We see a lot of patients in our practice who ask us if they need to continue wearing their sunscreen in the winter. They believe that because they walk or swim in the morning or during the non-summer months that they don’t need sunscreen or sun protective clothing. They think that because the sun feels weaker they’re safe. Yes, the sunburn ray called UVB is less intense then, but the sun still damages your skin and the tan and wrinkles are the evidence.
There are a couple reasons the sun is harmful is that UVA rays are out in full intensity; Guess what, they’re out all day, all year, and at the same intensity as mid-day in the summer!!!!!!!! Yes people This means that from sunup to sundown, January or July you’re getting the same hit of UVA. Also, UVA penetrates your skin more deeply than UVB causing significant and irreversible damage to the deeper parts, ( Think IPL) , and this causes wrinkles. As if that’s not enough, ( Just wait) your sunscreen SPF value tells you nothing about how well your product blocks UVA. In fact many products don’t do a good job blocking the UVA rays, which is one of the big criticisms of sunscreens. ( Luckily at LUNA we have a couple brands that protect against UVA AND UBV)
So all in all I hope that it will help you plan great sun protection for your skin as we move into fall and winter. Don’t slack off on your sun protection just because the sunburn ray is less intense and the sun feels less damaging. You need to take UVA seriously, which means you need really good protection from UVA.
UVA is bad news! It penetrates skin more deeply than the sunburn ray UVB and the havoc it wreaks on your skin is caused by free radicals. These free radicals cause damage that leads to skin thinning (atrophy), which is what causes most of the wrinkles and skin fragility that we erroneously associate with aging (extrinsic aging of the skin as opposed to intrinsic aging). Thin, fragile skin tears and bruises easily as you get older, and we can’t reverse it. UVA is also linked to the development of skin cancers, including melanoma. To reiterate, UVA damage is not reversible which means prevention is really important.
Contact our NP Shahdi Vakili at Blackhawk Plastic Surgery for details on how to reverse sun damage.
