Sunscreens and
sunblocks have traditionally and
successfully focused of the blocking UVB rays (which lead to
sunburn), but now there are new findings that suggest it is the
weaker-in-strength, but more deeply penetrating UVA radiation that
we should really be worrying about. These are the rays that are
present year-round, pass easily through glass windows, and as a
result of cumulative exposure have been shown to damage collagen
and elastin (causing prematurely wrinkled, saggy skin) and leads to
DNA mutated cells and is a precursor to cancer. With sunscreen, It
doesn't matter how high your SPF is, it's an ingredient game.
Skin Cancer has hit epidemic level - the American
Cancer Society reports that the incidence of Melanoma has more than
doubled since 1973 and the mortality rate has risen a staggering
42% - but specific ingredients, or the absence thereof, are not
only to blame. One of the main culprits: call it operator error.
"People don't use enough sunscreen; they put it on in a patchy and
uneven fashion and don't adequately re-apply after swimming," says
Neil Sadick, M.D., clinical professor of Dermatology at New York
Hospital - Cornell Medical Center. Manhattan dermatologist Lisa
Airan, M.D., who underlines the importance of applying sunscreen
fifteen minutes prior to sun exposure allow the ingredients time to
activate on the skin, tells her patients to consider an eight-ounce
bottle enough for eight applications. "If you have the same bottle
of sunscreen in your beach bag all summer, you're not using
enough," she says.
In fact, to say that people are not as protected as they "think
they are is a gross understatement", says Sheldon Pinnell, M.D.,
professor emeritus of dermatology at the Duke University Medical
Center. Their recent study found that most people only apply a
quarter the amount of the sunscreen they need to receive the full
protection the indicated on the label, and his study revealed that
even someone with the best intentions, using an SPF 30 lotion, may
receive only protection equivalent to a 2 or 3. Scary, and as a
result Pinnell has devoted his research to finding supplemental
methods of naturally boosting one's immunity to the sun -
specifically, the synergistic effect of topical antioxidants and
sunscreen. His groundbreaking study, published as the lead article
in the June 2002
Dermatology Times, found that vitamins C
(L-ascorbic acid, the form of C our skin can use.) and E offer
additional protection against photo damage and skin cancer,
intercepting and destroying free radicals formed when ultraviolet
light is absorbed into the skin. "If you use both sunscreen and
antioxidants you'll ideally be protected on the outside and the
inside, at the cellular level.
"Think of it as a second line of defense," says Pinnell. The doctor
does not expect all beachgoers immediately go to the trouble of
applying a
multi-protection cream SPF 30
or
SPF 30 with green tea underneath
their sunscreen adds fatalistically, "When you get your first skin
cancer, you'll be motivated to do it."
