Protect Your Skin from UVA and UVB

It is a fact that sun can damage our skin, it causes premature aging and skin cancer and most of us don’t care or don’t know. It is also hard to know what we need to protect our skin because it is very confusing what UV ray does and what is it all about.

It is better to know how to protect our skin if we know what we are protecting from.

The sun has two types of ultraviolet rays (UV):

1. UVA

This is a 320-400 nanometers (billionths of a meter) long wave solar rays. It is very unsafe to be exposed from UVA rays as they can go through glass windows, light colored clothing and even your windshield, so when you are outside you are exposed to UVA rays.

UVA rays are responsible for aging causing the skin wrinkling and leathering. They are less likely than UVB that cause sunburn to the skin, UVA penetrates the skin deeply.

Long exposure of UVA will cause cracks and shrinks the collagen and elastin of the skin.

Collagen composes up to 75% of the skin and is the fibrous protein of the skin, cartilage, bone and other connective tissue. Together with the elastic, it is in charge for skin strength and elasticity, and its dreadful conditions leads to wrinkles that will result to aging.

2. UVB

It is a short wave solar ray of 290-320 nanometers.

UBV rays are stronger than UVA rays in producing sunburn. The UVB rays are considered the main cause of skin cancers.

The UVB is called the tanning ray; the rays stimulate the melanocyte cell, to create the brown pigment melanin, producing sunburn as a defense against UV radiation.

It doesn’t mean that even if its cloudy day and you are driving in your car, you are still getting the harmful UV rays from the sun. It is very important to protect your skin with sunscreen and UV protective clothing all the time, especially when you are exposed for working, playing and on vacation.