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Jul 10, 2009 7:41 am US/Central
Which Sunscreen SPF Is Best For Your Skin?
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
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MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images
You can find relief from the heat in a pool or lake, but protection from the sun comes in a bottle or a can.
North Texas is being hit with some brutally hot days of summer, which has many people trying to protect their skin from the wrinkle- and cancer-causing rays of the sun. But which SPF should you choose? Does it really make a difference?
Shopping for sunscreen and sunblock shows that most all of them protect from both UVA and UVB rays, and that is what you should be buying. But choosing the SPF -- 15, 30, 50, 100 -- can be confusing.
"I have really fair skin," said local consumer Kate Murphy. "So, I normally try to use anywhere in between 15 and 45. And I use 70 on my face."
"I've heard that once you hit 50, after that it's not a big difference," said local shopper Paige Bruner.
With so many choices, what do those numbers really mean? Dr. Kevin Liu with Baylor Grapevine explained, "Basically, what that is, it tells you how much longer time it takes for the sun rays, or those light rays, to cause sunburn or injury to the skin, compared to if you weren't wearing it."
Liu continued, "So, an SPF of 15 would mean that it would take 15 times longer to get the same sunburn compared to if you weren't wearing sunscreen."
The SPF buys you more time in the sun, but does it really buy you much more sun protection? The short answer is no.
A sunscreen with an SPF 15 already blocks 93 percent of the sun's damaging rays. Go to a SPF 30 and you get 4 percent more protection. And only another 2 percent if you use a SPF 100.
Dermatologists recommend always wearing at least an SPF 15, and take note of when you should apply. "The trick to using sunscreen is to apply it about 20 to 30 minutes before you're going to be exposed to the sun," Liu said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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