Your skin is your immune systems first line of defense, which means healthy skin is important not only for looking your best but also for strong immunity and overall good health! Theres a lot of confusion about sun exposure and sun damage. We need the suns rays to be healthy - its our main source of Vitamin D production in our skin - but there is such a thing as too much sun. This video shows the damaging (and unattractive!) effects of overexposure to the sun. Sun worshippers beware! So, sunscreen is a necessity if you are going to be in the sun a really long time. BUT, not all sunscreens are created equal! Many of them have toxic, skin damaging, hormone disrupting chemicals that are just as bad, if not worse, for you as overexposure to the sun! Heres what I advise: for optimal Vit D production, only expose your skin to the sun for short periods of time (5-10 minutes) and at a certain time of day: solar noon. This will differ depending on where you live, but the suns rays are shortest at this time of day and research is showing that it is the longer UV rays that are more damaging and pro-cancerous. I use the app DMinder (on my iPhone) to help me keep track of solar noon, how long Im out and how much Vit D Im getting. Yay technology! For the times you must be out in the sun longer, cover up with light colored clothing, or a hat. Ive been carrying around a cute little bamboo parasol lately! And if you must use sunscreen, use one that is botanically based and does not contain parabens. My go-to is Arbonnes Water-Resistant Broad Spectrum (blocks both UVA and UVB rays).
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 20:30:12 +0000
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