Suntan Lotions and Creams

Suntan lotions, sun creams, sunscreen, sunblock are all labels for the kind of cream that offers protection from the effects of the sun and solar radiation. We have known for quite some time that spending long or regular periods of time in the sun with little or no protection results in skin that becomes prematurely aged and wrinkled with more brown spots than skin that is rarely exposed to the sun. However in the last few years the number of cases of skin cancer, both the malignant melanoma, the basal cell carcinoma and the squamous cell carcinoma has risen alarmingly. Where once it was predicted that one in every thousand Americans would be diagnosed with melanoma the rate at which this is occurring currently stands at one in every 34. With this kind of rise in cases it was necessary for researchers to produce some evidence that using sunscreen would help and not hinder in protecting the skin against damage.

For some time, advocates debated with detractors over the efficacy of sunscreen with the detractors saying it was the chemicals in the sunscreen itself which added to the number of people with skin cancer. This may have been the case early on with the chemicals that were used in the commercially produced suntan lotions, however this was never proved conclusively and all we can say definitively is that they did cause photosensitivity and contact sensitivity. But the chemicals which caused these reactions were removed and the sunscreens of today have proven to be much more efficacious with none of the contraindications.

People's primary goal when using sunscreen is to prevent sunburn, which in itself is a worthwhile goal, but the purpose of using sunscreen goes much deeper than that. Damage to the DNA of the skin happens incrementally over the years of exposure to solar radiation - even if you don't get a sunburn, the mere fact that your skin is open and naked under the sun's rays is enough to cause a gradual change in the make up of the skin, producing lesions that can lead to cancer. Sunscreens of today are high potency and invisible to the naked eye - offering considerably better protection than the creams of yesterday. Even with the advances that have been made in this area there is still room for further exploitation.

No sunscreen will protect your skin 100% from sun damage but the high spf of some of the chemical sunscreens do an excellent job of reflecting and soaking up the ultraviolet rays. It can be confusing for the consumer and the health care professional however with the labeling on some of the products. The rating of a sunscreen is indicated by the SPF value on the label and an SPF of 15 or higher is considered to be a "sun block". But an SPF 15 will only absorb 92% of the UVB - an SPF of 30 will absorb 96% and an SPF of 45 will absorb 97.5%. Real damage is caused even before the skin is burned and turns red. Researchers studied the cells in the skin of a group of people who had used either SPF 15 or SPF 30 and exposed to the same amount of sun for the same length of time and it was apparent that the group who had used SPF 15 had more damage to the epidermis than those who used the SPF 30.