Living life in the orbit a 4.5 billion-year-old star certainly has its perks, but slacking on protecting ourselves, daily, from this life-giving gaseous mass comes with serious health consequences. Not to mention cosmetic ones.
About 90 percent of nonmelanoma skin cancers, and 65 percent of melanomas (the deadliest kind of skin cancer) are associated with exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun, reports the Skin Cancer Foundation. And both are on the rise: a recent study in the Archives of Dermatology estimates 3.5 million new cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer annually in the United States—a 300 percent increase since 1994. Melanoma, caused by unrepaired DNA damage to skin cells, is on the rise, too. Deadly because it often spreads to other parts of the body, the American Cancer Society estimates 120,000 new cases of melanoma in the United States each year.
While skin cancer is now the world’s most common cancer, totaling more cases annually than breast, prostate, lung and colon cancers combined, there is a bright side to this story. If caught early enough, both forms are usually curable, and applying Sun Protection Factor of 15 or higher—every day—has been shown to reduce the likelihood of developing skin cancer.
But here’s the catch: “We’re not necessarily being told which [sunscreens] are good for us,” says Jennalee Dahlen, Esthetician at Santa Cruz Skin Solutions.
In her serene office on River Street, 30-year-old Dahlen has luminous pale skin, and the glowing radiance of a teenager. She’s obsessed with the body’s largest organ, and quit her corporate job in San Francisco several years ago to pursue her passion for skin. Dahlen confirms what we already suspected:
“You should be applying sunscreen every single day, even if you’re inside,” says Dahlen. “There’s always those UV rays coming through, even when it’s foggy, even in the evening when we think there are no UV rays. They’re just invisible, you can’t smell them, you can’t see them.”
If the cancer facts aren’t sinking in to a still tan-obsessed society, maybe this one will: “90 percent of skin aging is caused by the sun. Only 10% is true aging,” says Dahlen.
If her own skin wasn’t testament enough, a four-year long Australian study released earlier this month found that a daily dollop of sunscreen resulted in 24 percent less skin aging in a group of 900 adults, ages 25 to 55.
But diligence in reading the ingredient list is just as important as slathering up. In the European Union, sunscreen containing .5 percent oxybenzone or higher is required to be labeled as such, but in America, it’s the main chemical in a majority of sunscreens.
“Oxybenzone is one of the most harmful chemical ingredients for sunscreens,” says Dahlen. “This creates an increase of free radicals once it hits something that illuminates it, such as sun.”
Free radicals cause a weakening of skin cells, which gets photocopied with the birth of new cells, says Dahlen. They’re to blame for hyperpigmentation and skin aging, and they’re believed to accelerate the progression of cancer.
Antioxidants, both ingested or applied topically, help stabalize free radicals, says Dahlen. “Tomato, for example has lypocene in it, which helps decrease the sunburn response, and avocado has carotenoids in it which helps absorb the photo-damaging light.” You can even rub it directly on your skin—a strange but not unpleasant experience.
Octocrylene is another common ingredient that increases free radical damage, says Dahlen, and can cause rashes and reactions once it hits the sun. And those convenient spray bottles loved by so many parents?
“It’s just a chemical cloud,” says Dahlen. “There’s no natural ingredients in those ones, there can’t be because of how they have to be formulated, and it can coat your lungs too.”
So what’s safe? Avobenzone, when it’s not accompanied by octocrylene, says Dahlen, as well as the good old mineral-based sunscreens containing zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. She recommends Badger, BurnOut, Jason, and the Hungarian brand Eminence, and reapplying every two hours.
“If a SPF says 50+, there are typically more chemical ingredients and not enough data to support that they protect any more than an SPF 30 would,” says Dahlen.
On July 18, at 6:30 p.m., Jennalee Dahlen presents the workshop ‘Shining a light on Sun Protection and Hyperpigmentation’ at 720 River Street. For more information call Santa Cruz Skin Solutions at 831.247.1987.
