How to Reduce Sun Damage with Light Therapy
You probably know how important wearing sunscreen is in preventing skin cancer. But do you know all the many other ways prolonged exposure to UV light can impact your body? In addition to potential dangers like skin cancer, sun exposure plays an enormous role in how your skin ages. There’s even a special term for it: photoaging. Photoaging accounts for about 80% of all visible signs of aging in your skin. Learn more about how the sun damages your skin and how red light therapy from Light Lounge can help!
Ways the Sun Can Impact Your Skin
The most obvious sign that your skin has been damaged due to the sun is from sunburn. Sunburn is a radiation burn caused by prolonged exposure to UV light. The burn damages your DNA, triggering an immune response in your body to repair or remove the damaged cells. This can lead to painful sensations and possibly skin peeling. It's your body's natural way of healing.
In addition to sunburn, UV light causes collagen and elastin in your skin to break down much faster. Collagen and elastin are what keep your skin fresh and smooth. In other words, sun damage can increase the number of wrinkles on your body, especially on your face.
Exposure to UV light is also the culprit of skin discoloration in the form of sun spots or melasma. It increases your skin's melanin, creating a suntan. If you have too much exposure to UV light over time, that melanin can group together or over-produce, giving you spots on your skin that stick around long after the tan fades.
The most dangerous potential impact of over-exposure to the sun is actinic keratosis or AK. Ten percent of AK patches on the skin develop into cancer. If you see scaly, crusty spots on your skin, you may have sustained particularly bad sun damage that a dermatologist should monitor.
How Red Light Therapy Can Help
It may seem contradictory that light therapy can counter the effect of sun and UV damage, but it can! That's because red and near-infrared light is on a different part of the light spectrum. While UV rays from the sun have a short wavelength that scatters in all directions, red and near-infrared light have a longer wavelength, which allows them to penetrate
much deeper into your skin to promote lasting, positive change. Unlike other skin treatments like chemical peels or topical retinoids, red and near-infrared light therapy is safe for sensitive skin without increasing sensitivity to sunlight. Red light therapies increase the turnover of cells in your skin and help activate your body's natural ability to produce collagen and repair damaged tissues, resulting in smoother skin with more even coloration.
Red light therapy helps protect what collagen and elastin are already in your skin and may improve your body's ability to clear away and repair dead cells so your skin looks and feels great long after your treatment. Some studies have even shown that exposure to red light therapy can precondition your skin to prepare for sun exposure, and that red light therapy treatment acts similarly to wearing SPF-15!
Red light therapy is an excellent way to boost your skincare routine when used in conjunction with other treatments (and, of course, the regular application of sunscreen before going outside!). Book your first appointment free with Light Lounge today!