In this post, I talked about the damage the sun can do to your skin, especially through a window. Here’s a graphic demonstration reported by the New England Journal of Medicine. This guy was a truck driver for more than 20 years. The side of his face closest to the window has aged dramatically more than the protected side.
The problem with getting sun through glass is that the glass blocks the UVB rays, but not the UVA rays. The UVB rays are the ones that provide the Vitamin D that protects your skin from damage. Doctors believe that the reason that office workers’ incidence of malignant melanoma is on the rise while outdoors workers’ incidence has stayed steady is for just this reason.
So, all that advice about putting on your sunscreen before you go outside? Ignore it. Get your sun during the time of the day when UVB rays are the strongest, get just enough to produce optimal levels of Vitamin D and then protect your skin the rest of the time with a sunscreen that has both UVA and UVB protection.
And that’s my good deed for the day. 🙂
