Sun Damage Continues To Occur Post-Exposure

At Skincare we take interest in your skin, whether that be through providing you with quality cosmetic solutions, such as our Obagi skin care, or through our professionals’ help and advice blogs to make sure that your skin is receiving the treatment it not only deserves, but physically requires.

There are many common misconceptions relating to sun damage and its impact on your skin. However there is one in particular that could be causing significant damage, and you may not find out until it manifests itself through damaged skin and wrinkles or worse, skin disease.

 

Research into the Damage

The damage from the sun’s UV rays can continue on into the night, according to research Yale University. It makes sense when you think of sun as a giant ball of nuclear material emitting radiation; just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean that it’s not there – or more specifically… everywhere.

 

By simply moving into the shade you are not removing yourself from the sun’s UV rays’ omnipotence. The damage that they cause can continue occurring in your skin cells for many hours after the initial exposure and can, ultimately, increase the risk of skin cancer within the individual.

 

Conducting research on the skin cells of mice, also known as melanocytes, the particular pigment found to be responsible for the damage process was melanin. Exposure to the UV rays causes it to produce small molecules – called cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) – which in turn form abnormal bonds in the DNA helix.

CPD Production

The CPDs actually form the bonds during the exposure to the UV light, however research has shown that these CPDs can continue to be produced for a further three or more hours ‘into the night’, or after the skin cells have ceased being exposed to UV rays. At this point, the body’s natural defence mechanisms eventually work to overpower the process and they production of CPDs ceases.

When conducting the tests on humans, the results essentially mirrored that of the mice. However when it came to the length of time the CPDs were produced post-exposure, the times varied, suggesting that the effect on mice can’t be completely extrapolated to reflect that of the effect on humans.

 

The conclusion? Look after your skin! Make sure that when you find yourself out in the sun, you keep yourself covered up and use sun cream, because even in the shade you are subjected the sun’s omnipotence. One thing to take away from this is to get into the habit of treating your skin to a night time treatment.

 

To speak to one of our skin specialists with regards to further information for post-sun protection, or to discuss our range of products and services, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01481 736699 where one of our friendly and knowledgeable professionals will be eagerly awaiting your call.