Health + Wellness — sun damage

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding sunlight and the production of Vitamin D. People commonly think that if the sun is up and they are outside in the sun, they are going to produce Vitamin D. This is not the case! There are many reasons why you won’t make Vitamin D in the sun—even during the middle of the day. But most significantly, the sun cannot stimulate your production of Vitamin D if the sun isn’t high enough in the sky. UVB Rays And Vitamin D The reason is that UVB rays—and only UVB rays—catalyze the production of Vitamin D....

There are many complicated implications of climate change, but one consequence that has been indisputably measured is the depletion of the ozone layer: the part of the atmosphere that protects us from cosmic radiation. You can argue about what exactly caused it, but not that it has happened. The depletion of the ozone layer has multiple effects on your health, primarily negative. Since exposure to sunlight causes damage to human tissue, less ozone layer leads to a higher incidence of skin and eye conditions, including skin cancer and eye lesions such as cataracts. Of course, there are numerous other consequences...

The sun emits radiation—in the form of electromagnetic rays—which reaches you here on earth. While the visible part of this spectrum lights up your world, other parts of the spectrum including ultraviolet B (UVB) and ultraviolet A (UVA) have varying effects. UVB rays cause you to tan and burn, and also stimulate the production of Vitamin D. UVA rays are longer in wavelength than UVB and penetrate deeper into your skin; while not burning you or tanning you, UVA may just be responsible for a greater share of the blame in the aging of your skin than UVB. Since there...

It’s summer. It’s sunny outside. People are doing fun things in the sun and you want to too! You can produce Vitamin D in the sun. And yes it feels good to get a little sunlight. Just understand that there are tradeoffs to sun exposure. Every second you’re in the sun damages your skin and leads to wrinkles and a weathered appearance. In fact, nothing ages your skin more than sun exposure. So if you’re going to get out there during the day, be careful and do it as considerately as possible. You’ll thank your younger-looking-self later! Time Of Day...

If you use topical sunscreen lotions, here are some important points to understand this summer (from ABC News): The Truth About Sunscreen: Are Labels Lying? This video and accompanying article explain how much sunscreen is actually necessary to receive the purported benefits of sunscreen lotions, that the benefits of sunscreen lotions may be misleading, that many sunscreen lotions don’t actually protect you very well from UVA rays, and that sunscreen lotions aren’t actually sweatproof or waterproof. The second video (plays automatically after the first) with Diane Sawyer also mentions that the incidence rates of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer are...