Sunburn, or sun damaged skin, is caused by overexposure to the sun. Sunburn is not only uncomfortable and painful but it can also damage your skin and even cause cancer! Most of us don’t want to avoid the sun but we don’t want to get sunburn either. Here are the best natural cures for sunburn and tips to help you prevent, treat sunburns using natural ingredients.
Whenever you are preventing or treating sunburn you should always try to use natural sunburn remedies instead of chemical ones. Many store products contain chemicals that can build up over time to clog your pores and damage your skin. Chemical sunburn cures such as SPF can also prevent vitamin D from reaching your skin which over time can result in vitamin D deficiency. Natural sunburn cures can soothe your burned skin without any side effects which is why they are always the best options when you are looking for sunburn remedies.
What Causes Sunburn
Most of the time the sun is a good thing. The sun helps your body to produce vitamin D which aids your bones in calcium absorption. The sun can also help to improve your mood, increase your energy and some other benefits that have been studied extensively. In fact, usually, the benefits of the sun outweigh the damage it can do. Unfortunately, the sun also contains UV (ultra violet) rays. These are the cause of sunburn. Exposure to small amounts of UV radiation will cause a sun tan which is healthy and can increase melanin levels in your skin. Higher levels of exposure result in sunburn and extreme UV radiation exposure will result in extreme sunburn or sun poisoning.
The Best Natural Cure For Sunburn
The best sunburn treatment is the natural sunburn remedy. Natural ingredients are healthy for your skin, work without the side effects of chemicals and are often a great deal cheaper than over the counter medication. Vitamin E & C oil, Aloe Vera, Vinegar, cool water, baking soda in water, milk, honey, and oatmeal are all good natural products that you can use in sunburn first aid. Baking soda can be mixed with tepid water and applied to the skin. Baking soda exfoliates the skin and helps it to heal faster. The acidic content of vinegar can also help to wash out painful bacteria from your sunburn. Oatmeal is rich in vitamins and antioxidants that work to moisturize your skin while reducing inflammation at the same time. Honey is both an antibacterial and an anti-inflammatory and can help your sunburn to heal faster. What is the best natural sunburn cure? Try making a “mud pack” using oatmeal, honey, Aloe Vera and a tiny bit of vinegar. Apply it to your burned skin and allow it to sit for thirty minutes. Rinse off with cool water and repeat the process whenever your sunburn starts to burn again.
How to Prevent Sunburn
Sunburn can be prevented by using protective measures on your skin. If you are very fair-skinned then you should consider staying out of direct sun during the hottest parts of the day. Between 2-5 PM you should consider covering your arms up with a loose, flowing garment. If you have darker skin, lightly tanning before 2 PM can help your skin to darken and increase melanin production. Melanin is the skins natural defense against UV radiation. Tanning is the best natural cure for sunburn if you have darker skin. You can use a natural SPF and creams to help prevent sunburn, however; it will not protect you from melanoma.
Natural SPF
The best sunburn cures lie in preventing bad sunburn in the first place. The first thing you should consider is covering up under the extremely hot sun and minimizing your sun exposure to a few hours per day. The second idea is to use a natural SPF to prevent sunburn. A good example of a natural SPF is Phytessence Wakame; a Japanese seaweed that can help to prevent sunburn. You can purchase Phytessence Wakame at most health-food stores and many Asian stores or markets.
Unfortunately, it’s still easy to get sunburn. You can even get sunburn when the sun is not actually out. This is mostly due to UV rays shining off of clouds and onto the water where they reflect onto your skin.
Natural Emollients
There are multiple natural sunburn remedies that you can use on your sunburn. Emollients or creams are one of the best to use for pain relief. A few good emollients include lotions and moisturizing creams from plants such as Aloe Vera, Coconut, Mint, and Eucalyptus.
How Sunburn Can Lead to Melanoma
Overexposure to the sun and UV radiation can lead to melanoma or skin cancer. Melanoma is a malignant tumor located in your melanocyte cells. These cells produce melanin, the substance that darkens your skin when you sun tan. When overexposed to UV radiation, your melanocyte cells could develop Melanoma.
Unfortunately, Melanoma is the most frequent cause of sun-related deaths in the world. You can also develop skin cancer due to sunburn which is also very dangerous. If you frequently burn, have severe or second-degree sunburn or expose yourself to the sun when you have very pale skin, then your risk of melanoma and skin cancer could be higher than average.
Natural Sunburn Remedies To Avoid
Many sunburn health cures offer sunburn remedies that don’t actually work. Avoid taking hot or cold showers for sunburn. Hot water will burn your skin and could be extremely painful. Cold water will close your pores and lock the heat into your skin which will cause the sunburn to worsen (and to hurt even more). Instead, you should try taking a warm shower or toweling your sunburn with a warm, wet towel.
You should also avoid using any sunburn treatment that will clog your pores. Examples of these include petroleum jelly, egg whites, and butter. While they will provide temporary, cooling relief, they will clog your pores and lock heat inside of your skin.
What To Do If You Have Really Bad Sunburn
Severe sunburn can be very serious. Bad cases of sunburn can lead to sun poisoning, skin cancer, and melanoma. If you want to know what to do if you have really bad sunburn then you should first evaluate your sunburn. Do you have white spots? Blisters? These are very serious and you should consider going to your doctor. First, get out of the sun immediately. Rinse off with warm water and pat your skin dry without rubbing. You should then apply an emollient to moisturize your skin. Pain pills such as ibuprofen and aspirin can help to reduce any swelling while reducing pain. You should also consider taking long baths once per day to moisturize your skin; you could consider using a mud pack as long as you rinse all of the mud out of your skin later and apply moisturizers and lotions to your damaged skin each day.
