learn it: everything you need to know about spf, skin cancer, and skin protection for the summer!

While I’m not one to take the sun like sacrament, I have a chilling memory of lobster burn and tubs of Noxzema, calming emulsions in pink bottles that smelled of chalk and aloe vera. I remember crying from the burn. It was my freshman year in college, ages ago it seems, and my friends and I rode a bus down to Florida. We were to spend a lazy weekend at a friend’s summer home in a nondescript beach town. I should preface this and say we were children of the 80s, where hoards of women worshiped at the altar of Ban de Soleil and oil was very much en vogue.

At the beach, I dotted a bit of SPF 15 on my skin and fell asleep under the hot sun. A few hours later I screamed, wept and shook from the sunburn, the patches of white the sunscreen covered amidst the pink and deep red. It was the first and only time I had ever experienced a sunburn and since then I’ve been evangelical about sunscreen, protection, and detection. And since we’re hitting beach season, I thought I’d check in with Dr. Svetlana Kogan, MD, internist and the founder of Doctors at Trump Place, so she can not only dispel sun myths and its affects on your skin, but provide some excellent information about suncare, in general. In the coming weeks, I’ll be featuring my picks for sunscreens, sunless tanners, and all the ways in which you can play it safe in the sun!

As consumers, we’re bombarded with a great range of sunscreens that offer SPF as high as 85. Is a sunscreen with an SPF of 85 as effective as one with 30?

I do not see any medical advantage to using anything over SPF 55-60 even for the fairest of people, or babies. Most adults who are not very fair will do just great with SPF 30 or above in the direct sunlight. Generally, the closer to the equator you are, the higher the SPF you should use to protect yourself from a sunburn. So, for example, if you are heading for Aruba, do not bring anything less than SPF 45. Of course, a lot also depends on the persons’ skin type.

Cosmetic and skin care companies have wisely formulated their products with sunscreen protection. Should we solely rely on our makeup to provide adequate, daily protection, or do we need to incorporate sunscreen into our regimen?

In the urban world, if the only time we are exposed to the sun is on our way to work, we can rely on the moisturizers with SPF 20 or above built into them. Of course, common sense should be used. Someone who comes out of their building, immediately dives into the subway and emerges one block away from their work is totally fine with moisturizer which has SPF 20 built into it. However, someone who is crossing Brooklyn bridge by foot on their way to work, should aim for SPF 30 or higher, and if it’s not built into their moisturizer, should apply it separately.

The skin cancer statistics are alarming, with more than 1.2 million new cases of skin cancer being diagnosed each year here in the US, and Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, killing one person every hour. What are the top three skin care misconceptions?

Misconception #1: Higher SPF offers a great protection against Skin Cancer: Why is SPF misunderstood? Because it only offers protection against UVB light. UVB is the primary cause of sunburn, affecting only the superficial layers of the skin. The light that it MOST carcinogenic to skin is UVA light. This one can travel through the glass and can only be averted if we ADD some things to SPF. The example of such an additive is: Mexoryl (ecamsule) used by several high end sun protection products.

Misconception #2: Layering SPF products yields more protection: Layering foundation with SPF 10 over a moisturizer with SPF 15 does not equal a total SPF of 25. It’s the highest SPF that counts. In this example, it the SPF 15 that will count.

Misconception#3: Indoor tanning is safe: Indoor tanning involves UVB and UVA radiation and is just as harmful as being exposed to the bright sun outdoors. One could have a serious UVA cancerogenic effect without any burn!

What is the difference between a sunburn and sun poisoning? Does either (or both) yield a higher risk of skin cancer?

Sunburn is exactly what says: a burn to the outer layers of the skin, accompanied by pain, edema, redness and sometimes blisters. Sun poisoning is the body getting overheated and results in dehydration, fever, nausea, headache, vomiting. Both yield a higher risk of skin cancer because both result from a prolonged exposure to bright sun.

Many of us grew up in the age of body oil application. Applying sunscreen wasn’t at the forefront of beachcombers and beach bathers past and we were blasé about shielding our skin from the sun’s harmful affects. Is there a way in which we can reverse the behaviors of our youth to prevent cancer?

Use the analogy of vegetables shriveling up on the hot oily skillet. This is exactly what happens to our skin: it gets dehydrates, shriveled up, and oil only accelerates this damaging process.

How can we facilitate early detection?

People should regularly inspect their bodies for moles, discolorations, and other skin manifestations. Taking a digital picture periodically helps to appreciate subtle changes in size and contour of skin lesions. Any and all skin lesions should be mentioned and shown to the primary care doctor (PCP) during the annual or biannual physical.

Update: A member of the twitter community, @kenkrim, reminded me of a terrific resource: The Skin Cancer Foundation.

About the Expert: Dr. Svetlana Kogan, MD, is an internist and the founder of Doctors at Trump Place, a facility founded on the premise that allopathic (traditional) medicine can and should thrive in harmony with alternative medicine, a blend of Western and Eastern medicine. Dr. Kogan is board certified in Internal Medicine and a Cornell University graduate. She is affiliated with Lenox Hill Hospital and a member of both the American Medical Association and the American Anti-Aging Academy.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 7:28 pm and is filed under beauty, fashion & style. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.