The Sun and Your Skin Care

Understanding UV: The sun's rays are ever present, even on a cloudy day. In a nutshell,the sun's infrared rays (IR) keep us warm and the visible rays provide daylight. While the sun's ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is important, its effects are serious for skin and eyes.

UVR is divided into three different bands - UVA, UVB and UVC (which we hardly read or hear about). UVC is almost always filtered out by the atmosphere so that none actually reaches the earth's surface. In direct contrast to UVC, UVB and UVA rays both reach the earth in signifcant amounts. UVB radiation are the rays that burn and is much stronger in some ways than UVA radiation, and it can cause instant skin damage in the form of blistering sunburn. All UVR is strongest between 10am and 3pm and clouds can filter some, but not most, of the UVR, which is why we can still burn, even on an overcast day. Different surfaces such as sand, snow, water, can reflect UVR, making it even more difficult to avoid. UVB rays can't penetrate glass but UVA rays CAN. The general rule is to make sure that sun protection is worn all the time throughout the year and the higher the SPF, the better.

Tanning is caused by melanocytes (skin cells) containing the brown-coloured protein called melanin and exposure to sun makes the melanocytes produce more melanin, hence the tan. Even dark skinned people will suffer from sun damaged skin. And don't forget, incidents of skin cancers are on the increase.

Official wording of sun damage:

The photoageing process of the skin in the presence of natural sunlight or artificial UV-sources happens continuously and leads in time to dryness, deep wrinkles, sagging, lost of elasticity, mottled pigmentation and skin telangiectasia. Typical biomarkers include a strong generation of free radicals, lipid peroxidation, collagenase activation, glycation / oxidation of proteins (AGE products), activation of p53 transcription factors, low DNA repair capacity and cumulative DNA mutations.

Clinically, the adverse effects of natural sunlight and other UV-sources on normal human skin may vary from sunburn with erythema, oedema and DNA damage (12-24 hrs. after UV-exposure) to polymorphic light reaction (eczema solare), solar actinic elastosis and actinic hyperkeratosis (as common precancerous condition), up to different skin cancer forms like basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) or malignant melanoma (MM). The study of the lipid, protein and DNA oxidative damage triggered by the free radical attack and subsequent sunlight exposure has conducted to appropriate strategies to slow down or block these reactions making possible the design of innovative skin care formulations.

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