Axe External Aggressors

Your skin is the largest organ in your body, constantly taking all the hits from the external aggressors you face daily. So, have you been doing anything to double up your skin's defense?

In sunny Singapore where it's summer all year round, heading to the beach and getting a tan is as convenient as going to the mall. Pick a weekend and head over to beach, you will find teenagers basking under the sun, hoping to achieve a glowing tan. What those teenagers may not know is that the tan they are about to get comes with a hidden price to pay.

Ask any dermatologist and they will tell you that getting a tan is the most ridiculous idea ever. Overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation can cause significant damage to your skin. Of all the external aggressors we face daily, be it dehydration, oxidation, pollution, the UV rays is the number one enemy your skin fights with every day. When exposed to them, your skin melanocytes produce melanin in an attempt to protect your skin, causing a tan. So, contrary to popular belief, a tan is not "healthy. The darker your tan is, the more damage is done to your skin. Freckles also develop as a result of high sun exposure and they usually cluster around the nose and cheekbones, areas hit directly by the sun.

There are 2 types of radiation-UVA and UVB. UVA causes premature skin ageing, while UVB is the one that's responsible for a nasty sunburn.

Up to 80% of skin ageing is caused by the sun. UVA rays penetrate deep into the skin and breakup collagen, ultimately results in wrinkles. The cruel fact is, once collagen is damaged, it cannot rebuild itself, and it is very difficult for the skin to produce more.

Over exposure to the sun's UVB rays can give you a sunburn leading to DNA damage. When you start to turn red, this is a warning that the UV rays have penetrated into the layers of your skin and living cells are being killed. Your blood flow increases as a result of the trauma your skin is experiencing. Repeated sunburns may result in skin cancer because of the damaged DNA.

Sun in your hair

Besides your skin, your hair is another victim of the sun's merciless blaze. UVA/UVB rays strip away the cuticle causing hair to become dull, rough and prone to frizz and flyaways. UV rays then penetrate into the cortex leading to colour fading in both colour-treated and virgin hair, leaving them straw-like and brittle.

Elaine Heng, marketing executive for Shiseido professional tell us, "Too much sun will speed up the ageing process of your hair. The ageing process of your hair is called glycation, where sugar in our blood gets absorbed into the hair the capillaries, then binding with the keratin fibers in the hair, causing it to lose tensile strength, thus breaking easily."

As we all know, prevention is always better than cure. She goes on to add, "If you have to be out in the sun very often, always spray on a leave-in product that has sunscreen. The correct type of shampoo and conditioner for your scalp will help in replenishing the moisture the sun strips away from your hair daily."
 
Indoor "Sun"

Now, you may think that if you lead most parts of your life indoors, with the only exception of getting in and out of your car, you can escape from sun damage, right? Sorry to disappoint, but although you will not have to worry about sunburn and skin cancer, you are still a prime target of ageing skin.

Although most glass windows are able to block out UVB, it does nothing to stop UVA from penetrating though. Clear glass allows up to 75% of UVA to pass. Tinted and reflective glass absorbs more of the UVA but still allows about 25-50% to pass. The best protection comes from laminated glass and UV-blocking coated glass. Both filter out from 95 to 99% of all UV light.

Unless you have full spectrum protection at home, in your car or in your office, you might want to consider drawing the blinds when the sun is it it's peak, around 10am-4pm.

Another common source of UV rays are fluorescent lamps. If you feel a little sick after a massive shopathon at the mall, the bright lights might be the reason why. A two hour shopping spree in a brightly lit mall is equivalent to spending about an hour in the sun.

Sounds like you can never escape the sun's death rays? Rest assured, that's what sunscreen is for.

"Eat" your protection?

Applying and reapplying sunscreen might seem like a hassle. If you spend a lot of time in the sun doing sports, you do not have the time to reapply your suncreen. And really, no one wants to stop their volleyball game midway just to slather on protection. Here comes the beauty of inventions - suncreen pills.

You may have seen these on the shelves of pharmacies but did not bother to take a second look, because the idea of ingesting your sunscreen seems bizarre and not likely to work. Well, what these pills actually do is to protect you from the inside. No, they are not capsules filled with sunscreen. They are supplements that contain vitamins and strong antioxidants that we do not get enough in our daily diet.

UV rays create free radicals in our bodies, they are basically atoms with unpaired electrons looking for something to bond with. When they do, they may set off a chain reaction that causes cell damage. Hence, the vitamins and antioxidants that sunscreen pills are loaded with neutralize the free radicals before they damage your living cells. So while your suncreen blocks off the UV rays, the suncreen pills help to prevent and repair damage that has been done.

When we talk about vitamins, we are specifically referring to vitamins A, C and E, which happen to be great antioxidants. They play a big part in helping to restore the damage that had been done to your skin. Vitamin A keeps skin and mucous membrane cells healthy and resistant to cell damage. Vitamin C and E help by reducing the damage caused by free radicals, a harmful byproduct of sunlight, smoke, and pollution. Free radicals gobble up collagen and elastin, the fibers that support skin structure, causing wrinkles and other signs of ageing.

Another antioxidant that can reverse the damage is caffeine. Lead researcher Dr. Paul Nghiem, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Washington in Seattle and his team found that in cells damaged by UV rays, caffeine interrupted a protein called ATR-Chk1, causing the damaged cells to self-destruct. This does not mean that you should be guzzling large amounts of coffee daily because caffeine is known to be dehydrating.

So far, there is no other pill or antioxidant that can completely take the place of your traditional sunscreen. They should only be used to work in tandem with your suncreen. Short of covering yourself from head to toe, there is no other single defense your skin appreciates as much as sunscreen.