Inferno: Your Guide to Surviving the Sun

Alright scumbags, listen up.

Today we’re covering sun protection, everything you need to know (and probably a little more). I am sunburnt to high hell right now, so I’m going to try to keep this piece tight.

You get sunburnt by UV (ultraviolet) waves. Tanning salons, welding equipment and, oh yeah, the SUN. I am going to assume that a) you’re wearing protective gear if you’re welding and b) you actually aren’t stupid enough to go to tanning salons, so let’s talk about sunrays.

The sun emits two main kinds of UV: UVA and UVB.

UVA has longer wavelengths, UVB has shorter. This is why broad spectrum matters, it blocks both.

Your skin cells have DNA, which is their operation manual. They also have mRNA, the copy of the parts of the manual it’s using. UVB hits both of these but, when it hits the mRNA, your cells freak the fuck out. That’s what causes the reaction.

When UVB hits the DNA, it can melt different parts of the manual together in weird ways. Like if the fuse-box section of a car manual suddenly melted into the engine repair section. This is called thymine dimer. Your body tries to rebuild the manual and throws the screwed up parts out. Y’ever peeled from a sunburn? That’s what’s happening.

Your body also makes melanin as a response to this, which effectively acts as a shield to protect skin cells from UV rays.

Now, let me be clear: anyone can get sunburnt but the darker your skin is naturally, the less likely you are to get sunburnt.

Big emphasis on naturally here, because tanning in order to protect yourself from the sun later is like binge drinking for a week to prepare for a bender. You might be able to raise your tolerance slightly (roughly the equivalent of SPF 3) but you’re damaging yourself in doing so.

UV can still get through and damage cells no matter how dark you are. So if you’re dark skinned and think that you can “risk it for the biscuit” by raw-dogging the sun, just remember that the biscuit is the slight inconvenience of protecting yourself, and the risk is premature aging, immune suppression, eye damage and, the scariest of all, skin cancer.

Going back to our manual analogy, normally after sun damage your body will throw out the screwed up pieces that were melted together and carry on with the complete operation guide.

Skin cancer happens when it can’t. It’s like sloppy editing. Your body looks at the fuse box instruction leading to engine repair and thinks “yeah, that’s right” and makes a bunch of copies. If enough of these mistakes pile up, your cell can become cancerous.

So, how do you protect yourself?

Basically: abstinence, condoms, or birth control.

Speaaaaaking of birth control..

Some medicines, like: birth-control, antibiotics, acne meds, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers can make you more sensitive to UV rays. If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably on one or more of those.

Let’s be real, you’re going to screw up with sun protection. Maybe you’re leaving afters at 7am, maybe you’re on a walk of shame, maybe you had a few too many at the park on a summer’s day.

If you get sunburnt, time will do most of the work. Your job is to keep it from getting worse. Avoid the sun, wear protective clothing, put on sunscreen. Don’t pop the blisters, don’t peel the skin. Hydrate more than normal.

Your body is an incredible machine. It can take a shitton of damage, but it is keeping score.

While you might not remember every stupid thing you’ve done, your skin does.

So have fun, be safe, and use protection.

Xoxo,
A

P.S: I'm currently in a manic episode so I've been building the hell out of this site. I just introduced an ingredients section, check it out!