Sun Fever

Finally the hot weather in Portugal comes to stay.

Now it´s all about go with  friends out after duty, enjoiing festivals

from north to south and spend as much time as possible at the beach.

However we should keep in mind that the sun has two faces

- a good one I mentioned before and a bad one.

It´s extremly empressive but also important to say, that in every 75

portuguese there is one who has skincancer, information given by the

National Health Service.

So I will try to answer some of the most common questions:

What is it that makes the sun so dangerous for our health?

The sun emits diferent types of radiation, light and infra red light and those

you can´t see like the ultraviolet.

This type of radiation we can also devide in three tipologies:

Type A (UVA), type B (UVB) and type C (UVC).

What are the properties of each type?

UVA:

These rays are the longest and penetrate the skin in depth.

The quantity  os UVA is the biggest part of all kind of radiation the sun

emits and mantains its intensity during all year. Mainreason for skincancer

today.

UVB:

These rays are much shorter, allthough they are more intense than

the UVA and its incidency is more frequent in hight altitude and next

to the Equator.

It causes sunburn after exposure and could also be responsible for

skincancer.

UVC:

Are the most dangerous rays, but they are filtered by the ozone layer

before it crosses its way to the earth.

What is the mainfunction of sunscreens?

A good sunscreen absorves the radiation emited by the sun.

When you use it for a while, its quemical struture will change and degrades

the properties that provide protection.

To avoid it, you should retouch it every couple hours.

If you search well, maybe you will find some very good products that are

considered foto stable. Its eficiency is shown by mantaining 90% of the

protection till five hours.

A good advice is to use sunscreen from factor 25 up.

Fair skintypes should use from factor 30 up.

Here I show you some foto stable products from diferend brands:

And finally some tipps to protect your skin and take benefit throughout

the summer:

 Avoid sun exposure between 11am and 4 pm.

In periods of more hotness stay in cool and sun protected places.

Use sunscreen for you skintype in specific all year long.

Protect children with bright colored clothes and also use sunscreen

for them.

And last but not least don´t forget to your sunglasses. ;))

Take care, Ni