I told you that finding this invisible but effective "bulletproof vest" is as easy as clicking your mouse? Sunscreen is the name of this product that can save lives.
When used right, sunscreen is like a thin, almost invisible bulletproof vest. It has organic molecules that absorb, scatter, and reflect UV rays, keeping you safe from the sun, which is a silent killer. Overexposure to UV rays makes the risk of skin cancer, which is the most common type of cancer in the world, much higher.
The American Academy of Dermatology says that every hour, someone in the United States dies from melanoma, which is the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Still, 90 percent of skin cancers can be avoided if we take care to protect ourselves from getting too much UV light from the sun. Applying sunscreen correctly and often is one of the easiest and most effective ways to protect ourselves.
Sunscreen wasn't really talked about much 20 years ago, but now it's part of our everyday language. In some ways, knowing more about skin cancer and how important sunscreen and clothes that protect from the sun are has only made us more confused and maybe even made us ignore the warnings.
Have you ever wondered why, even though you put on a pound of sunscreen before going to the lake, you still got a bad sunburn? The problem is that we are told to use sunscreen, but we aren't shown how to do it right so that it works best.
But, unlike a bulletproof vest, sunscreen needs to be reapplied every so often to protect against ultraviolet (UV) rays. Take the 30-20-2 rule into account: Apply a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or more to your skin at least 30 minutes before going outside, even on cloudy days. Reapply sunscreen within the first 20 minutes of being outside to strengthen the barrier it creates, and then keep applying sunscreen every two hours. Sunscreen must be put on children under 18 every hour. The way sunscreen works this way has to do with how our skin works.
Our skin works much like a sponge does. The top layer of our skin, called the epidermis, soaks up sunscreen. This makes a protective layer on the skin that keeps UV rays from reaching the melanocytes, or "pigmentation cells," that are deep in the skin. Yet, your skin, which is the largest organ in your body, reaches its saturation point after about two hours, leaving you vulnerable to sunburn and other skin damage. So, putting on sunscreen more than once is a must if you want it to protect you better.
Unfortunately, not all sunscreens on the market today work as well as they should. Sunscreen must have enough of the important ingredients to give the best level of protection. In other words, when you buy sunscreen for your family, look at the bottle and make sure it has ingredients like zinc oxide and Parasol 1789 that have been shown to work.
Also, make sure the product blocks both UV-B and UV-A rays. This is called a broad-spectrum formula. If the sunscreen doesn't cover a wide range of UV rays, don't buy it. If your sunscreen doesn't say clearly that it protects against both UV-A and UV-B rays, you aren't getting enough protection or "coverage."
You can't say enough about how important a broad-spectrum sunscreen is. UV-B and UV-A rays affect your skin, immune system, and body as a whole in different ways. UV-B irradiation upsets the melanocytes, which are the cells deep below the epidermis that give your skin its colour. This makes the melanocytes release the "redness" that we call sunburn.
If you spend too much time in the sun, your skin will change colour. This is true even if your skin tends to "tan" instead of burn. When this happens, your melanocytes are trying to tell you that a lot of damage has been done to normal, healthy cells and that they are trying to fix it.
On the other hand, UV-A rays are much more dangerous to your skin and cause much more damage. UV-A rays are especially dangerous because they go deeper and break DNA bonds, which can cause cancer. Most of the time, you don't notice the effects of UV-A rays right away, but they are the main cause of photoaging, wrinkles, and actinic keratoses, a pre-cancerous skin condition. When you get too much ultraviolet radiation from the sun or a tanning bed, your cells get hurt and can't be fixed.
Think about this comparison: Have you ever left a basketball outside for a long time in the hot summer sun? And when you got the ball back, you could tell right away that it was less elastic. It feels "rubbery" and never quite "bounces back." This is what happens to your skin when you are exposed to UV-A for a long time. UV-B and UV-A rays both have effects that add up over time, and when they work together, they often cause melanoma skin cancer.
So, when you buy sunscreen, make sure you know what "SPF" means and don't be fooled by brands that say they offer a lot of protection. "SPF" is short for "sun protection factor" (or "sunburn protection factor"). The best way to explain how SPF works is with an example: A sunscreen with an SPF of 20 lets only 5 out of every 100 UV protons reach your skin. In other words, it stops 95% of the UV rays from getting to your skin.
So, dermatologist and oncologist Sancy A. Leachman, who runs the Tom C. Mathews Jr. Familial Melanoma Research Clinic at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, says that a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 is perfect for daily use all year long. But if you want to spend a long, relaxing day at the lake (or even a marathon day on the ski slopes), you should choose a sunscreen with an SPF of 30, like Blue Lizard Australian Sunscreen, and follow the 30-20-2 rule so you don't end up with a painful reminder of your fun day.
In fact, a recent report from the American Academy of Dermatology shows that the number of Americans who use sunscreen has dropped by nearly 60%. Could not protecting yourself from the sun be a reason why the number of people who get skin cancer and die from it keeps going up? Surely, the most common cancer in the world could be easily avoided if we chose effective sunscreens and used them correctly and proactively to their fullest potential.
