I’ve always been annoyed by how icky traditional sunscreen makes me feel, so I was happy to find out that there’s a roll-on sunscreen that works reasonably well. I’ve used it a couple of times now, and while I wasn’t outside for long enough that I would have burned when I used it in either case—and therefore can’t comment on the effectiveness of a single layer of the stuff—I would say that applying it was much quicker and easier than applying traditional sunscreen. While applying sunscreen isn’t the lowest hanging fruit in health interventions out there, it’s still useful for reducing one’s risk of death from melanoma (yay for living longer!).
Basic sunscreen is zinc. To get that into an applicable form it is usually put into an oil suspension. As mentioned you don’t like the oil. You can also get alcohol based suspension sunscreens that feel a lot nicer; and sunscreen in spray form. The benefit of oil is that it doesn’t wash off so easily. But there’s no point being stuck with oil based sunscreen if they make you feel that uncomfortable
I was told a while ago that Asian sunscreen is different and less greasy and I bought some Japanese sunscreen from the internet. It feels much better than the regular American stuff.
Sunlight increases risk of melanoma but decreases risk of other, more deadly cancers. If you’re going to get, say, 3 times your usual daily sunlight exposure, then sunscreen is probably a good idea, but otherwise it’s healthier to go without. I’d guess a good heuristic is to get as much sunlight as your ancestors from 1000 years ago would have gotten.
Among Caucasians in the United States, cancer mortality for several prominent cancers, including cancer of the breast, prostate, and colon, shows a striking latitudinal gradient, with increased mortality rates among individuals residing in the northern states compared with individuals residing the southern states.
Devesa SS, Grauman MA, Blot, WJ, Pennello GA. Hoover RN, Fraumeni JF. Atlas of cancer mortality in the United States: 1950 to 1994. NIH Publication No. 99–4564, 1999.
This whole article is worth reading, and has a number of counter-intuitive findings.
This is something I’d eventually like to look into. Do you know which cancers sunlight protects against? Might sun exposure after one has applied sunscreen provide some protection against these cancers?
I’ve always been annoyed by how icky traditional sunscreen makes me feel, so I was happy to find out that there’s a roll-on sunscreen that works reasonably well. I’ve used it a couple of times now, and while I wasn’t outside for long enough that I would have burned when I used it in either case—and therefore can’t comment on the effectiveness of a single layer of the stuff—I would say that applying it was much quicker and easier than applying traditional sunscreen. While applying sunscreen isn’t the lowest hanging fruit in health interventions out there, it’s still useful for reducing one’s risk of death from melanoma (yay for living longer!).
Basic sunscreen is zinc. To get that into an applicable form it is usually put into an oil suspension. As mentioned you don’t like the oil. You can also get alcohol based suspension sunscreens that feel a lot nicer; and sunscreen in spray form. The benefit of oil is that it doesn’t wash off so easily. But there’s no point being stuck with oil based sunscreen if they make you feel that uncomfortable
This link might help: http://www.skinacea.com/sunscreen/physical-vs-chemical-sunscreen.html#.VdunDbKqqko as should https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunscreen
I was told a while ago that Asian sunscreen is different and less greasy and I bought some Japanese sunscreen from the internet. It feels much better than the regular American stuff.
Have you tried spray-on sunscreen?
Sunlight increases risk of melanoma but decreases risk of other, more deadly cancers. If you’re going to get, say, 3 times your usual daily sunlight exposure, then sunscreen is probably a good idea, but otherwise it’s healthier to go without. I’d guess a good heuristic is to get as much sunlight as your ancestors from 1000 years ago would have gotten.
I’ve got your citations.. right here
This whole article is worth reading, and has a number of counter-intuitive findings.
I’ve seen so many claims about the benefit or lack thereof of sunscreen. Do you have a citation?
This is something I’d eventually like to look into. Do you know which cancers sunlight protects against? Might sun exposure after one has applied sunscreen provide some protection against these cancers?