Friday, January 15, 2010

What You Need To Know About The Sun

By Byron Jonas

Protecting yourself from the sun is an imperative preventive health measure, especially for those who spend a large majority of time outdoors. If your children are involved in school sports or any other outdoor activities, make sure you take the time to educate them about how to be sun smart.

With just a few simple precautionary measures, you can protect your loved ones from the harmful effects of over-exposure. The summer sun often lures us into spending long days basking in it's warm rays and enjoying our favorite sports and outdoor activities. By being safe about the sun and protecting your children, we can avoid suffering the harmful side effects and dangers of over-exposure.

We all know that as soon as summer begins and the sun starts to come out, we want to soak up as much of those rays as possible. This is also the time of year when we gear up for outdoor activities and school sports fun. But we also need to take the time to be cautious and play it safe outside.

Although a good dose of sunshine can be beneficial for our bodies and spirits, over exposure to sunlight can cause many harmful short and long-term effects. The most obvious and nearly instant reaction to too much sun is sunburn, which can range from being cosmetically unpleasant to downright severe. An extremely bad burn can even require hospitalization.

Premature wrinkles are one long-term side effect of too much sun; educating your kids about this early on is an effective way to make them aware of the dangers of too much sun. Preserving our youth is important to just about everyone, and by protecting our skin from sun damage we can do our best to avoid aging before our time.

Skin cancer is yet another much more serious long-term effect of too much sun. Although in the past, it may have been seen a sign of beauty to have perfectly tanned skin, we now know better. The risks of over-exposure from the sun are far too great to sacrifice our skin's health just to have a golden glow. It is our responsibility to protect ourselves and our kids from the sun's rays all year round and even more so during the summer months and school sports seasons.

Staying protected on sunny days isn't even enough; the sun can still pose a potential threat on cloudy days when you are least expecting it. It is still possible to get a sunburn on an overcast day, making it even more important to protect your skin all year round.

The majority of experts recommend using an SPF sunscreen before any outdoor activities. You may even want to consider using a daily moisturizer that contains SPF, just to play it safe. Covering up bare skin and wearing brimmed hats can also be good ways to enjoy the outdoors without putting your health at risk.

Make sure to share these sun protection tips with your entire family, especially kids that will be spending a lot of time outdoors. Enjoy the summer sun safely and wisely, your skin will thank you for it.

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