SUNSCREEN

Sunscreens are products that will protect your skin from the harmful effects of sunlight.

In order to understand how sunscreens work, a little background information is needed. Physicists (and Dermatologists) recognize various parts of sunlight, ranging from InfraRed (heat) through Visible light to UltraViolet (invisible). Ultraviolet (UV) light is the part of the light most harmful to your skin. Dermatologists distinguish between three different parts of UV, poetically named UVA, UVB and UVC.

Of all the UV light, UVA has the longest wavelength: it thus has the least energy, but can penetrate furthest into your skin. UVB has more energy, and UVC still more; both of them, however, cannot penetrate as far into the skin as UVA. In terms of effect on the skin, one can roughly say that UVA is responsible for wrinkles and sunspots, while UVB and UVC cause skin cancer.

Consequently, it is important to guard yourself against UVA, UVB and UVC; how much protection you need/get will now be discussed.

Sunscreens are rated using a “Sun Protection Factor” (SPF), which is determined as follows. Find a voluenteer, mark an area on his or her arm, divide that area into half and cover one of the two halfes with LOTS of the sunscreen you are testing. Place the arm under a tanning light and start a watch. Measure the time until the unprotected part of the arm turns red; measure the time until the “protected” part of the arm turns red. If, for example, the first interval is 10 minutes, while the second is 120 minutes, then you can claim an SPF of 12: it takes 12 times as long to burn with the protection than without. SPF thus only reflects a product's ability to screen UVB rays. At present there are no FDA-approved ratings test for UVA or UVC.

Notice that the SPF measurement is quite arbitrary and does NOT measure either wrinkle protection or skin cancer protection. Consequently, ALL manufacturers of sunscreen have recently been sued for false advertising. Notice, too, that the amount of sunscreen needed to achieve the results quoted is impressive: generally, a hand full of sunscreen is used to cover a body. In other words, a standart tube is good for TWO (2) applications! Good luck getting that to stick on you...

Anyway, the best sun protection that you can possibly get is to stay out of the sun in the first place... specifically, between the hours of 10am am 3pm. Your next best defense are umbrellas, wide-brimmed hats, long-sleeved shirts and long pants - all of which need to be made out of UV dense fabric. Baseball caps do NOT count. Your next defense are sunscreens. Remember that you want to protect yourself against UVA, UVB and UVC. Bad news first: no sunscreen will protect against UVC. Next piece of bad news: only some sunscreens protect reasonably well against UVB... and of those, some are not approved by the FDA for use in the US.

Anyway, here are the sunscreens Dr. Voss recommends.