Ultraviolet Radiation and Skin Aging

Ultraviolet Radiation and Skin Aging

Points of views about ultraviolet radiation (UVR) are contradictory: from the very beginning the UVR was considered beneficial, then opinions have changed. It is clear now that UVR has a significant effects on skin, and people have found that excessive exposure affects collagen, giving a weather-beaten appearance.

At the same time the truth is that body loses 1% of its collagen a year, whether the skin is sun exposed or unexposed. So even people will stay out of the sun action, the skin will still age.

What kills people is ignorance and a failure to inspect your skin for the tell tales - a factor probably done better when you are naked.

I would think most naturists are more conscious of these risks because they are akin to sunlovers and interestingly one report I read highlighted the risk of melanoma on the soles of feet as this was one place people never look at closely and lets face it how much sun does the soles of your feet get relative to the rest of you - although I recall one friend who took great delight in doing handstands on the beach but I digress.

Sun lotion clearly does protect skin (just observe the faces of past cricketers) but at the same time commonsense can do much the same in cases where sun exposure is limited. If you have constant level of high exposure which clearly will do damage - the truckie's arm ( an Australian example) is a good example of that as well. I also recall a 43 year old Belgian woman who had much of her youth in the Med but had also spent several years in North Africa. She still had the body of a 20 something but the face of a much older woman.