It’s no secret that our skin is affected by the sun on a daily basis. Whether sunny and bright or cloudy and cold, our skin needs protection. This means that applying sunscreen is critical to protecting skin from the harmful effects of constant solar radiation.
According to Dr. Beckman, most sunscreens are designed to block UVB rays, which is the type of radiation typically associated with causing skin cancer and present only on sunny days. When you go to purchase sunscreen and notice the Sun Protection Factor (SPF) number on it, what you’re really looking at is the amount of time your skin can be protected from UVB radiation.
If a person were to go and sit in direct sunlight, a certain number of minutes would have to pass by before that person’s skin would start to turn red. That number of minutes is referred to as the person’s minimal erythema dose (MED). If that person then applied a product to the skin to allow him or her to stay out in the sun ten times longer before turning red (increasing their MED by a factor of 10), then that product would be considered to have an SPF of 10.
Most products have an SPF that is actually a cumulative number, meaning that it is the sum of SPF values for several ingredients rated at different SPF values. For example, one ingredient may have an SPF value of 5, while another ingredient in the same product may have an SPF of 10. Together, the total product has a total SPF of 15.
However, that SPF is only related to UVB radiation. The type of radiation that causes the effects of aging in our skin is called UVA radiation, which most sunscreens do not protect against and are present even on cloudy days. That is why Dr. Beckman and the team at Therapon have created Theraderm Platinum Protection Facial Sunscreen. This particular sunscreen includes zinc oxide, which utilizes very small, microscopic particles that protect against UVA radiation by acting like millions of small mirrors on the surface of your skin. Instead of absorbing the UVA rays, zinc oxide actually reflects them. This sunscreen also provides UVB protection by using organic molecules that actually absorb and are broken down by UVB energy, meaning that the molecules take the damage so that your skin doesn’t have to.
Theraderm Platinum Protection Facial Sunscreen has a unique SPF of 43. Why? Well, it turns out that the best ingredients for protecting and caring for the health of the skin on your face just happen to have a cumulative total SPF value of 43. According to Dr. B, SPF 43 is the most effective and very best that you can get from putting ingredients together that are:
• Beneficial in terms of composition moisturizing effect to the skin itself
• Not harmful to skin
• Won’t burn your eyes and do other negative things
• Give widest range of UV spectrum protection
So before you head outside, make sure you’re protected against skin-damaging rays.
-From Theraderm