The official start of summer takes place in less than a month! We realize it’s a very exciting time for people all over Canada. However, it’s a must we reiterate just how important it is to not overexpose your skin to the sun.
Allow us to present you with a story about sunburn.
A colleague of ours informed us that, a few years back, he and his friends decided to celebrate the start of summer by visiting Wasaga Beach in Southern Ontario. He recalls spending much of the day tossing a football around on the beach and taking long dips in the water. He also recalls how he wore a grand total of no sunscreen whatsoever.
Everything seemed to be going just fine – until the sun began to set. Our friend noticed that the simple act of shrugging his shoulders produced extreme discomfort. As the day was coming to a close, he couldn’t even lift his arms to pull a shirt over his head. It’s not like the shirt would have done him any good anyways. Simply touching his skin was extremely painful!
Our colleague’s skin endured severe sun damage.
Even though “it wasn’t the hottest day ever”, according to our colleague, he had experienced enough time in the sun to do his skin some serious damage. “The pain occurred in three stages,” he details, “First was the burn. My skin hurt to the touch. Second was the itching. It was unbearable. I couldn’t stop scratching myself! Last, it was the peeling. I never imagined I could yank off a snake-length piece of skin from my arm. It was horrifying!”
Needless to say, the moral of the story is to always apply sunscreen if you plan on spending any considerable amount of time in the sun. It’s important to remember that while getting some sunlight is good (it provides us with Vitamin D), too much sun is damaging. It’s all because of the impact of the sun’s harmful UV rays.
There are three types of UV rays.
As the American Cancer Society explains, “UVA rays age skin cells and can damage their DNA. These rays are linked to long-term skin damage such as wrinkles, but they are also thought to play a role in some skin cancers…UVB rays have slightly more energy than UVA rays. They can damage skin cells’ DNA directly, and are the main rays that cause sunburns. They are also thought to cause most skin cancers.”
Finally, “UVC rays have more energy than the other types of UV rays, but they don’t get through our atmosphere and are not in sunlight. They are not normally a cause of skin cancer.”
Come into our clinic for some high-quality sunscreen!
At Aurora Skin & Vein, we proudly offer Sheer Hydration Broad Spectrum Sunscreen SPF 40 from AlumierMD. It is just one of our many skin care products that provide your skin with long-lasting benefits. For more information about them, please don’t hesitate to call us at 403-358-5818. You may also fill out the form on our Contact Us page!