How does the sun affect the skin?

The ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun can lead to many skin changes, including relatively mild things like freckles and wrinkles and also more serious conditions like skin cancer. The best way to keep your skin healthy is to avoid getting too much exposure to UV rays. Whether you usually tan or burn, any change in skin color shows that your skin has been damaged by UV rays. Wear sunscreen with a high sun protective factor (SPF), cover exposed skin as much as you can, and stay out of the sun during the peak hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tanning beds also expose you to harmful UV rays, so it's important to avoid them, as well.

The sun is to blame for freckles, age spots, spider veins, leathery skin, loose skin, and actinic keratoses, the thick, rough growths on sun-exposed skin. Exposure to the sun, wind, and other elements results in more than 80 percent of the damage on the face, resulting in deep lines and wrinkles, thickened skin, discoloration, and even skin cancer.

The sun has an extraordinary direct impact on the skin. But in a nutshell, imagine the sun's rays as being like a laser gun, disintegrating your collagen and destroying your cells' DNA. It's almost that simple. The sun can be blamed for over one million new cancers each year, affecting approximately one in seventy people. One in every five people will develop skin cancer during his or her lifetime. How does this wonderful-feeling, beautiful sunshine wreak such havoc? The short UVB wavelengths hit the epidermis and cause sunburns, the obvious immediate sign of sun damage. The longer UVA rays penetrate further into the dermis, causing not only a suntan (a sign of trauma) but premature aging (those rays dissolve collagen and elastin) and skin cancers. The Skin Cancer Foundation reports that more than 90 percent of skin cancers are caused by sun exposure. The National Cancer Institute adds that skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, with more than one million skin cancers diagnosed annually.