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Long-term exposure to the sun can cause skin cancer. An often overlooked health issue is skin that is excessively dry may crack making it possible for infections to enter the body. All though not a danger to health the sun also causes our skin to age prematurely and is the source of deep wrinkles, excessive dryness, and skin pigmentation changes.
Our challenge then, is to keep our skin protected from sun damage and excessive dryness during the long hours spent outside to train and compete.
All sunscreens are not created equal. They can be poor quality or good quality — or anywhere in between.
There are two very important factors to consider when choosing your skin protection, primarily for the face, neck and ears because they are always exposed. They are also more sensitive than the rest of the skin on your body.
Sunscreen
There are only three sunscreen ingredients approved for use in the US that block UVA long rays. Long wavelength UVA rays penetrate deeper into the skin than UVB rays and can cause excessive dryness, fine lines and wrinkles, irregular skin pigmentation and even a weakening of the skin’s immune system, and cancer. They come through in overcast weather and they come through glass. You should make sure your sunscreen contains one of these three: Avobenzone (Parsol™ 1789), Titanium Dioxide or Zinc Oxide.
Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide are topical, that is they work by forming a barrier to the sun penetrating your skin. They are white and can be wiped off easily. Avobenzone is absorbed into your skin. The performance of this ingredient can depend on how well the lotion that it is put into to absorbs and stays on.
All though most companies do not provide UVA sun protection factor which are mandated for UVB such as SPF 15, SPF 30 you should know that to get higher UVA protection, provided the sunscreen contains one of the three required ingredients, you must have a higher UVB SPF. They work hand-in-hand.
The FDA has already told manufacturers that the final sunscreen monograph will contain key changes including, there will be no more SPF 45 or SPF 50. Companies achieving higher than 30 will be required to label their product "30+". Also, there will be no more "Waterproof" or "Sweatproof" which is deemed misleading. Instead, there will be no claim or "Water Resistant" which means effective up to 40 minutes in water or "Very Water Resistant" which means effective up to 80 minutes in water. Remember, water is the universal solvent!
Moisture
Spending a lot of time outdoors exposes your skin to excessive dryness because of the sun, wind, extreme temperatures and weather. Moisturizers are not all alike. Some sunscreens say "moisturizing" but the manufacturer has merely put a few droppers of a moisturizer such as aloe into their existing sunscreen. Conventional skin care moisturizers aren’t much better for an outdoor enthusiast because they evaporate off the skin too quickly when exposed to the environment.
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