Getting sun exposure on a regular basis is important for our body’s health but it is important to know your skin and how it is going to react after being outside. There are 6 different skin types that all react differently to sun exposure.
Skin Type I – Pale white – Always burns, never tans
Skin Type II – White to light beige – Burns easily, tans minimally
Skin Type III – Beige – Burns moderately, tans gradually to light brown
Skin Type IV – Light brown – Burns minimally, tans well to moderately brown
Skin Type V – Moderate brown – Rarely burns, tans profusely to dark brown
Skin Type VI – Dark brown or black – Never burns, tans profusely
Darker skin contains more melanin which makes it less likely to get any type of sun burn. Melanin basically acts as a natural sunscreen, so with darker skin it can also be harder to get vitamin D absorption. For someone with skin type 5 or 6, it may be necessary to get higher amounts of UV exposure in order to get your vitamin D levels up.
Wearing sunscreen is very important in order to protect your skin from getting too much UV exposure. Especially for skin types 1-3, spending too much time in the sun can cause painful burns to the skin which can end up causing more serious and long-term damage. Protecting your skin is important in order to prevent things like skin cancer, wrinkles and sun spots.
While sunscreen is extremely important, it is also a good idea to get direct UV exposure to the skin in order to get the vitamin D needed to keep your body healthy. Constantly wearing sunscreen will block all UV rays from your skin which can help protect it but it will also stop your body from absorbing the necessary UVB that gives us vitamin D. It is crucial to find a good balance of bare UV exposure and protected exposure to insure that your body and bones are as strong as can be.
Using a Sunlamp to give you safe UV exposures from the comfort of your own home is a great way to get vitamin D or the tan that you desire. All Sperti Sunlamps have a built in timer so that you can only use them for the recommended amount. After the clinical study and all of the testing that was preformed on these lamps, the recommended exposure times were determined to be the perfect safe and effective amount of exposure (5 minutes for the Vitamin D Lamp and 15 minutes for the Fiji Sun Tanning Lamp). While UV exposure is important, safety should always come first.