Pool time is here and skin care is super important for protection from premature aging and skin cancers. There are a lot of shifting thoughts about skin care about how to protect from aging and damage to the skin while appreciating the health benefits of the sun! The sun is medicine in its own right in that it can prevent some types of cancers, help the mental state, some autoimmune and skin diseases and more! Getting outside in the morning into the sunshine just helps us to feel better.
Just like anything, you can get too much sunshine and that is when we have issues with sunburn and certain skin cancers like basal cell carcinomas. Over the years there have been increasing concerns that some sunscreens increase the cancer risk due to the chemicals in the sunscreens reacting with the heat and the skin. I would never put regular sunscreen on my children’s body’s at this point. Typically, I recommend hats and long sleeve shirts like rash guards if you plan to be outside for many hours or during the peak sun hours that is between 10 am to 3 pm. If you really need sunscreen, I recommend you check on the www.ewg.org website to get safer sunscreens and reapply every 2 hours especially if you get wet. Even there, you can find controversy if you want to find it! My favorite is Burn out sunscreen. Anecdotally I had a friend who was getting regular Basal Cell Carcinomas on her face and body in her twenties that stopped once she switched to Burn Out sunscreen and hasn’t had another skin cancer in many years. That spoke volumes to me! For those of you who love essential oils, there are some awesome essential oils that protect from the sun. You can make some homemade skin treatments that you can use daily that is super good for your skin that protects you on a daily basis. I would still use stronger sunscreens on days for heavier exposure or for swimming because the oils aren’t great for pools and they can get on your clothes. From personal experience, you need to experiment with the proportions so it absorbs well in the skin.
What to do if you get sunburn? Some people get severe sunburn and need to seek medical treatment if they get fever and chills with the severe burn. You will likely know if that is the case but should not happen if you follow the tips above. For less severe cases there are many good remedies. Common remedies are creams with Aloe or Soy, oatmeal baths, cool baths, black tea water ( use many bags of tea and use the water to make compresses), plain yogurt and milk. For sleeping, you may want to sprinkle corn starch on the sheets to create a barrier and not stick to the sheets. I love essential oils for burns. Lavender, Chamomille, and peppermint oils can be purchased in spray bottles or made to spray over burns. The peppermint oil has a cooling effect and the lavender actually helps first degree burns heal. Chamomille is also a nice remedy to calm burns. Homeopathic remedies like calendula and belladonna, as well as others can help assist healing from burns as well. Boiron brand has an awesome topical ointment with calendula that I keep handy in my first aid kit that helps all kinds of burns.
Time to enjoy all the benefits of Summer Sun but without the burn!