My name is Dr. Tony Nakhla, I'm a board certified dermatologist, I'm the medical director and founder of OC Skin Institute Dermatology Centers of Southern California. And author of The Skin Commandments:10 Rules to Healthy, Beautiful Skin. And today, we're going to talk about what naturally protects to your skin as sunscreen. And when we say, protects, we're talking obviously about UV rays and sunlight basically. So, when we look at a sunscreen, there's a couple things to keep in mind. The first two most important things, are SPF, which is always a number and then, the spectrum of coverage. And the spectrum of coverage indicates whether or not the product protects against, both UVA and UVB, or just UVB. Most products now, have broad spectrum coverage and that's the term that you want to look for, it'll say, broad spectrum coverage. When we're looking at SPF, we're basically looking for a value over 15. And the most important thing is not only the SPF, but really, the way that you apply sunscreen. So, there's a couple elements there to think about. First is, how often do you apply it. If you're somebody who's swimming or you play volleyball, or you're out you know, sweating. You want to apply frequently, probably once every, you know, once every hour or once every couple hours. And then, you want to apply enough of the product. A lot of people under use sunscreen in terms of volume, the amount of that, of sunscreen product that they use. So, for the body, you're supposed to actually use a full shot glass worth of product, and for the face, you're supposed to use about a teaspoon to cover the entire face. Now, getting into other ingredients that protect the skin naturally as sunscreen. And now, we're getting into individual ingredients. And the most important ingredients to look for are, the most products, most important products to look for are, products that contain anti-oxidants as some of the inactive ingredients that are found in sunscreen. My favorites are, vitamin A, C, and E. This is an example of a product from SkinMedica, that's a vitamin C and E complex. And another great ingredient to look for something called L-ergothioneine, or EGT for short. All of these antioxidants have been shown to help prevent UV induced skin cell damage. By preventing things like oxygen free radicals, and also helping to repair the normal mechanism of skin rejuvenation that occurs after things like sun burn or prolonged exposure to the sun. Specifically, when we look at something like L-ergothioneine, in this product, Reverge. We're thinking about what that ingredient does in terms of, what it does intracellularly. So, EGT or L-ergothioneine is the only known antioxidant with it's own intracellular transport mechanism that allows it to go from outside the cell, inside the cell, where it exerts its activity. And what it's been proven to do is, really protect skin cells from UV induced radiation from the sun. Another thing to consider, if you're somebody who's very, very prone to breakouts, is to look for you know, products that indicate that they are for sensitive skin. Like this one fro, Neutrogena Sensitive Skin Sunblock Lotion. And the reason why this is hypoallergenic, it won't clog your pores, and its fragrance free and PABA free. Is because a lot of people are very, very sensitive to common ingredients like fragrances and dyes and preservatives that are found in a lot of, a lot of other products. As far as what you can do to protect your skin naturally, you want to look for products like zinc oxide. A lot of people actually use plain zinc oxide, if they're sensitive to everything else and they're looking for a really simplistic or natural approach to things. And that's also a good idea.
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