SPF And The Summer Sun

It is summertime! It is time to get out the bathing suits and head to the beach. You've been working on that body all year and it's time to show some skin. Everyone wants a nice golden tan but no one wants to end up looking like a warn hunk of leather, so what do you do?

SPF (Sun Protection Factor)

The answer of course is sunscreen right? Well yes but that is only part of the answer. What SPF is right for you? Some people believe that the SPF number is directly related to how long you can stay in the sun; that's not really true. You cannot compute the amount of time you can spend in the sun based on the SPF number on your sunscreen without taking into account many other factors. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, SPF is actually related to the amount of UVA and UVB radiation a person is exposed to in the time that they are in the sun. The level of radiation changes with the time of day, the weather conditions, and even the geographic latitude. The computation is also affected by the genetic makeup of an individual. The one thing that a sunbather can be sure of, is that the higher the number, the better the protection. Since the higher number does mean you can handle more exposure it also indicates that you can stay in the sun longer; the question is how much longer?

That question brings us back to the aforementioned factors. If you are going to be cutting the grass at your house in Maryland for an hour or two in the morning; you will probably be good with SPF 15. If you're going to be sunbathing for an hour or two in the early afternoon in Aruba; then you better go with 30 or more. If you intend to spend all day in the sun you better crank up the SPF and put on a good dose, and put it on often.

Dosage (How much should I put on?)

Wikipedia goes to FDA testing to answer this question. The test results showed a good dosage to be two milligrams of sun screen for every square centimeter of exposed skin. Well that is very interesting but how does that relate to a human person. The calculation works out that one ounce of sunscreen applied evenly would cover a 5 foot 4 inch, 150 pound male in a bathing suit. They assume the person had a 32 inch waistline. Most people can approximate up or down from there.

How often should I reapply sunscreen?

There is a bit of a debate on this issue; I think you should reapply often. It is clear that you must reapply sunscreen after coming out of the water and most people remember to do that. Fewer people remember to reapply sunscreen during physical activity in the sun like beach volleyball. A quantity of sweat can also wash off the protection and the protection is wiped off when wiping sweat from your brow.

What if you're just lying in the sun; should the sunscreen protect you all day? Here is where the debate comes in. There is a study that shows that sunscreen can be applied about a half hour before exposure and reapplied a half hour after exposure and not again unless it is washed or wiped off. This however was contradicted by a more recent study that indicates that sun screen protection is only good for two hours. If it isn't reapplied after two hours it will become ineffective. At this point you will be in greater danger of skin damage than if you had no sunscreen on at all. The reason for this is that the sunscreen chemicals absorbed into the skin will release extra free radicals causing increased cell damage. My suggestion is to apply, apply and reapply.

Have no fear, sunscreen does not block all of the sun rays; you'll can still get a tan. You can also get a jump start on your tanning efforts and reduce the sun damage by using daily moisturizers designed to give you a natural glow. You can have you golden body and still crack up the SPF protection.

It is great to get out in the sun after a long winter. The sun provides needed vitamin D to keep us healthy but it also can do serious damage. Strut your stuff, but be smart about it.