#86: 🧴A New Era of Sun Protection
#86: 🧴A New Era of Sun Protection
and Sun Safety 101
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#82: 🎙️ INTERVIEW | The Holistic Approach to Brain Health with Dr. Sabine Krofczik-Wilhelm,
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💬 In this note:
🧴 A New Era of Sun Protection
📚 The Creative Act
⚡️ LinkedIn Games
🧴 A New Era of Sun Protection
It’s almost summer, so let’s talk about sunscreen.
With the upcoming warm summer months there are several things to consider for effective sun protection.
A good sunscreen offers broad-spectrum protection, which means that it protects against both UVA and UVB rays.
UVA rays can prematurely age your skin, causing wrinkling and age spots, while UVB rays can burn your skin.
Both types contribute to an increased risk of skin cancer.
You want to choose a sunscreen with an appropriate Sun Protection Factor (SPF).
SPF measures how well a sunscreen can protect against UVB rays.
The American Academy of Dermatology recommends using a sunscreen with a minimum SPF of 30, which blocks 97% of UVB rays.
If you’re a millennial like me and you grew up in the days of Banana Boat tanning oil SPF 5….
It’s time to recognize the error in our ways and choose a sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher.
It’s also important to keep in mind that although a higher SPF does provide more protection, no sunscreen can block 100% of UV rays.
Remember to apply sunscreen generously on all exposed skin at least 15 minutes before going outdoors, even on cloudy days.
And reapply at least every two hours, or more often if swimming, sweating, or towel-drying.
Reapplication is crucial to maintaining effective sun protection as your sunscreen will wash off if you are swimming in a pool, lake or the ocean.
And that leads me to a very important point.
Use of Sunscreen for Aesthetic and Health Purposes
For most people, the use of sunscreen is primarily for health purposes such as protecting the skin from sunburn, skin cancer and premature aging.
Skin cancer can show up anywhere in the body, including places that are never or rarely exposed to the sun.
However, since skin cancer most often manifests as a result of excess UV light exposure, it is commonly found in areas frequently exposed to the sun.
The most common areas for skin cancer to appear are the nose, cheeks, scalp, forehead, ears, shoulders, arms and hands.
Skin cancer can also be found on the back, legs and torso, especially for those in warmer climates that wear fewer protective layers.
Aesthetic benefits are a big motivator for sunscreen use nowadays too.
Wrinkles are a natural part of aging, and UVA rays can penetrate deep into the skin to accelerate the formation of wrinkles and fine lines.
Wrinkles are most likely to form in skin that’s often exposed to the sun, such as the face, neck, hands and forearms.
In a 2022 poll of 1,000 Americans, it was reported that Americans don’t use sunscreen regularly on their body, but 29% are diligent about putting sunscreen on their face.
Additionally, only 31% of Americans use sunscreen year-round.
It is important to wear sunscreen on all areas exposed to the sun, all year round, even on cloudy days to get the maximum health and aesthetic benefits.
Not All Sunscreens are Environmentally Safe
Each year, tons of sunscreen are washed into reef areas around the world, harming marine ecosystems.
Sunscreens often contain oxybenzone, a compound detrimental to coral health, prompting the ban of oxybenzone and octinoxate, another harmful chemical, in different regions around the globe.
In 2018, Hawaii became the first state to ban the sale of sunscreens using oxybenzone and octinoxate.
The policy went into effect in January 2021 and Key West, Aruba, Palau and the U.S. Virgin islands and several other tourist destinations followed suit.
Beyond environmental concerns, these conventional sunscreen chemicals can also accumulate toxically in human tissues.
New Developments in Sunscreen
While using ultraviolet light to sanitize lab equipment, Bollyky discovered an intriguing property of bacteriophages - the viruses that attack bacteria.
He accidentally exposed bacteriophages to UV light and noticed that they remained undamaged, a trait he attributed to their unique structure.
This incident sparked the idea of utilizing these viruses as a natural, biodegradable form of UV protection, like how sunscreen shields human skin.
Bollyky's team has since focused on engineering bacteriophages that could absorb or deflect UV light without infecting human cells.
Their research found specific bacteriophages capable of absorbing harmful UV wavelengths, leading to the possibility of a new type of sunscreen that avoids the downsides of traditional chemical ingredients.
The group has conducted studies with Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, where the team tested the effects of these engineered viruses on sand dollar embryos.
Their findings indicated that the phage-based compounds did not harm embryonic development, unlike conventional sunscreens, and therefore points toward a sunscreen solution that not only effectively blocks UV radiation, but is also harmless to both humans and marine ecosystems.
Until this breakthrough product gets released to the public, here are some of my favorite sunscreen products that are reef-safe and good for your skin:
EltaMD is my daily sunscreen. It’s been touted as the “top anti-aging” recommendation by dermatologists. I’ve been using it for 10 years and swear by it. It’s harder to get in Europe but easy to find in the U.S..
It has Zinc Oxide and Titanium Oxide which protect against both UVA and UVB rays. It’s reef-safe with no chemical sunscreen ingredients.
You can enjoy the sun guilt free knowing that your sunscreen is protecting you, protecting the oceans and improving your skin all at the same time.
Blue Lizard Sunscreens have the “We Love the Reef” seal (bottom right of the bottle) and do not contain Oxybenzone and Octinoxate, making them reef safe as defined by Hawaiian legislation.
Try out these two products to have a sun-safe and environmentally friendly summer!
📚 Book of the Week
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Rating: ★★★★☆
The book is filled with brief chapters and quotes that don’t only inspire you in how to be creative, but also inspire you in how to live a full life.
While some of the quotes are a little cliché, they still resonated with me.
The best way to enjoy this book is to keep it on the coffee table, open it to a random to a page and read it as a way to remind yourself of your creative potential.
I read it cover-to-cover and I think I did myself a disservice. Reading chapter after chapter with quasi-buddhist quotes does start to wear a little thin after a while, but the overall message is positive and strong. I recommend giving this book a try.
⚡️ Check This Out
Following Wordle’s popularity explosion in 2022, Linkedin has launched….GAMES.
Three games, in fact.
All playable on both desktop (in the LinkedIn News column) and mobile:
Pinpoint, a word association game
Queens, a logic game
Crossclimb, a word trivia game
Each can be played once daily, taking a few minutes to solve.
LinkedIn users can see which connections have played the same games.
The idea is that games will offer an opening for conversation as a way to give users a way to bond with coworkers, colleagues and new contacts.
Who wants to play?
Edited by Wright Time Publishing