Many people’s daily routines do not include applying sunscreen. It seems like such a small thing, but is a big mistake. With skin cancer on the rise and premature wrinkles ready to crease further with each additional sun ray, there are many reasons to take a moment, choose the right sunscreen to protect yourself, and make applying sunscreen a part of your morning routine.
Learn more about what makes sunscreen such a vital part of protecting yourself from damage, the signs of aging, and even disease.
Why Protect Skin From the Sun?
To understand why it’s important to choose a high-quality sunscreen to protect your skin, you must first understand why the skin must be protected in the first place. While the sun is essential to life on earth, it also emits three types of rays that have detrimental consequences on the body, especially the skin: UVA, UVB, and infrared rays. UVB rays are responsible for your sunburns, while UVA rays will actively break down the skin cells and exaggerate the carcinogenic effects of the UVB rays. Each of these rays can penetrate our skin, causing damage to the DNA that shows up as fine lines, wrinkles, sun spots, skin laxity, and sometimes skin cancer. By exposing the body to the sun’s rays without the protective barrier of sunscreen, men and women are putting their skin at the risk of serious damage, especially over time.
How Do You Best Protect Your Skin?
Blocking the sun’s rays can be one way to protect the skin from the harmful rays of the sun. Many doctors will recommend using umbrellas, hats, and thin clothing to allow minimal exposure during peak hours of sunlight. Staying indoors can also reduce your risk of exposure, but bear in mind that some damaging rays, such as UVAs, can actually penetrate glass and damage your skin while you relax by a window at home or you sit in your car during rush hour. The sun’s rays are inescapable, which is why the best protection against damage and aging effects is sunscreen. Once on your skin, it can protect you from the sun’s rays wherever you are.
Choosing a Sunscreen
The Sun Protection Factor, or SPF, of your sunscreen is essential to providing you with the right amount of protection. Make sure that your sunscreen is a broad spectrum formula, which will protect against UVA and UVB rays at the same time. While most sunscreens with an SPF 15 or above will block most UVB rays, there is no general rule that that works for everyone. To determine the SPF number your skin needs to avoid sunburn, think about how long it takes your unprotected skin to turn red in the sun. If it’s 10 minutes, for example, an SPF 15 will protect your skin 15 times that period of time, so 150 minutes. Calculate how much time you need to be covered and figure out the SPF this way.
You might also want to look at SPF as a matter of percentages. An SPF 15 will block about 93 percent of incoming rays, while SPF 30 protects against 97 percent, and SPF 50 keeps out about 98 percent. For those who are light-sensitive, that extra one percent could be the difference between healthy skin and damaged cells. Bear in mind that a sunburn typically takes longer to occur than the damage of UVA rays on your deeper cells. Blocking a greater percentage of these rays can protect you from that sunburn, plus all the damage you won’t see for years.
Top Medical-Grade Sunscreens for Optimum Protection
Of course, if you ever had trouble deciding on the sunscreen that will protect your skin the best from damage, aging, and skin cancer, you should consult with a doctor or skincare clinician. These professionals are educated on the science of sunscreens and can point you towards a product and trusted brand that will match your skin’s unique needs for sun protection in your daily life. Consider the following sunscreen products, all from well-known brands in the skincare industry:
Vivite Daily Facial Moisturizer With Sunscreen SPF 30
When you combine two important steps from your daily routine into one, it becomes easier to keep up with applying sunscreen every morning. This daily moisturizer from Vivivte is lightweight and will help to create that protective barrier blocking out UVA and UVB rays during your day. While protecting the skin, the moisturizer also goes deeply into your dermis to nourish it with glycolic acid and antioxidants. Used twice a day, this moisturizing SPF formula can balance protection with repair to create vibrant-looking skin.
PCA Skin’s Sunscreen Products
When it comes to hydrating and protecting your skin, PCA Skin offers several formulas that will do just that and more. Explore their collection of sunscreen products to choose one that suits your needs:
- PCA Skin delivers the Active Broad Spectrum SPF 45, a water-resistant broad spectrum protection that also offers a light finish.
- Hydrator Plus Broad Spectrum SPF 30 nourishes skin while protecting with an SPF 30 and a blend of UV-protecting ingredients like zinc oxide.
- Perfecting Protection Broad Spectrum 30 is a broad-spectrum SPF with zinc oxide, licorice, mulberry, and bearberry to even skin tone and protect against UVA and UVB damage.
- Protecting Hydrator Broad Spectrum SPF 30 is a non-oily hydrator formulated with aloe vera
- The award-winning Weightless Protection Broad Spectrum SPF 45 provides broad spectrum protection with a balanced formula of skin-protecting ingredients.
SkinMedica Sunscreen Formulas, up to SPF 50
At SkinMedica, another renowned name in the medical-grade skincare industry, you’ll have your choice of three distinctive but high-quality sunscreen formulas:
- The TNS Ultimate Daily Moisturizer offers an SPF 20 to protect against sun damage while hydrating the skin.
- The Environmental Defense Sunscreen has an SPF 50 with UV Proplex, providing up to 80 minutes of water resistance coverage from both UVA and UVB rays.
- Finally, the Daily Physical Defense Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 30 is an ultra-sheer formula with broad spectrum protection and no fragrances or oils.
Discuss these options from SkinMedica, PCA Skin, Vivite, and other trusted medical-grade brands with your skincare clinician or physician today. Investing in the right sunscreen is the best way to protect yourself against the signs of aging years down the road, as well as other harmful effects and a heightened risk from skin cancer.
Book a Consultation to Prevent and Repair Damage to Your Skin Now
Protecting your skin from the sun might seem overwhelming at first. When you add on the idea of reversing the damage that has already been done to your skin, it may seem impossible to know where to start. Visit the Naderi Center to consult with Dr. Jessica Kulak in order to plan the right treatments for you. Meeting with a plastic surgeon or licensed skincare professional is the best way to identify which treatments are best.
At the Naderi Center in Maryland and Northern Virginia, Dr. Jessica Kulak is a facial specialist. She can help you decide on the treatment that works for you and discuss your concerns and expectations. Call (703) 481-0002 in Virginia or (301) 222-2020 in Maryland to schedule a consultation today.
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