Healthy Summer Skin

I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while now, and my blog seems like the perfect place to do to! Being summer and all, this seems like the perfect time! Last week was the first time went to the pool on post for the first time! A few families with little kids, fun water sprays and little “kiddie” areas, a group of little teenage girls and a few other couples like ourselves were over there. I think that it must be a pretty new pool too, because it was nice!

So anyways, laying under the hot Georgia sun I was reminded of my teenage/college days of basking in the sun. I mean, I was a serious sun worshiper. I would lay out by the pool or lake for hours upon hours, not wanting to go do anything because I wanted to get a tan. I would lather up in oil or some type of spray that supposedly got you tan fastest. I also would go to the tanning bed during winter or fall when it was too cold to lay outside. I loved being tan. I loved dripping in sweat from the hot sun and taking the pain so I could burn and tan. I always knew that it was bad to tan and burn, I heard about skin cancer, I knew tanning beds were bad for you, I did it anyways. I wanted to look tan! My ways worked, I was always SO dark in the summertime, and I loved every minute of it.

About 2 years ago I kind of had this epiphany… I’m trying so hard to be healthy, why am I not taking care of my skin? I am constantly trying to make healthier food choices, find the best workout, take care of my self mentally… why am I neglecting my LARGEST organ, my skin?

Skin Cancer is Scary

Maybe you don’t know anyone who has had skin cancer, but I have. It is scary! Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States.In 2009, 61,646 people in the United States were diagnosed with skin cancer. Skin cancer rates in young women were 8 times higher in 2012 than they were 40 years ago.
Do you want cancer? I don’t!

Beautiful Skin

Another thing that must have hit me during my epiphany a few years ago, older women with great skin are absolutely beautiful. I see women older than me with great skin, and I want it! I don’t want leather, pre-mature aged looking skin! Check out this image and site which shows a man who had long-term exposure to UVA rays and the damage it did to his skin. The term is called “Photoaging” for the damage caused from exposure to the sun rays. The UV exposure breaks down collagen and impairs the synthesis of of new collagen. It makes your skin less elastic, making it loose, more wrinkled and leathery. This picture on the left is a man who drove trucks his entire life and the left side of his face was exposed to UV rays, while the right side wasn’t. See a difference? Read the whole story here.

Lather up. Wear suntan lotion out in the sun this summer.

Choose a broad spectrum sunscreen which will protect from both UVA and UVB with a SPF of at least 30. Your SPF is not the amount of perfection you get. It tells you how long it will take for UVB rays to redden the skin, compared to how long it would take without the sunscreen. So a person using SPF 15, it will take 15 times longer to redden the skin than without sunscreen. SPF 15 screens 93% of the sun’s UVB rays; SPF 30 protects against 97 percent; and SPF 50, 98 percent.Put your sunscreen on 20 minutes before going outside and reapply after swimming or sweating.

Ain’t No Body Got Time For That

Besides the fact that it is bad for you… who has that much free time to just lay out for hours? You could be soo productive during that time! Really need something to do? Let me know, I’m hiring!

Taking Health Seriously

When you start caring about all areas of your health, you don’t just care about how big your portions of pizza or ice cream are. You start caring about what you do to your skin, what you feed your mind and see good health as prevention. I know a lot of young girls don’t think about health the way I do now, but I’m hoping that we can be role models for young women and change the shift in thinking. We can be models for how you can get glowing skin without damaging your skin from the sun.

Prevention Guidelines from the Skin Care Foundation:

• Stay in the shade especially between 10am and 4pm.
• Do not burn. Avoid tanning beds/booths.
• Cover up with hats and sunglasses.
• Use broad spectrum sunscreen.
• Apply sunscreen 30 minutes before going outside, reapply every two hours or after swimming/sweating.
• Keep newborns out of the sun.
• Apply sunscreen on babies over 6 months.
• Examine your own skin from head-to-toe every month.
• See a physician every year for a skin exam.

Stay tuned for my next article, “Foods for Glowing Skin!”

 

Sources: http://gizmodo.com/5914862/shocking-proof-of-how-the-sun-makes-you-age-prematurely http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/statistics/ http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/04/02/mayo-study-skin-cancer-rates-rising-rapidly http://www.skincancer.org/prevention/uva-and-uvb/understanding-uva-and-uvb