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Great Skincare Starts with Sunscreen |
| By Greg Podsakoff |
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There are literally thousands of various skin care treatments, possibly even hundreds of thousands. Skin care products like creams, gels, masks, and ointments that are supposed to each do something different for the skin. Some reduce wrinkles, some reduce scars, some tighten the skin, others eliminate redness, and still more help stop the aging process.
While many of these products do achieve much of what they are intended for, there are none that exist that will completely eliminate wrinkles, erase scars completely, prevent acne, or turn the clock back by 20 years. Skin care products generally produce satisfactory results, but they cannot stop time or perform plastic surgery. While some people have experienced very dramatic results by using one skin product of another, these people are few and far between, and most of us aren't one of them.
However, of every skin care product sold, the only one that truly will slow the aging process, reduce scarring, reduce acne, all but eliminate wrinkles, and even prevent cancer, is sunscreen.
Sunscreen should be the first and last skin care product for every person, because it keeps skin both healthy and beautiful. This is because sunscreen is the only product that protects our skin from the single most damaging environmental factor: Sunlight.
Although sunlight is necessary for survival, it sure causes plenty of damage to the skin. The most extreme example of sunlight related damage is skin cancer. UV rays from the sun react with skin cells, and over time, can create mutations in these skin cells, and therefore cause cancer. Sunscreen will protect against this.
One of the most common effects of sunlight is premature wrinkles. One statistic states that the sun is accountable for almost 90% of premature aging. This happens when UV rays from sunlight react with the dermis, and cause collagen to break down more quickly than usual. When this rapid breakdown occurs, the body is not able to perfectly repair the collagen, and it ends up creating unstructured collagen fibers known as solar scars.
When enough of these solar scars build on one another, the skin looses elasticity and form, and wrinkles result. Even the lowest grades of sunscreen will drastically reduce the amount of UV rays that penetrate the skin. When one considers the amount of money being spent on plastic surgery and cosmetics, it is a wonder why anyone wouldn't use sunscreen every day.
Sunlight also can contribute to acne. When sunlight reacts with the skin, it causes the skin to dry out and crack. Because the skin is dry and cracked, skin cells often gather in the pores of the skin. This in turn causes sebum to gather under the pores, and the final result is an acne breakout. Sunlight also breaks down the skin cells, and causes the skin to be more susceptible to other infections and sun rashes.
However, the biggest problem with acne and sunlight is what the sun does to the skin once acne already exists. Sunlight increases the amount of melanin that the skin produces. Because acne infected areas tend to be darker than the rest of the skin, the UV rays from sunlight react with these darker areas of the skin to increase melanin production. This results in what is called 'postinflammatory hyperpigmentation', which is dark spots that result during and after the acne breakout.
The end result is acne that becomes sunburned and dark, looking worse than the acne alone, for longer than the acne lasts. It also increases the chance for scarring, and even skin cancer. Sunscreen can completely stop this from ever occurring.
When considering a sunscreen, it is best to use an oil free sunscreen, with an SPF of at least 5. An SPF of 5 will make 5 hours of sunlight react as if it were 1 hour, and this is all most people will need for a typical day.
With all the protection sunscreen offers, it really is one of the single best skin products available to anyone. With it, there may be no need to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours trying to reduce aging, wrinkles, acne, skin scars, and even cancer. For these reasons, good skincare truly does start with sunscreen.
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About The Author:
Greg Podsakoff is a former acne sufferer, and editor of http://www.acne-treatments-guide.com |
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RE: Great Skincare Starts with Sunscreen
Only get 'SunSCREEN' if it protects from UVA & UVB...typically this is found in the better SunBLOCKs..and at least SF30 rating. (Most reports stipulate protection of the nose and tips of ears...but what about the neck?? As a bicycle rider, my neck is exposed 100% of the time.)
Apply SunSCREEN 30 MINUTES before entering the sun..SunBLOCK 10 MINUTES before. This allows the skin and lotion to 'bond'...if not, you'll sweat the lotion off within minutes.
ref: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sunscreen/SN00048
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