Why is wearing sunscreen important important? It’s important for many reasons. One big reason is that skin cancer and sun spots can damage the skin. It can also break down your immune system, which makes it much easier to get sick for a longer period of time.
Wearing sunscreen is an important thing, no matter if your whole day is planned to be outside or not. People don’t know that SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor and measures the sunscreen’s ability to prevent UVB (ultraviolet B radiation) from damaging the skin. It takes the sun 20 minutes to damage unprotected skin, turning red and potentially causing burns. In comparison to putting on sunscreen, it takes five hours for your skin to burn.
Children who are less than six months old should not be getting direct sunlight for more than 20 minutes because of how fragile their skin is. Using sunscreen a little goes a long way. When applying sunscreen, you only need about a pea size for each arm and leg of the body.
Sunscreen should be reapplied every two hours at a minimum. If you are going outside for a very long period of time, apply sunscreen 15 minutes before. When swimming make sure that you come out of the water to reapply the sunscreen because your skin is more at risk to burn in the water with the sun still shining through the water. If you don’t dry off before reapplying sunscreen it won’t actually work. It will rinse off in the water or drip off while there is still water on the skin.
Sunscreen does have an expiration date so always make sure to check it. If you end up using it after the expiration date, it does no good for you. Even though sunscreen expires after three years, it is best to just buy new sunscreen each summer.
The lighter your skin is, the easier it is to burn. It might not be as obvious, but it can lead to skin diseases later in life. Even though people push using sunscreen so much, it doesn’t always work to 100% avoid skin cancer or any other diseases. Some radiation will always get to the skin. In fact they say most people should stay out of the sun during the highest UV index time, which is from 10:00am to 3:00pm.
Additionally, not applying sunscreen can increase your chances of getting sun spots later in life. Tanning and repeated sun exposure can cause different pigmentation on spots of your skin that do not go back to normal, leaving permanent damage. There is no medical way to help with sun spots. Sun spots are the same thing as scar tissues formed after a cut or puncture wound. They are not considered harmful, but they should not be ignored. Skin cancer in its earlier stages can also look very much like a flat, brownish spot. If you ignore this for too long, it can turn into Melanoma.
Celebrities like Jimmy Buffett, Hugh Jackman, Khloe Kardashian, Bob Marley, Richard Simmons and many more have battled with skin cancer. One in every 5 Americans will end up getting skin cancer, a rare, aggressive form of cancer. Jimmy Buffet continued to perform throughout treatment for the disease before his death at age 76. Hugh Jackman the Australian actor publicly shared his skin cancer struggles with fans. Jackman has had several skin cancers removed in recent years and regularly reminds his fans of the importance of sun protection and regular skin exams.
The reality star Khloe Kardashian has been vocal about her skin cancer experiences. She got diagnosed with two different types of skin cancer that she was able to get removed. The first kind she had was Melemoa, which she had gotten on her back. Now, she gets skin exams every 3 months to make sure she is in the clear. In 2022, Khole revealed that she had a tumor removed from her face however she didn’t disclose what type of cancer it was. However doctors did say that she had a very rare tumor for her age. People like Andy Cohen and Bob Marley both have also gotten Melanoma.
With all this being said make sure that you wear sunscreen, be careful when wearing tanning lotions and look into tanning lotions before wearing them cause they could be worse than naturally tanning.
