Can regularly exposing your back to the sun help beautify your complexion and maintain your health?

The approach is unscientific.

From a medical point of view, sunbathing is the exposure of the back to sunlight and ultraviolet rays. In fact, this will bring health risks, rather than health preservation or beauty in the scientific sense.

First of all, exposure to ultraviolet rays may cause tanning or sunburn of the skin, with symptoms such as skin color changes, redness, swelling, pain and even blisters.

If you are exposed to the sun all year round, whether it is on your back or other parts of your skin, ultraviolet rays can damage the DNA of skin cells and cause cell mutations. Over time, ultraviolet rays will accelerate the aging process of the skin, resulting in wrinkles, spots and other aging phenomena. In addition, excessive sun exposure all year round may also increase the risk of skin cancer, including basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma.

Some people may think that moderate sun exposure can promote the body's synthesis of vitamin D, which helps calcium absorption and bone health. This statement is correct, but in order to get enough vitamin D, only a short period of sun exposure (about 15 minutes) a day is needed, and there is no need to expose a large area of ​​skin, let alone the entire back.

From the perspective of modern medicine, the correct approach should be to avoid long-term direct exposure to strong sunlight, and use physical shielding or combined sunscreen to protect the skin from ultraviolet damage. This is the truly useful "health preservation".

Author: Tang Jiaoqing, MD, attending physician of dermatology

Review | Feng Jun, deputy chief physician of the Dermatology Department of Sinopharm Tongmei General Hospital