If you love the sun, protect the skin you're in.

The sun is out! We're all suddenly so much happier and we just want to get outside and enjoy it. Of course we do, this is England; we never know when the next sunny day will visit. We haven't had a chance to buy sun lotion this year but it’s ok, we've got that bottle of factor 5 left over from the last really sunny day...3 years ago was it? It'll be fine; we'll just slap it on and get out there.

It’s interesting the lengths we go to just to avoid a cold and yet, let’s be honest, we are generally quite blasé about skin cancer. How many of us really know the facts; the significance of SPF, UPF, UVA or UVB? I don't pretend to; I'm discovering them now for the purposes of this article and I'm fortunate enough to have an incredible source of life saving information to hand. You do too. Dr Bela is the in-house Consultant Dermatologist at MediSpa and, just recently – not for the first time – he saved a Park Club member's life.

As with all illness, prevention is better than cure and Dr Bela is keen to advise us all on how to prevent melanomas. Avoiding the sun would be one way though it’s possibly not practical and certainly not likely for the majority of the sun-starved residents of "Cloudy Island" so the next best thing would be to cover up with appropriate sun screen and appropriate clothing.

The sun is the biggest single enemy to the skin for two reasons: melanoma, skin cancer formation and aging. There are two types of harmful ultraviolet rays that we need to protect ourselves against; ultraviolet A (long-wave) and ultraviolet B (shortwave) rays and the correct type and use of sunscreen is so important in our defence. UVB are the rays that cause damage to the epidermis (skin surface) while UVA penetrates beyond the epidermis into the dermis. It doesn’t cause any visible damage but it can penetrate glass and is the most potentially damaging in regard to skin cancer.

The ideal sunscreen would be a water-proof, broad-spectrum (protecting you from UVA & UVB) high SPF factor sunscreen. In order to be called a broad-spectrum sun-screen, it will have undergone rigorous laboratory tests and should be at least SPF 15.

Incidentally, SPF levels are not a measure of how much protection the sunscreen will provide you with, rather it is a measure of time in minutes that it will work for. To be specific, if it takes 5 minutes for your skin to start reddening (skin erythema) then SPF 50 should provide you with 50 times 5 minutes of protection – 250 minutes (just over 4 hours). If you can’t face doing though maths though, don’t worry; as a general rule you shouldn’t spend more than 2 hours in the sun without re-applying your sunscreen regardless of the SPF.

Any form of sunscreen is potentially bad for you if used or applied incorrectly or in insufficient quantity as it offers the false belief that we are safe, usually leading to an unhealthily prolonged spell in the sun. For this reason Dr Bela offers a guide for us all to follow:

• First of all, choose the product very carefully; don’t choose based on price, brand or bottle-size. Consider the information above and do your own research.
• Ideally, apply sunscreen twice in the morning to cool, dry skin, waiting at least 30 minutes between applications and at least 30 minutes prior to going outside.
• Sunscreen is always the last step before foundation make up, but applied after a barrier repair skin care product since sunscreen ingredients bind to the stratum corneum. This binding is prevented if one is already perspiring.
• Wearing make-up with SPF does not provide adequate coverage, but it does, nonetheless, provide an extra layer of protection.
• All colours and types of skin should be using sunscreen.

UPF levels in clothing are worth taking into account as well as the sun’s rays penetrate unprotected materials. UPF is rated from 15 to 50+ with 15-24 classed as good, 25-39 as very good and 40-50+ classed as excellent.

Finally, please, when the sun goes away again or if you want to have a platform before you work on your tan outdoors, please, please, please avoid sun-beds. The World Health Organization considers UVA & UVB to be as carcinogenic as tobacco smoke. When using a sun-bed, you are exposing yourself to approximately four times the amount of UVA and two times the amount of UVB as you are during a similar period in the sun.

So, enjoy this great spell of weather for as long as it lasts but look after yourselves and if you have any doubts or suspicions, please don’t wait for a beauty appointment, book in for a mole-check with Dr Bela. In fact, if you do so before the end of August, you will receive a 20% discount, not to mention the peace of mind.

By Trevor Bishop