The two types of UV radiation that can affect the skin — UVA and UVB — penetrate the atmosphere and are present with relatively equal intensity during all daylight hours throughout the year and can penetrate clouds and glass (UVA).

The prevalence and strength of UV rays means adding sunscreen to your daily routine is more important and helpful than people often think.

UVA rays penetrate deep into the skin and are known to cause skin aging and wrinkling. More recently, studies have shown that UVA damages skin cells in the basal layer of the epidermis, where most skin cancers occur.

UVB rays mostly affect the surface of the skin but are very powerful and therefore the primary cause of sunburn, redness as well as the development of skin cancer. UVB rays are most intense during summer months, especially from 10 AM to 4 PM, but reflective winter surfaces like snow and ice can bounce back 80 perfect of the rays so they affect the skin twice.

It’s so important to note that most chemical sunscreens only protect against UVB rays, which means that while you don’t look or feel burnt (since the UVB rays are being blocked), the “longer, more penetrating UVA wavelengths may create highly reactive oxygen molecules capable of damaging skin cell membranes and the DNA inside.”

For all that’s said and marketed about the potential negative effects and risks of excessive UV Radiation (UVR), it’s critical to understand the balance the sun brings to our bodies and overall positive health benefits.

In fact, the numbers related just to U.S. skin cancer rates and their health impacts compared to those affected by Vitamin D deficiencies (leading to cardiovascular issues, diabetes, cancer, etc.) is not even close, where over an estimated 1/3 of all Americans are Vitamin D deficient. While this is due to a variety of socio-economic factors as well as nutrition, our current leisure and work lifestyles equate to more time spent inside and less outside than ever before.

Here's why the sun is so important to our health:

This is so vital to our overall health and cannot simply be replaced or replicated by Vitamin D supplements.

As stated by the World Health Organization, “some UVR is essential to the body as it stimulates the production of Vitamin D, [which] … plays a crucial role in:

We all know the feeling — you wake up to a beautiful, sunny morning and feel more inspired, motivated and happy. Well, there’s a chemical reason for that reaction. Our serotonin levels are affected by exposure to daylight, and “moderately high serotonin levels result in more positive moods and a calm yet focused mental outlook.”

Additional evidence supporting our physiological dependence on daylight emerged with the diagnosis of a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. This disorder particularly affects populations living in geographic territories where sunlight hours are dramatically reduced during certain seasons, such as in Norway and Sweden. Symptoms include fatigue, depression, and social withdrawal.

Sure, quality time in the sun can be relaxing, but modern research indicates that “when sunlight touches our skin, a compound called nitric oxide that helps lower blood pressure, is released into our blood vessels.” The overall effect could mean that by reducing blood pressure we could cut heart attacks, strokes and other serious BP-related health issues.

UVR has been used to successfully treat a number of skin disorders and conditions, including:

Interesting Fact: Heliotherapy has been in practice since the age of the Greeks and Ancient Egyptians. From the late nineteenth century until the early 1930s, light therapy was considered an effective and mainstream medical therapy in the UK for conditions such as varicose ulcer, 'sickly children' and a wide range of other conditions, and since then a large array of treatments using controlled light have been developed.

Simple.

Broad Spectrum = UVA + UVB coverage

It’s very important whichever sunscreen you choose that you select one with Broad Spectrum Protection. For decades, most sunscreens only provided coverage for UVB rays with an average of only 1/3 of sunscreens on the market in the U.S. providing broad spectrum.

All Divios Protect products provide Broad Spectrum Protection and have received a Boots Star Rating of “Ultra” — the highest grade available. The Boots Star Rating system is a proprietary in vitro method used to describe the ratio of UVA to UVB protection offered by sunscreen creams and sprays. Furthermore, all Divios Protect products have received an average critical wavelength value of 386, which is the best way to know that you are receiving adequate UVA protection.

You should use sunscreen everyday, unless you never leave your house, which you should! Location and time outside matter though. You should be aware of your area's UV Index (via the EPA), which is an excellent resource for understanding recommended sun protection

Ultimately, sun damage adds up, and even on a cloudy day up to 80 percent of the sun’s harmful UV rays can penetrate your skin.

We all know how bad a sunburn can hurt and drain our bodies — it’s why we created Divios Protect and Restore suncare products in the first place.