The "healthy glow" is actually the visible damage that has been done to your skin. Sun exposure has the greatest impact on how our skin ages- 80% of our aging is caused from the sun and our risk of skin cancer greatly increases with each tan or sunburn.
The easiest and least expensive way to prevent photo-aging is to properly apply a good, broad-spectrum sunscreen every day. Dr. Brandt highly recommends his UV SPF 30 high protection face, not only does it save you thousands of dollars in skincare products and treatments over the years, it may well save your life. Skin protected from the sun is much less likely to develop skin cancer.
Some things to keep in mind next time you want to go and spend a whole day lying on the beach baking in the sun without sun protection:
1. Four out of five wrinkles are directly caused by sun damage alone.
2. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in our country – one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime – yet the easiest to prevent.
3. Sun damage doesn’t occur just from lying on the beach. It happens all the time: during winter and summer, through sunshine and rain. Even fluorescent light bulbs emit UVA rays that break down collagen and elastin.
4. UVA – the aging ray. Although they don’t cause burns, UVA rays have a longer wavelength making it more intense than UVB, and it allows these rays to penetrate more deeply into the skin, down where our DNA lies (this is where the cancer risk comes into play). There, it ravages collagen and elastin and stimulates production of the pigment-producing melanocytes responsible for hyper pigmentation spots, wrinkles and uneven skin tone.
5. UVB is the burning ray that is most potent between 10 am and 4 pm.
Although we all enjoy the feel of a warm sunny afternoon outdoors, keep these precautions in mind to help make smarter sun choices in the future to prevent premature aging.