The sun is a beautiful, heavenly object and is necessary for life on earth. It feels wonderful to be out on a warm sunny day, but there’s no question that the sun does a number on human skin. Too much sun exposure causes everything from premature wrinkling to skin cancer.
The sun’s ultraviolet rays cause the worst damage to the skin, and they do so in a couple of ways. There are two types of ultraviolet rays that make it to earth, categorized as UVA and UVB. Of the two, UVA is the far more damaging. It causes sunburn, though not as much as UVB rays and can damage the DNA in skin cells. It also penetrates the second layer of skin, called the dermis. The injured skin then releases free radicals, molecules that tear up other cells. More, the body actually launches an immune response, as if the ultraviolet rays were an invading organism. But the UV ray isn’t anything like a bacteria or a virus and the body attacks its own healthy collagen and elastin, the substances that make skin supple and springy. After years and years of this, the collagen and elastin are ruined and the result is wrinkles, furrows, age spots, spider veins and leathering. UVB dries the skin out and is responsible for most of the sunburn. UVB damage also causes the release of free radicals.
UVA is more dangerous to skin than UVB because UVB can be blocked by clothing, cloud cover and even glass, and is most dangerous during the summer months. UVA rays bombard the earth for most of the day and in all seasons and isn’t blocked by cloud cover.
As with most things, the best possible treatment is prevention. Since no one wants to stay out of the sun all the time, the best treatment is a sunscreen, a cream or ointment that absorbs the energy of ultraviolet rays. But if the damage has been done, other treatments include vascular pulsed lasers to remove spider veins, Botox injections for wrinkles, or retinoid creams. Retinoids, which are made from Vitamin A, speed up cell division and the sloughing of dead skin cells and induces the formation of new blood vessels, which can smooth out fine wrinkles and lines.