Wellness Wednesday: Protect Your Skin!

Summer is around the corner! Although the sun has plenty of benefits, we must be sure to keep our skin in check while we are out in the sun.

Skin is our body’s largest organ, and we must protect it – especially in the summertime! Below are a few ways to protect and prepare your skin for summer and beyond.

Drink Water and Eat Skin-Healthy Foods

Drinking water not only hydrates your body, but it hydrates the skin, too! Water also increases blood flow to the skin, improves skin elasticity, improves skin barrier function, and more. Incorporating skin-healthy foods like mangoes, tomatoes, and kale into your diet can help protect your skin.

Wear Sunscreen

Wearing sunscreen daily is a must – even on cloudy days! According to EHE Health, sunscreen protects your skin from UV rays, lowers your skin cancer risk, helps maintain an even skin tone, prevents premature aging of the skin, and more! Wear a sunscreen that contains at least SPF 30 and provides broad-spectrum protection. Take your skin protection a step further by wearing wide brimmed hats and dark-colored clothes with woven fabrics or UV absorbers when you know you’ll be in the sun.

Moisturize Your Skin

You may think that your skin only needs to be moisturized when it’s dry – think again! Besides fighting wrinkles, moisturizers decrease skin issues (like acne), maintain skin freshness, and helps keep daily pollutants out your pores.

Get Enough Sleep

As if we needed another reason to go to bed early! The body repairs and regenerates while you’re sleeping – this includes repairing and regenerating of the skin! An adequate amount of sleep (around 7 hours) helps the body produce new collagen, too!

It’s easy to forget how important our skin health is – especially in the summer months when we are exposed to more sun. Looking for more skin care tips? Check out these articles from Healthline and Medical News Today!