Skin Care - How to Protect Skin
No one can deny that having a healthy, fair skin is critical to a living a perfectly wonderful life. It frees you from the wrath of symptoms caused by skin diseases.
Skin is perhaps one of the most important parts of your body for it protects you from a host of diseases that may pose a threat to your existence.
It is our body’s main line of defense. It guards you from all infections and insulates your body from the ever-fluctuating external environment in order to keep a relatively stable body temperature.
It is the body’s main point of contact to the outside world, sending constant information to the brain about pain, heat, texture, cold, etc.
With this in mind, there is no doubt that proper skin care and staying away from skin damaging activities will do yourself and your skin particularly, a big favor.
Skin Cancer
Like most part of our body, the skin is also likely to develop cancer. Cancer is a result of an uncontrolled cell growth in one part of the body.
Unlike normal cells, which are programmed to divide, grow, and die at a certain time, cancer cells lack the internal machinery to control growth and as a result cause severe damage to normal cells that will be outnumbered along the process in a certain biological locality.
Technically, the body reacts in many ways to cancer cells but this abnormality causes other diseases to suffer nutritional death. Cancer cells were found to cause the body to produce numerous blood vessel connections along the cancerous portion thereby depriving normal cells with nutrients.
Some cells even detach from their point of origin and travel to other parts of the body to start a new colony of cancer cells.
Skin cancers are either melanoma or non-melanoma cancers. Non-melanomas are cancers, which arise from skin cells other than melanocytes cells. Melanomas are cancerous melanocytes cells that produce melanin, a pigment that gives the skin its characteristic color.
UV Rays
The sun is one of the key enemies of the skin. Although sunlight helps the skin synthesize vitamin D (cholecalciferol), excessive and prolonged exposure to the sun causes damage and wrinkling.
How does the sun cause such damage?
Sunlight that passes through earth is composed of visible light and ultraviolet light (UV). UVA and UVB Light are one of the most common ultraviolet lights.
UV lights falls outside the visible light spectrum, meaning, the human eye cannot see this type of light and can only be seen using a sophisticated tool which detects different light wavelength across the light spectrum.
The difference between the two UV light lies in their ability to damage skin cells. UVB light doesn’t get through the deeper layer of the skin and accounts for visible burns and DNA damage across the top layer of the skin.
UVA light, on the other hand, penetrates through the deeper layer of the skin and activates free radicals (very reactive substances), which cause small damages to the skin. Cumulative damage accounts for the skin’s premature aging.
SPFs, Lifestyle and Diet
There are misconceptions about skin color. People believe that the fairer you are, the more you are likely to suffer burns caused by exposure to sunlight. That may be partly true, but overexposure to UV light can cause serious skin problems.
If you go outdoors and cannot avoid exposing yourself to the harmful sunrays, the following recommendations will surely save you from the aftermath of excessive sun exposure:
Wear protective sunscreen
More and more people are starting to realize the importance of wearing lotions with Sun Protection Factor ingredients (SPF). SPFs sunscreen lotions are effective in blocking UV lights from penetrating through your skin.
Intensive application should be made on exposed spots of the body such as the lower arm and legs, ear lobes, nose, feet and the face. Choose sunscreens that contain a high amount of titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, benzophenone, oxybenzone, sulisobenzone and/or butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane known as avobenzone (Parsol 1979).
Wear Protective Fabric
Tightly woven clothing are effective in warding off unwanted UV rays. Today, some fabrics are labeled as how effective they are in intercepting UV rays. Hats with wide brim also confer a great amount of protection.
Minimize Unnecessary Exposure and Tanning
Unavoidable sun exposure such as recreation or as part of occupation is one of the hazards of everyday life and increases your risk of developing skin cancer later in life.
If these cannot be avoided, make sure to wear protective clothing and wear sunscreens appropriate for a certain activity and your level of exposure. Increasing SPFs means increasing protection.
Cosmetic tanning also poses the same kind of risk due to UV-induced damage. It uses UVA rays and does not cause obvious burns. The amount of damage is comparable to UVB rays which cause visible tanning and damage.
Eat Right
Maintaining a well-balanced diet is critical to the maintenance of a healthy skin. Your grandma may have said it once to you but fruits and vegetables contain excellent skin rejuvenating ingredients.
Fruits and Vegetables contain anti-oxidants such as vitamins C, D and E. These organic foodstuffs bind with highly reactive free radicals and neutralize them. They insulate the body against unwanted damage caused by these extremely injurious chemicals.
Whole grains, seeds, nuts, fish such as tuna and salmons are excellent sources of fatty acids and essential oils and keeps the skin hydrated. Fatty acids acts like a bullet vest in preventing UV rays from penetrating deeply into the skin causing too much damage.
Fluids such as water and juices also keep your skin dehydrated and minimize the effect of sun exposure. Research shows that dehydrated skin are more prone from burns and structural damage.
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