If you're dealing with years of sun-damaged skin, you'll be happy to know that you can still restore and enjoy optimal skin health with daily ultraviolet (UV) protection using broad-spectrum sunscreen, gentle cleansing, and deep moisturization. Seeking professional treatment and care for skin nourishment, hydration, and rejuvenation can also help.
Implementing these strategies to protect your skin from sun damage is now more crucial than ever, considering there are now more days with high UV indices. An article from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), for instance, talks about a significant increase in the number of days with high UV index values over the past decades.
What Is Skin Health?
Skin health refers to the proper functioning, structural integrity, and overall wellness of the skin, the body's largest organ. It's not just about having wrinkle-free, flawless skin, although both indicate healthy skin.
Rather, true skin health focuses on how well this organ performs its many biological functions, including but not limited to:
- Serving as a protective barrier, shielding the body against external threats like UV radiation, environmental pollutants, mechanical impact, and harmful bacteria
- Minimizing moisture loss by locking in vital fluids, keeping internal tissues moist and dehydration at bay
- Regulating body temperature and helping keep it stable
- Providing environmental awareness and sensation (e.g., making one aware of and appropriately respond to heat, cold, pain, and pressure)
- Triggering the production of vitamin D, a nutrient necessary for calcium and phosphorus absorption and bone health
- Supporting immune functions, including actively detecting and fighting off invading pathogens
How Can You Tell if Your Skin Is Unhealthy?
Despite the importance of maintaining optimal skin health, millions of Americans live with at least one skin condition in any given year. Statistics cited by the Coalition of Skin Diseases put this at 84 million people in the U.S. alone.
Because the skin is an external organ, it's often easy to determine whether it's healthy or not. Some of the primary signs that it's unhealthy include:
- Chronic or lingering skin dryness and flaking, often accompanied by a "tight" feeling
- Persistent inflammation, redness, or both
- Unexplained blemishes, breakouts, rashes, or hives
- Rough patches or uneven texture (e.g., scaly, bumpy, or thickened areas)
- Hyperpigmentation (dark spots)
- Hypopigmentation (white or light spots)
- Ongoing physical discomfort, sensitivity, or pain without an apparent reason or trigger
- Slow-healing wounds
- Moles whose color, size, or shape changes
If you experience any of those signs and symptoms, particularly physical changes in moles, sores that are too slow to heal or don't heal, or any new growth, please see a dermatologist as soon as possible. They're common indications of skin cancer, the most common form of cancer in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
How Can You Restore Skin Health After Sun Damage?
While sun-damaged skin doesn't automatically translate to developing cancer, you should still take proactive steps to restore optimal skin health and monitor it for any changes. Taking better care of your body's largest organ, particularly after sun damage, is critical to reducing your risk of developing skin conditions, including skin cancer.
Daily UV Protection
Never go outside without applying sunscreen, even if it's cloudy, as a significant percentage of the sun's ultraviolet radiation can pass through clouds. When shopping for a broad-spectrum sunscreen, ensure it comes with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 30.
Apply your chosen sunscreen 15 to 30 minutes before you head out. Reapply every 2 hours or as instructed on the label. Apply right after swimming or profuse sweating.
Wear a wide-brimmed hat, too, and don sunglasses with 100% UV protection or a UV400 label.
Gentle Cleansing
You should always use a gentle cleanser to avoid skin reactions, but it's even more crucial after skin damage. UV damages the skin by:
- Compromising the skin barrier
- Triggering inflammation
- Increasing moisture loss
If you use harsh cleansers, they can exacerbate such negative effects of UV exposure.
Deep Hydration
Deep hydration is a skin rejuvenation tactic for sun-damaged skin that involves using superior moisturizing agents approved by your dermatologist. Some examples include:
- Hyaluronic acid
- Ceramides
- Glycerin
With the help of these moisturizers, you can repair a weakened skin barrier and restore dehydrated skin.
Professional Treatments and Care
Whether you need whole-body or just facial restoration, know that personalized treatments are available to hydrate, nourish, and rejuvenate your skin, as noted on the TERSA Facial Aesthetics & Spa website.
Such services can help support better skin health and help you enjoy smoother, more radiant, and glowing skin. Some of these skin treatments are laser- or energy-based.
Laser therapy, for instance, can help improve the appearance of dark spots and improve texture. Radiofrequency therapy is another example; it can help with sun-damaged skin by supporting cell turnover and rebuilding collagen.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Vitamin Is Best for Skin?
There's no single "best" vitamin for skin health, as the skin requires a combination of various nutrients, from vitamins A to C, D, and E, and minerals like zinc, copper, iron, and selenium.
The good news is that you can get these nutrients from a well-balanced diet. If you build your meals around diverse whole foods like citrus fruits, leafy greens, lean proteins, nuts, and seeds, you're more likely to easily supply your body and skin with the necessary vitamins and minerals they need to function properly.
What Causes Poor Skin Health?
Having poor skin health doesn't automatically equate to having poor hygiene, as many skin conditions have genetic, hormonal, or immune system components and influences. Genes, hormones, and overactive oil (sebum) glands, for instance, are among the primary triggers of acne.
Still, lifestyle habits can indeed have a significant influence on how healthy and well the skin functions. With acne, for instance, poor hygiene practices (e.g., inconsistent cleansing, using unwashed pillowcases, and not washing the face properly after workouts) can encourage worse and more frequent breakouts.
Restore and Maintain Optimal Skin Health With These Tactics
From daily and regular sunscreen application to gentle cleansing and deep hydration, these are critical steps to having optimal skin health following years of UV damage. Don't forget that professional treatments, such as energy-based therapies, can also help.
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This article was prepared by an independent contributor and helps us continue to deliver quality news and information.