Winterize your skin

The Seattle rain festival appears to be in full swing, but forecasters are predicting clearing by June or July. In all seriousness though, it’s time to think about winter skin care. We do love our sunshine, but given that skin cancer is the most common type of cancer, it’s not all bad to have a break. True, most skin cancers are of a non-aggressive type, but deaths from skin cancer are up 50% from the 1970’s, and melanoma-the deadliest type-has risen dramatically too. Even teenagers are now being diagnosed with skin cancer.
So the gray months of the year are a good time for what we might call “corrective” skin care. The basics are moisturizers, because of dry air, but more intense therapies are in order too. Skin peels leave the skin more sun-sensitive for a while so they tend to be less popular during the summer. Products such as tretinoin (Retin-A) are a mainstay of corrective skin care but again the issue of sun sensitivity limits their use for some during sunny times of year.
Just giving your skin a break from UV exposure is a good thing too, but don’t assume that there isn’t any just because the skies are overcast and the days are short. Sunscreen SPF only measures UVB protection from burning, but not UVA which is aging. The deal with UVA is that it penetrates window glass and clouds just as it does skin.
All of this has to be placed in perspective of course. Sun exposure converts cholesterol into vitamin D, and you should probably be taking a D supplement especially during the winter. But there is a growing movement of “sun haters” who take matters to the extreme. So while I do recommend “pleasantly pale” over “terminally tanned,” let’s not get carried away.