Can regularly exposing your back to the sun help beautify your complexion and maintain your health?

Can regularly exposing your back to the sun help beautify your complexion and maintain your health?

The approach is unscientific.

From a medical point of view, sunbathing is the exposure of the back to sunlight and ultraviolet rays. In fact, this will bring health risks, rather than health preservation or beauty in the scientific sense.

First of all, exposure to ultraviolet rays may cause tanning or sunburn of the skin, with symptoms such as skin color changes, redness, swelling, pain and even blisters.

If you are exposed to the sun all year round, whether it is on your back or other parts of your skin, ultraviolet rays can damage the DNA of skin cells and cause cell mutations. Over time, ultraviolet rays will accelerate the aging process of the skin, resulting in wrinkles, spots and other aging phenomena. In addition, excessive sun exposure all year round may also increase the risk of skin cancer, including basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma.

Some people may think that moderate sun exposure can promote the body's synthesis of vitamin D, which helps calcium absorption and bone health. This statement is correct, but in order to get enough vitamin D, only a short period of sun exposure (about 15 minutes) a day is needed, and there is no need to expose a large area of ​​skin, let alone the entire back.

From the perspective of modern medicine, the correct approach should be to avoid long-term direct exposure to strong sunlight, and use physical shielding or combined sunscreen to protect the skin from ultraviolet damage. This is the truly useful "health preservation".

Author: Tang Jiaoqing, MD, attending physician of dermatology

Review | Feng Jun, deputy chief physician of the Dermatology Department of Sinopharm Tongmei General Hospital

<<:  The benefits of climbing stairs, one is enough

>>:  When giving medicine to children, can we just halve the adult dosage?

Recommend

How long does it take for menstruation to be considered pregnant?

How long does a delayed menstruation have to be c...

7 ways to prevent breast sagging

Breast sagging can make a woman's figure a li...

Treatment of post-cesarean section scars

Pregnancy is closely related to our reproduction ...

What to do if you have stomach discomfort during pregnancy

After pregnancy, women often experience a lot of ...

What are the early treatments for ovarian cysts?

Women have a special organ - the uterus, which is...

Can taking anti-inflammatory drugs during breastfeeding reduce milk production?

The best nutrition for newborns comes from the mo...

Benign postmenopausal bleeding

Normally, women’s menstruation stops and there is...

Girls breast development

The most obvious thing about girls during their g...

How to massage the legs of pregnant women

Pregnancy is very hard for women. As the belly gr...

What is the age range for Down syndrome screening?

I think everyone must have heard of Down syndrome...

The reason why a 55-year-old woman can't sleep at night

In daily life, many women suffer from insomnia an...

Causes of benign breast lumps

Breast lumps are one of the most common diseases ...

O-type blood women should pay attention to pregnancy

No matter what blood type women have, they should...

Breast health exercises

As women's breast problems become more and mo...