Athletic Protection...from the Sun?

If exposed to water sports, your skin is more susceptible to damaging your skin. Dr. Resnik remarks by mentioning "water actually acts as a lens and lets the sunlight penetrate a little more deeply into your skin."

So as Dr. Bellman said, you put it on at least thirty minutes before, preferably an hour before, and then when you go out and you’re going to go swimming or you’re going do a triathlon or you’re going to do windsurfing, and you get out of the water afterwards and you towel down, you’re taking your protection off with you, so you really got to put it back on.

Also, athletes who engage upon physical activities at high altitudes are exposed to more intense ultraviolet radiation. That means you have to protect your skin with at least an SPF 30 or higher that has both chemical sunscreens it and a physical block, like titanium oxide or zinc oxide.

There are also areas athletes, as well as all individuals, may forget to protect such as the ears, the neck, or the v-neck, and then you’ll see sun damage as the years go by on the v-neck, neck, and on the ears.

Tips You Need to Know

Dr. Bellman advises that if anyone is taking any medications, they should make sure that they’re not going to be more sensitive to the sun. The sunscreen they use should be greaseless so that it doesn’t interfere with their sports or their activities, if possible.

Dr. Resnik adds "they should also take advantage of the newest advances out there. Sun protective clothing, shirts that are so tightly woven yet able to let air come in and out, they give you protection without even using a sunscreen."

Dr. Shapiro concludes by remarking "get the sunscreen on before you even go out in the sun so it has a chance to dry and set first. Make sure you cover the ears, that’s a common place to get skin cancer and a very tough place to treat them. Other locations, people feel if it’s good enough for their face, I tell people it’s also good enough for the rest of their body, so they need to use it on all sun exposed areas."

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