Sourced from NYT | May 29, 2023, by Madeleine Aggeler ( a writer who burns easily.)
Cover up! Every inch! Credit. Jamie Lee Taete for The New York Times
NONE! Don't even have to think about it.
The sun is tricky. The National Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health advises that people of all ages and skin tones should limit the amount of time that they spend in the sun, especially between mid-morning and late afternoon.
If we don't get enough sun, we sink into the deepest depths of despair and if we get too much of it, our skin will be dry and crinkle like crepe paper. We need sunlight for vitamin D and to help regulate our sleep cycles, but it also inspires people to go stand-up paddle boarding, (and then to tell you again and again about how you“really have to try stand-up paddle boarding…”)
You may ask, Is there such a thing as a 'safe tan'? The answer is No. The prolonged effects of sun exposure include sunspots, skin discoloration, early signs of aging, and skin cancer.
“The biggest mistake people make is this false sense of security that a high SPF number is enough, They’ll only use it at 8 a.m. before leaving the house,
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— but the reality is, it doesn’t last all day.”
The biggest mistake that people make is this false sense of security that a high SPF number is enough. Dr. Shereene Idriss, a dermatologist in New York says "They'll only use it at 8am, before leaving the house, but the reality is that it doesn't last all day."
For sunscreen to be truly effective, one must reapply every two hours across every exposed bit of skin, including your hands and the tips of your ears.
Coupling your sunscreen with a hat or UPF clothing or sitting under an umbrella, or going indoors for lunch during the high, PEAK UV index -- these are all the things that you can do in addition to your sunscreen application.
And don’t think just staying inside is the solution, either. A famous photo published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2012 showed a 69-year-old trucker who experienced significantly more skin damage on the left side of his face than on the right because of the UVA rays it had been exposed to through the driver’s-side window during his 28 years on the road.
Even through windows, you could get UV exposure.
Bear in mind: The sun is best enjoyed from afar. More than five million new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year.
