HOW
LONG SHOULD I BE IN THE SUN FOR WITHOUT ANY PROTECTION?
The
answer to this is not as simple as a time frame of 10 minutes or 30 minutes.
The best advice is what Michael Holick MD recommends. He recommends that you
expose 25% of your body for 25-50% of the time it would take for you to turn
pink from the sun. You
should never let the skin get anything more than the slightest pink tint, and
use your ethnicity and past experience to gauge your UV sensitivity. Once you
skin turns pink the body absorbs no more UVB rays so the benefits of maximising
the absorption of Vitamin D stops once the body starts turning pink.
If you burn easily, consider supplementing your diet with lycopene, a key nutrient that is found in heavy concentration in tomatoes. Studies recently showed that those with high levels of lycopene had a much higher "internal sunscreen," and burned much less easily, than those who did not take in a lot of lycopene. In fact, antioxidants in general may give your skin an edge against UV sensitivity and cut down on burning.
When exposing the skin in the summer time, it is best to expose as much of the body as possible rather than just the face and arms. Your legs and torso are great for making vitamin D. So, make the most of your natural sun exposure and allow the larger parts of your body to be bare.
If you burn easily, consider supplementing your diet with lycopene, a key nutrient that is found in heavy concentration in tomatoes. Studies recently showed that those with high levels of lycopene had a much higher "internal sunscreen," and burned much less easily, than those who did not take in a lot of lycopene. In fact, antioxidants in general may give your skin an edge against UV sensitivity and cut down on burning.
When exposing the skin in the summer time, it is best to expose as much of the body as possible rather than just the face and arms. Your legs and torso are great for making vitamin D. So, make the most of your natural sun exposure and allow the larger parts of your body to be bare.
Researchers
know that vitamin D synthesis declines with age -- and so does the
concentration of 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin. Without 7-dehydrocholesterol
in the skin, sunlight has nothing to turn into vitamin D. The decreased
synthesis of 7-dehydrocholesterol is responsible for the decreased synthesis of
vitamin D that comes with age. For the same length of time in the sun a young
person will absorb 25-30% more UVB rays than an elderly person.
Next week I will be discussing the differences between UVA and UVB rays.
Take care this summer
Julie x
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