Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Exploring Healing of Severe Sunburn

I was outside in the blazing sun for about 7 hours this last weekend.

I used no sunscreen. I had a plan.

I elected to not use sunscreen because I feel that sunscreen mostly blocks the good of sun exposure and doesn’t block the most damaging. There are different kinds of UV radiation. The skins reaction to good UV rays helps protect your body from the worst UV rays. That’s my theory.

PBS NewsHour did a story on sunscreen last night, believe it or not.

So, post sunburn, I set up a new strategy for relief.

Most importantly, we elected to not use soap whenever we shower. Soap draws out oil and the water than washes that oil away. With sunburns, the skins natural oil production becomes severely limited. Preserving the natural oils is critical post burn. If you wash away what natural oil remains, you set yourself up for excessive peeling.

Also, we attempted to keep the area moist with a prescription strength hydrocortisone lotion. Not excessive application, but as needed to relieve the most painful spots. It worked out well.

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