Discover the meaning of the acronym SPF and how they can help you choose the best sunscreen for your skin.

Sunlight brings many benefits to our body. It is the main source of vitamin D, the nutrient necessary to maintain healthy teeth and strong bones; improves the immune response by increasing the number of white blood cells, lymphocytes and neutrophils; and even makes us livelier. For all this it is very important that we expose ourselves to it every day, so that it can affect our skin.. But, as we already know, it is important that we do so with caution.

Prolonged exposure without adequate protection can be harmful to health. In addition, the Sun affects all skin types and all skin types must be protected, regardless of whether it is lighter or darker and, therefore, some are more sensitive than others.. That is why it is essential that you carefully choose the most appropriate sun protection for your particular case:

Protection with sun cream Dreamstime Dreamstime How to choose a sun cream?

The sun protection factor or SPF that appears on the container represented by a number that is usually 50+, 30 or 15, has nothing to do with the tanning of the skin. Actually, what it indicates is the protection capacity of the cream against UVB radiation.. This value acts as a multiplier that tells us how long our skin is safe from the damaging effects of the Sun, which will depend on each person.

This means that a person whose skin without sunscreen could last 10 minutes without burning would take about 100 minutes with an SPF 10 cream; about 150 minutes with an SPF of 15; about 300 minutes with a protection factor of 30 and about 500 minutes with a protection factor of 50. Obviously, all these measurements are -actually- approximations. That is why experts make a series of general recommendations to expose ourselves to the Sun safely:

To guarantee the effectiveness of the sun cream, you must apply the product 30 minutes before sunbathing, renew the photoprotection every two hours (regardless of the protection factor) and reapply it after bathing or drying yourself.. And this is important because, although they may seem quite obvious rules, very few people follow them to the letter.

To sunbathe safely, you should apply sunscreen 30 minutes before sunbathing, renew the photoprotection every two hours and you should reapply it after bathing or drying yourself | Source: Europa Press MYKOLA SOSIUKIN/ISTOC MYKOLA SOSIUKIN/ISTOC

According to the conclusions of the Cinfa study “Perception and health habits of the Spanish population regarding photoprotection”, which was endorsed by the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (AEDV); only 3 Spaniards out of every 100 comply with these three rules. This means that they are also exposed to burns, photoaging and – in the long term – skin cancer.