Sunburn Health Video

Video Transcript

DR. LORETTA CIRALDO: Hi. I'm Dr. Loretta Ciraldo, a board certified dermatologist since 1982 and author of "Six Weeks to Sensational Skin." Now, the topic of sunburn is something that honestly, as a dermatologist, I am hoping will become less and less popular of a topic as years go on, and why do we feel we dermatologists feel this way? Well, because sunburn refers to what we believe to be an overexposure to the sun. Sunburn means that you have gotten a dose or an exposure to the sun that has caused some reddening in your skin, and this reddening will do a couple of things as time goes on. First of all, in the immediate or acute stage, the reddening can cause some discomfort; sometimes, it can look a little bit unsightly because we can turn beet red and in the worst case of a more severe sunburn, you may even get blisters from the sunburn. The way to prevent sunburn is to be sure that you use a good sunscreen. We dermatologists believe that SPF 30 is the best sunscreen to use. Under that, you may not have enough protection and quite frankly, in the very high SPF numbers that are now on the market like the 60s and 70s, sometimes we believe that there might be a little too much chemical in there, so use a sunscreen and typically apply it about 20 minutes before your outdoor exposure. Remember to re-apply it about every 2 hours if you're engaging in outdoor activities and be sure to have enough on. We say that it takes a whole shot glass of sunscreen to cover a body. All of those pointers and you should, hopefully, protect yourself from getting a sunburn in the first place.