How to deal with sunburn

It’s that time of the year where everyone goes down to the coast. You are all packed up and ready to go! But I’m pretty sure you have not taken care of one thing – how will you prevent sunburn? If you have had sunburn before, you know that this can seriously ruin your holiday. You want to send it swimming and running around the beach, not itching and peeling of your skin in the shade.

Sunburn is caused by excess UV Rays hitting your unprotected skin. Unprotected skin means naked skin – exposed to the sun without any protection such as clothing or sunscreen. When your skin is exposed for too long, it gets burnt and irritated. Skin damage is caused by excessive exposure to UVA and UVB rays that penetrate your skin altering your DNA which makes your skin age faster and are thought to be the primary cause of non-malignant skin tumors.

Sunburnt skin is very sensitive to touch, sometimes painful and can develop into blisters. In more severe cases, nausea, fever and chills occur. A few days later, your skin will begin to peel and itch in an attempt to rid itself of the sun damaged cells. Sunburn can occur in less than 15mins and the effect on the skin may not be visible at first. It may turn sensitive after sometime and begin to hurt a couple of hours after that. Continued exposure to sunlight is known to have a significant effect on hastening ageing of the skin ageing process. It is therefore advisable to avoid exposure between the hours of 10 am to 4 pm to minimize the risk. This is difficult as these are the hours we go around to do our business, thus you must wear protective clothing or wear sunscreen with a high SPF that blocks the sun’s rays from penetrating the skin and damaging it.

Research shows for effective results on using sunscreen, application should be at least 10 – 15 minutes before exposure and re apply the sunscreen 15mins after initial exposure. The more you swim, the more you should re apply your sunscreen (water, white sand, concrete, snow and ice reflect the sun’s rays and can cause sunburn so be careful as to where you sit or lie down, even if under a shade).

Beta carotene and Lycopene are chemicals found in certain fruits and vegetables like carrots and tomatoes respectively, and have shown to have a positive effect by increasing the skins ability to resist the effects of the UV light. Ketchup and tomato puree are also high in lycopene.

Vitamin E creams and Aloe Vera creams have been shown to reduce the discomfort of sunburn and help the affected deal with the burns. The peeling of the skin will occur, there is nothing you can do to stop that. 

Do not pull out the skin- remember that your skin is already very sensitive from the burns and by pulling it out, you may tear your skin, damaging it further and it will thus take longer to heal.

Drink a lot of water to aid your body build back its skin faster and keep away from the sun till you heal.