Healthy Skin Dos and Don'ts
It's never too late to quit smoking. Quit today, and your skin will show the health benefits tomorrow. Air pollution, the dry, recirculated air of an airplane, smoking and, of course, the sun are all enemies of skin health. They increase the production of free radicals, strip antioxidants from your skin and intensify the effects of aging. Smoking, for instance, constricts blood vessels, reducing blood flow to the skin. It also depletes levels of valuable antioxidant vitamins like vitamin A, increasing damage to the elastin, the elastic fibers in your skin that provide a healthy tone. Just the smoke curling up from the cigarette can damage skin as much as any other pollutant. In fact, studies find that people who smoke have significantly more wrinkles at an earlier age than those who don't. Of course, the greatest damage to your skin occurs from the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Over time, the sun, like smoking, damages elastin and collagen, leading to the formation of fine lines and wrinkles. Most of the damage occurs in your childhood years—it just doesn't show up until middle age.
And it's not just soaking up the rays on the beach that does the damage. Simply sitting near a window, driving your car and walking outside also expose you to the harmful rays of the sun, and these are all activities in which you're much less likely to wear sunscreen. No wonder, then, that skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, with more than one million skin cancers diagnosed each year. Overall, one in six Americans will develop skin cancer at some point in their lives. The reality is that there is no such thing as a healthy tan—unless it's one that comes out of a bottle.
Five suncreen facts
The higher the SPF (sun protection factor) the better. That's not only because of the increased protection higher SPF sunscreens provide, but because most people don't use nearly enough to begin with. However, the SPF only indicates protection provided against UVB rays—not the invisible, ultraviolet-A rays that can also affect skin health and hasten the aging process. That's why you need a broad-spectrum sunscreen.
The more the better. You need to apply at least a shot glass's worth of sunscreen every couple of hours you're in the sun. In fact, you should reapply your sunscreen every two to four hours. That means a six-ounce bottle of sunscreen should last just a couple of visits to the beach—not all summer.
UVB protection isn't enough. Early versions of sunscreen only protected against UVB rays, but both UVB and UVA rays contribute to skin cancer. To find a sunscreen that protects against both, look for Parsol 1789, also called avobenzone, zinc oxide or titanium dioxide on the ingredients list. Stay posted for what dermatologists are calling the superpower of sunscreen protection—a chemical called mexoryl, which has an SPF of 60 and provides much greater protection against UVA rays than anything else on the market. Available in Europe and Australia, it is under consideration for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
