Finally being outside again, filling air and sun – the last week was a mood for everyone who is tired from winter. Temperatures of more than 20 degrees attracted many outside to the cafés, on the banks of the Main and the Frankfurt Parks, where the first sun-hungry people were already seen in the grass with a bare torso, but the first sun in the year is also the danger that comes from the UV rays in spring is not to be underestimated. Even on sunny winter days, the UV index values can be above level 3, this is the level from which the skin should basically protect against sun rays. This applies especially to children. But adults should not expose themselves to the sun too, cover the head and body and avoid the intensive midday sun completely between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. – this are the two most important recommendations for consumer advocates and dermatologists. Only in third place does the sunscreen come into play as a countermeasure, preferably with a sun protection factor (LSF) 50, as can now be found everywhere on the shelves of drugstores and pharmacies. A daily cream with a sun protection factor may be enough at the moment, in summer this is not the case, however, of dermatology. The invoice depends on its own skin constitution, the so -called self -protection period. In the case of light and sensitive skin types, the skin sometimes starts after five minutes to blush and tense – a sign that it is under stress. With the sun protection factor 50, the same person would have a sun protection of a good four hours, calculated after the formula: 5 minutes of LSF 50. However, it is recommended to never take advantage of this time until the last second, but to shorten about a third. The experts also recommend that you apply it to cream every two hours in order to maintain the existing protection. However, the overall protection duration is not extended by repeated creaming. The formula applies to the amount you should use: a lot helps a lot. In fact, most consumers are far too economical in sunscreen. The fact is: the sun protection factor is calculated using a thick layer of cream – two milligrams per square centimeter skin. For the entire body, this would be around three to four tablespoons of cream, about 30 to 40 grams. A family of five would need a whole tube every day on summer vacation. After all – even if the sunscreen is declared as a “waterproof” – you should finally apply it when the children come out of the water. And without gaps, i.e. also behind the ears and in the neck. After a current test of the Stiftung Warentest (www.test.de) and other consumer protection organizations of sunscreen with sun protection factor 50 for the face, most products reliably protect against UV rays. At the top, creams from the pharmacy were at the top, but “good” and cheaper products are also available in the drugstore. One topic that has so far been discussed primarily in specialist circles is protection against the blue radiation content in daylight, which penetrates even deeper into the skin than UV light. In the meantime, there are most of the pharmacy, which protect triple, i.e. against UVA and UVB rays and against blue lights, and the skin forgets nothing as it says. The fact that the number of people who have black skin cancer has doubled in the past twenty years, as the Barmer health insurance company recently reported, also has to do with the fact that the generation that is affected, on their childhood on Italian vacation, still sizzled with sun protection factor 2, if at all. The late consequences are only now coming to light. Today, it is climate change with the result that people are more and more out of place that worries dermatologists. Rough, scaly areas on the face, such as on the back of the nose or forehead, so -called actinic keratoses, can already be a preliminary stage of white skin cancer. If a breakdown microscope, a particularly powerful magnifying glass is used, this also bears the health insurance company, unlike before, when the examination was paid with the naked eye. If the examination is documented by video and the results are saved in order to be able to better assess abnormalities over time, the patient must cover the costs for around 80 euros. Recognized in good time, skin cancer is curable in almost all cases. The Federal Association of Consumer Centers is still skeptical. So far, there has been no data that clearly demonstrated the benefits of regular skin examinations.
