How to protect yourself from the sun

            

Artificial sunscreen with physical and / or chemical filters works faster: depending on the ingredients, immediately or after about 30 minutes. Between creams and sun exposure should therefore be about 30 minutes. Because the protection consumed by sweating, bathing, friction, must be re-creamed again and again.

Everyone needs a different sunscreen

Not everyone needs the same sunscreen in the same strength and preparation. "Finding the right product for the individual is a consulting-intensive task," emphasizes pharmacist Sabine Wölfer from the Kurapotheke in Bad Reichenhall. "Fair-skinned people need a higher sun protection factor than people with a darker complexion, athletes have something other than walkers, Italian tourists need to protect themselves more intensively than travelers to Ireland."

Therefore, the pharmacist recommends a certain sunscreen only when she has spoken with her client about his everyday habits and leisure interests: "I also ask for medication, as the skin is sensitive to light by some medicines." Those who take water-based medicines need a higher sun protection factor.

Dry Skin is a Warning Sign

This also applies to those diabetics who are prone to dry skin – a problem they should not, by the way, accept. For dry skin can be a sign that diabetes is not well adjusted . According to Dr. Thomas Behnke, internist and diabetologist in Neuwied am Rhein, is in a perfectly treated diabetes, the skin functionally comparable to that of a non-diabetic and neither particularly dry nor particularly sensitive to light.

Because sunscreens only protect the skin from damage when used properly, it is important to consult a pharmacy. Anyone who chooses something on their own should know the following:

• Central and northern Europeans usually have a self-protection time of 20 to 30 minutes. For red-blond, light-eyed people, it is sometimes much shorter.
• The sun protection factor says how much the self-protection time increases. With LSF 15, a self-protection time of 20 minutes is increased by 15 times 20 minutes, ie by 300 minutes. Sunburn occurs only after that, but photodamage with long-term consequences occurs after two-thirds of this period. Therefore you should not exhaust them.
• For dry skin oil-in-water lotions and creams are suitable, for oily skin lotions and water-in-oil-based creams and fat-free gel. Sprays bring less, since only a part of the sprayed reaches the skin.
• The sunscreen should protect against UVA and UVB rays.

Babies and infants should not be lightly dressed in the sun and, because of the scattered radiation, in the shade and should wear a cap. Children's skin develops its protective mechanisms from the kindergarten age. From there, you also have to cream with products that have a high sun protection factor of at least 30 and, if possible, offer a purely physical sunscreen. Physically speaking, these agents contain micropigments that reflect the sunlight and do not even let it on the skin, while chemical sunscreen is in a direct on the skin reaction with UV light. Most sunscreen products contain both.