Picture this, it’s a warm and sunny day outside and you and the family decide to go to the beach. The sun is bright and beaming, the wind is blowing and flowing and the best way to beat the heat is to take a dive in the ocean or at the pool. You decide to do that and pack all the necessities you need to do so. You even apply sunscreen 30 minutes before you leave, just like the instructions on the bottle say to do. You get out there, begin to enjoy yourself and you’re having the time of your life with your friends and family. Suddenly, you look at the time and it’s been hours since you last applied sunscreen, but you’ve been out all day soaking up the sun and now your body is beginning to ache. Why? Because you have been sunburned. Now, not only can you no longer enjoy yourself and your time because of the immense pain you’re in, but you also have to worry about future health risks because that sunburn might be more harmful to your body than you think.
How Easy It Is To Get Sunburned
Anyone can get sunburned and yes that includes you, melanated kings and queens. Though Black people have a lower risk of getting sunburned as compared to our white and Asian counterparts, sunburn for people with melanin is still a thing. The only difference is that it shows up differently on different skin tones.
It’s easy to get sunburned, all you simply need to do is stand in the sun at its strongest peak with no sunscreen for more than 10 minutes and even that time frame depends on your skin tone. As easy as it is to get sunburned, it’s also extremely dangerous.
Moderate sunburn will cause redness and hot pain on the skin for lighter-skinned people.
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For darker-skinned people, sunburn might not show up as redness but you will feel the hot and achy pain on your skin and experience itchiness.
For severe sunburn, it can lead to heat stroke, blistering or swollen skin, headaches, muscle cramps and more.
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Who Needs To Wear Sunscreen?
The simple answer to that question above is everyone. Everyone needs sunscreen. Sunscreen was created to protect the skin from the harsh UV rays that the sun produces, especially in the warmer months of the year.
Many people don’t realize the damage that the sun does to their skin. Not only can you get moderately or severely sunburned, but the sun can also cause serious future health risks such as skin cancer. What makes these health risks even worse is that they develop over time.
Going out in the sun may not cause any damage right now, but in the near future, you can be looking at new diagnoses that have to deal with the damage that has happened to your skin. This is a reality everyone can possibly face if they don’t take the proper measure to wearing, applying and reapplying sunscreen every time they’re going out during the day or if they’re outside for long periods of time and yes, you need to wear sunscreen all year round, even when it rains. There are still UV rays that can cause damage to your skin, even on the most gloomy days.
How Sunburns Can Look Like A Lupus Rash Or Worse, Cause A Lupus Rash
Not only can sunburn be a pain to deal with and extremely taxing on the body, but it can also play tricks on your mind. This is possible because sunburn can appear as a skin rash and depending on how this skin rash forms and how long it stays on your body without you realizing that it is sunburn, it can cause you to misdiagnose yourself with something like lupus.
Lupus is often misdiagnosed when it comes to skin rashes because a skin rash appearing on your face is one of the main signs of lupus. To further your concern, a lupus skin rash can look exactly like sunburn.
What if you’re already living with lupus and spend a lot of time outside? If this is the case, without the proper protection, you could be making your lupus symptoms worse from being out in the sun for long periods of time. This is because people who were diagnosed with lupus are susceptible to not only the harsh UV rays that affect the skin but the damage and inflammation these rays can cause internally.
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How To Protect Your Skin Without A Full Cover Up
It’s summertime and unfortunately, it is too hot to be covered from head to toe. In order to protect your skin without having to cover yourself fully, one way and probably the most important way, is using sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher and reapplying it every few hours, anytime that you are going outside or outside for a long period of time.
Do this during the colder months, rainy days, and even when you’re at home but the sun is shining in your place of residence. Another way to protect yourself is to wear hats, visors, sunglasses and light and light-colored clothing. This protects body parts from the sun and helps prevent heat stroke from wearing dark colors that soak up the sun.
It’s important to protect your current self from the damage that the sun can cause, your future skin depends on it.
