Understanding Sun Protection Factor or SPF
May 5, 2008 by Scott Wharton
Filed under Men's Health
If you saw my post from yesterday, you saw that I got a nasty sunburn from doing some yard work and not protecting myself properly from the sun. I was wearing sunblock but it was only an SPF 4. Let’s clear up some things about the SPF factor. This is some information I got from medicine.net:
(HealthDay News) — Sun protection factor (SPF) is a rating given to sunscreens to help gauge the amount of protection they provide against the sun’s damaging UV rays.
An SPF of 15 means you’ll have 15 times the amount of protection from the sun that you normally would without any sunscreen, the Nemours Foundation says. That means spending 15 minutes in the sun with SPF 15 applied is the equivalent of spending roughly 1 minute in the sun without any sunscreen.
Original Quote Source: Understanding Sun Protection Factor
Here is an SPF determination Scale I got from Sebamed.com to help you determine the best SPF for you.
Product mage Source: Shopbug.com
Pretty nasty sunburn, I just wanted to comment on the SPF. The table is extremely useful, however, there’s more to it than just SPF…the manufacturer’s recommendations suggest that topical sunblocks be applied 20-30 mins before exposure & that adequate quantities be applied. It adds up to about 1 shot glass worth and should be re-applied every 90 mins, no matter how long they say it lasts…because it too breaks down with sunlight. In fact this past March, the FDA posted warnings about Oxybenzone the active ingredient in most of the top brands… it enters the body throught the skin and acts as a hormone (Mimic) causing problems …another story for another time (ask me about that one).
Therefore, the appropriate sun precautions should be taken whenever, exposure is anticipated. i.e hats, sunglasses, sunblock > SPF 25, applied as per above. You may want to check out DermaAstin and Heliocare. 2 Natural plant based, Internal sunscreens (pills) with lots of data behind them, more than the topical sunscreens.
We (Guys) demonstrate the least amount of knowledge about skin cancer and take the worst precautions against it, skin cancer is the #1 cancer and is increasing at explosive rates…Its time to wake up and take precautions. All the best
Bob Corish MD