How do you protect yourself from sunburn?

How to protect yourself from sunburn?

(01.08.2010) It is holiday time and most people spend their free time in nature. But caution is needed, a sunburn damages the health. That is why it is important to protect oneself from the UV rays of the sun.

When does one actually speak of a sunburn? Ralf-Uwe Peter of skin and vascular center Blaustein said to the "Südwest Presse": "Any redness of the skin that occurs due to sun exposure is a sunburn". Because a sunburn is actually a thermal burn of the skin. In a sunburn, the skin turns red to dark red, in a more advanced stage can also form bubbles on the skin. In the worst case, the tissue can die off.

A sunburn can cause nasty diseases like black or light skin cancer. Sunburns during childhood include u.a. as the cause of black skin cancer. In the case of light skin cancer, the lifetime dose of sunlight is the cause. Most people do not take the risk of sunburn seriously, but every year about 140,000 people get skin cancer. More than 2,000 people die every year in Germany from the effects of cancer. Therefore, the prevention and protection against sunburn is enormously important.

The best protection against sunburn is to avoid the direct sun. No one in the southern countries would come up with the idea of ​​basking in the sun at noon. On the contrary, the "siesta" serves primarily to protect oneself from the damaging effects of heat and sun. When the sun is high, people prefer to stay in the cool shade. However, if you are exposed to direct sunlight, it is recommended to limit this to a short period of time and to cover the body with sufficient clothing. The clothes should ideally be air permeable and made of fabrics. Body parts that can not be covered with clothing should be regularly lubricated with suntan lotion from natural cosmetics.

Many people think that applying sunscreen provides the ideal protection against sunburn. This is only partially true, but the effect of the protection factor starts after a maximum of one hour and decreases in the water and over time. In addition, such products can only be recommended to a limited extent, since most manufacturers of sun creams use chemical UV filters. The filter substances contain substances such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. Some creams also use PEG / PEG derivatives. As a result, the skin is proven to be more permeable to pollutants. Contained fragrances can trigger allergies in some people. So whoever resorts to such products should be careful to use natural products. These contain no fragrances or preservatives and no mineral filter substances. In order to actually achieve an optimal effect, these creams should also offer a "triple protection". That means the cream should protect against UVA, UVB and infrared. Caution is also required in and on the water, because by reflecting the sun's rays, the sun's effects on the skin increases.

Many errors persist in the treatment of sunburns. Some believe that after-sun lotion can effectively treat sunburn. That's not true. The lotion is only to help against the drying of the skin. In addition, such products are also often questionable, as they contain fragrances that can trigger allergies to skin irritation. Even so-called self-tanner offer no protection against sunburns. The „Self“ alter only the uppermost skin layer, but offer no protection against the sun's rays. Another mistake is to treat a sunburn with quark or yogurt. This is also dangerous because the skin can become infected by the bacteria. This may make the symptoms even worse.

It makes more sense to cover the skin with sterile damp cloths during a sunburn. A doctor should be consulted if blisters develop, the skin is dark red and symptoms of nausea and vomiting, chills, headache and dizziness occur. These are first signs of a sunstroke and should be urgently treated by a doctor. (Sb)

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