Is It Sun Care or Sun Scare?

It is fair to say that the media is inundating all who will listen and watch, to the fears of the sun and UV rays. And yes, where research is evident that excessive sun exposure can lead to early signs of skin aging, wrinkles, spots and even melanoma…it is also becoming more and more evident that the militant orders to slather oneself in sunscreen, might be more of a scare with unwanted side-effects-and not true skin care.

A recent report coming out of the Environmental Working Group is reporting that only 8% of sunscreens are truly safe to use-and the other 92% might cause more harm than good.

Reasons are two fold, one, the chemicals that are used as the sunscreens absorb into the body and some can act as ‘hormone mimickers.’ Opposed to mineral based sun protections, such as titanium dioxide with rests on top of the skin. There has been some refutable to this by Dermatological associations saying that patients with eczema and cracks in their skin can allow the titanium dioxide in, and the fact that the body does not naturally make it, would not know how to metabolize, or get rid of it.

To back up the claims on the chemical sunscreens, research out of the University of California suggested that chemical filters in popular suncreams can trigger the kind of free-radical damage that could pre-empt skin cancer. The adverse effects seemed to happen only when UV rays hit sunscreen that has penetrated the skin.

Other concerns lay with preservatives such as certain parabens, which have also shown to be hormone mimickers. And where one might argue you cannot implicate and over hormonal stimulation form the small amount of just one product, its the accumulative effect that worries researchers and practitioners alike- from other personal care products to environmental pollutants.

Another piece of interest and damage to our skin is the presence of Vitamin A in sunscreen products. The EWG report raised concerns about retinyl palmitate, a vitamin A compound found in about 40 percent of sunscreens. The group says that when this ingredient is exposed to sun, it can actually accelerate skin damage; which is interesting because of the acne drug Accutane, which was a high dose Vitamin A product with a major side-effect of sun burn and skin damage.

So what is one to do?

Often what they are not recommending. Introducing anti-oxidant therapy, inside and out. That is in oral form as well as chemical free topical products can help prevent the creation of free-radicals, but also quell the free radicals once they are created.

To back this up in a topical nature, which is often refuted in many Dermatological circles is these words from Dr. Perricone in his book, The Wrinkle Cure-

Using an artificial ultraviolet light source, I produced small sunburns on the forearms of men and women. I then had them apply one of two creams. One cream contained vitamin C ester; the other did not. The subjects reapplied the creams every four hours.

Within a day or two, the burns treated with the vitamin C ester were almost completely healed. The burns treated with the “dummy” cream stayed red for several days longer. These findings strongly suggested that vitamin C ester was successfully battling the free radicals that create the pro-inflammatory arachidonic acid.

As his experiment shows, vitamin C ester is helpful in treating inflammation such as that caused by UV exposure.

For what is hailed as one of the most effective vitamin C Serums on the market, we recommend, Cellex-C Advanced-C Serum