[dentstudent (OP)]

Having just burned my nose hiking, I've learned the hard way that forgetting your SP cream can cause excessive nasal irritation. So we are advised to wear a high SPF, but can this have a deleterious effect such as not preparing our skin to solar radiation, or excessive reductions on vitamin D? If you were permanently lathered in SPF 40, you'd be as white as a sheet, would you not? This can't be any better than being a bit brown, can it?

[Make it Lady]

Like most things in life everything should be done in moderation. Some exposure to the sun is healthy but excessive exposure can cause skin cancer. You should also try to be sparing with the suntan lotion. The chemicals in some are not the nicest things to put on your skin. You should start with a high factor but as your skin gets used to the exposure you can reduce the SPF. Burning your skin should be avoided. A better thing to do is to wear hats and loose fitting clothes that cover your skin. Short stints in the sun are best though. Sit out and have your coffee, sit out in the early evening but don't sit out all day. 

[dentstudent (OP)]

A very calm and rational response Mil! I salute you. Yes, if you want to get ahead, get a hat. Or become Zaphod. (Must avoid STBing my own thread...)

I think that you're right - a big hat for walking in is the answer.

But do you think that there could be a knee-jerk reaction. Now parents won't let their kids out without SPF 924, there may be a generation growing up who have an intolerance to moderate sunshine?

[RD]

You'd need to wear a burka before you need worry about vitamin D deficiency.

[dentstudent (OP)]

You'd need to wear a burka before you need worry about vitamin D deficiency.

Nah, I can't get away with those. They never match my eyes.

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[Make it Lady]

Your eyes don't seem to match your eyes.

I do think children are over protected and molly coddled these days. Children also seem to need a lot of prodding to get them to go outside as they don't feel they are aloud to do anything when they get out there. My son has had concusion from falling off his trampoline, has come home with wet clothes from falling in the local river (only a shallow one) and has got completely lost with my nextdoor neighbours son whilst walking their dog. They have to learn valuable lessons by having to be alone and use their own initiative. They also need to know that fooling around has consequences such as getting wet or hurting yourself.
Sunlight is actually very important for children. Lack of sunlight can cause a premature pubity. I am a great beleiver in fresh air and sun but sadly my eldest son is a computer geek and rarely sees the light of day. I quite often bribe him to go out!   

[turnipsock]

I only use vampire factor SP cream.

Now that I think about it, where do vampires get their Vit D?

[Don_1]

I heard a suggestion that as early man left the African plains and drifted into Europe, the dark skin changed to white because insufficient vitamin D would be produced by dark skin in the far less intense sun of the more northerly climate. If this had not happened, man could have suffered from vitamin D deficiency leading to Rickets.

Hmmm.... So why doesn't the black population of the UK, France, Germany, Holland, Canada Northern US etc. have Rickets?

[dentstudent (OP)]

Don - did you click on the link that RD put up? I think that although they don't get rickets, there is evidence that blacks do suffer vit D deficiencies in northern latitudes.

[Don_1]

Nope, I missed that. Just had a look and, well blow me down!!!

But there are black Africans etc. who have been here since the end of WWII. Invited to boost the nation's population. Many are now 3rd. 4th. 5th. and even 6th. generation black British, yet there has been no previous suggestion, to my knowledge, of problems with vitamin D deficiency. Surely if no precautionary measures were taken, there would have been a high incidence of rickets in these populations. Yet this does not appear to have been the case. Or am I oversimplifying this.....

[Emilio Romero]

BTW what is the real scale of protection in sunscreen? Is a 13 from one brand the same as a 50 of another? How can we believe the in the numbers regarding the sun protection factor?

[RD]

Is a 13 from one brand the same as a 50 of another?

You could compare the effectiveness of suncreams by covering some of these UV sensitive beads.

[DrN]

I only use vampire factor SP cream.

Now that I think about it, where do vampires get their Vit D?

Aren't vampires already dead? Or at least not fully alive. So they wouldn't need vit D.