Crash Course 216: All About the (Sun)burn

What do sunburns have to do with health and wellness? Such a good question and I'm so glad you asked.  Aside from causing dehydration and sometimes shock, sunburns can provide serious pain, scarring, itching, and just utter discomfort for DAYS if left untreated. While there are a myriad of ways to avoid them, which I do share, (even though they all tend to go out the window on long beach days), I promise you'll want to stick around for the second half of the episode where I go into how to treat them and make them go away faster.  Oh, and there are some awesomely embarrassing stories hidden in this episode, too. All for your audio pleasure :)

Transcript

Coach Dan: Hey, welcome to Crash Course. This is your weekly podcast, brought to you by The LiveUnbreakable brand.

Coach Shaun: I'm your host, LiveUnbreakable, founder and head fitness and nutrition coach Shaun Provost. Alongside me, I have my co-host, strength and conditioning coach, Dan Murray. We're here every single week to give you a Crash Course and something about health and wellness, diving deep into the science behind diet and exercise. In each episode, we look to provide you with the essentials on important topics and give you the best advice and training, mindset shifts and overall healthier sustainable living, so you can make the best decisions for you and your lifestyle. No fluff. Just fit.

Coach Shaun: Welcome to March, everybody. I can't even believe it's happening, literally weeks have gone by in 2022, but we are here now.  For those of you who don't know, I live in Raleigh, North Carolina.  It is this beautiful, beautiful city, not too far from the mountains, but also close enough to the beach that you can go for just a day if you wanted to.  Why would you when you can go for the whole weekend?  We had some beautiful weather this past week, it was like 80 and humid, and the sun was out and there were just enough clouds to trick you into thinking that you weren't going to get a sunburn when you were outside.  And yet, after 30+ years of living on this earth, I still managed to burn myself in the two and a half hours, I was outside.  So it gave me an idea for this podcast.  Not guessing for those of you who maybe have been lucky enough to tan.  Good for you. I don't know what that feels like. But if you're anything like me, I am super fair, skin is allergic to almost everything, and the sun is not excluded from that.

We had this one nice day last week, and I finally just go outside with my friends and enjoy it.  But I was just a little bit plagued by this thought in the back of my head about being out in the sun for a little bit too long.  Then peeling off my clothes from my skin, trying to heal the sun burn, or getting into the shower the day after.  You get under it and it usually feels so good and wakes you up or cools you down or makes you happy; instead, it just makes you irrationally upset because it hurts. So I said, Hey, let's talk about things that matter, like sunburns.

So for those of you who ask, What do sunburns have to do with health or fitness or nutrition? Good question, I would love to tell you. Basically, sunburns can be prevented a number of ways: if you are eating well and if you are hydrated well, there are some other things that you can also do to keep yourself safe over the summer when you're outside.  It’s not just saying inside, I know all of you are like, how about I just stay inside. Thank you. I would like to enjoy the beach with my friends, so if you are one of those people that likes to be outside in the summer time, this is for you, if you're looking to not get sun burned and also if you do happen to get sunburned, because we all know that there are going to be those days.  Or you just don't remember to put on the sun block or whatever it is, I also have some cures for you, and some of them, I promise are going to blow your mind.

Since we don't have the luxury nor the desire to stay inside 24/7 in the summer time, there are a bunch of ways that we can avoid sun burns, but also ways to treat them. This fact literally blew my mind when I found out about it a couple of years ago, and it still stands true.  After you sun burn, your skin literally sloughs off, it comes apart even if you don't blister.  There is the skin that's dead, that you cooked, that comes off of you.  It takes three to six months for your skin to return to normal, I'm not kidding: three to six months.  That's a long time. That's a really long time. That's past summer. Now we're into winter probably, because you're cooking the top layer of your skin and it peels off.  The newly exposed skin, that's like baby skin is more sensitive than the old skin because it hasn't had to deal with any of the other things that you've done in your life.  So even though your skin does replace itself, it's not like the same skin you were born with, but because you're taking off the top couple of layers, at least, you'll burn even faster after your first one, which is not what people use to think.

Coach Shaun: When my mom grew up, you burned once at the beginning of the summer, because that's what you did to ensure that you didn't burn again, which is not true. It definitely happened, but it was so ingrained to them to say, Oh, I'll just get my one first one, it's out of the way.  No, that's actually the worst thing ever and can lead to serious consequences, the least of which obviously is a skin cancer, but there's also a bunch of other issues that we can run into.  Another important topic, and this one really bothers me and it probably will you as well, now that you know it, so you're welcome. There is a difference between sunblock, sunscreen, and suntan lotion.

I know everyone uses them interchangeably, and it blows my mind because they're not the same thing.  They’re not interchangeable terms because they mean different things. They have different definitions. So I'm going to go into that because I know you're dying to know. So sunglasses, a physical sunscreen. So this is probably what you're thinking, like Baywatch what they have on their nose if you're a lifeguard or whatever, and you're right, it literally reflects the sun's rays blocking them entirely from your skin, and they usually contain zinc oxide or titanium oxide, so it keeps sun from ever touching your skin. Another idea for sunblock is shade, but not shade provided by a fabric, but shade provided by a tree or something like that, that 100% no sun can get through I. That’s sunblock. Sunscreen is a chemical sunscreen or a filter, where literally some UV light does get through and that usually contain something like alphabenzone or betabenzone or something like that, it ends in benzone, that's probably what you're thinking of.  You rubbed into your skin or you sprayed on yourself, or whatever it is, and if you're really lucky, you sprayed yourself in the eye before that feels great.  Suntan lotion is for tanning, you can also spray this on you, but it probably smells really good because it doesn't have all of those other benzones in it.

And it also has an SPF of less than 15. So this under no circumstance, provides an adequate sun-protective layer because it doesn't really filter out anything, it just helps you tan better because you're literally putting nothing on your skin.  Sunblock, sunscreen, and suntan lotion. All very different things. So just keep that in mind. And basically, the biggest difference between sunscreen and sun tan lotion is as the SPF, so if the SPF is higher than 15 it's a sunscreen, lower it’s suntan lotion.  Unless you're me and then you can still get sun burned with sunblock on.  That's a story for a different day. Maybe I'll tell you at the end of the podcast, I haven’t decided yet.

Coach Shaun: So to protect yourself from the sun during the summer or even during the winter, whenever the sun is out and you are at the beck and call of all of the UV rays that are outside; even on cloudy days. You should always wear a sunblock or sunscreen and you should apply it on your skin every single day, so for the ladies out there that have a bunch of skin care, just look and see if your face lotions or any of the foundations you're putting on or your lip glosses or anything like that, if they have a sunscreen in them.  Just look for the term broad spectrum because it protects against both UVA and UVB rays, which is important in this circumstance.  For all the men out there, if you don't have a skin routine, now it's a good time to start one, because you don't want to have sunblock or sunscreen on all the time, just so you don't have to think about it. Everyone is going to be outside regardless of the color of your skin, you can get sunburned, so go ahead and put on sunblock or sunscreen, and if you're in the sun, you're going to want to do it about 30 minutes before you had outside and every two hours that you are outside.  If you can, you know you're going to be going out somewhere or you're going to be lounging by a pool, going to the beach, hanging out on a mountain somewhere, whatever it is, if you're going to be outside, apply your sun block or sunscreen liberally 30 minutes before you head outside (even when it's overcast), and make sure that you're getting behind your ears where you're supposed to wash every day.

Sometimes you don’t, the back of your neck and your hands too. Believe me, when I tell you, one of the worst burns I ever got was on the top of my feet and the back of my hands so bad, and I didn't even think about it.  I was like, Oh yeah, putting it on my arms, I was putting on my nose all the places, I literally forgot to spray the top of my feet. I was just lobster lines across the top of my feet from my flip-flops, I was so upset, I could not wear shoes, I couldn't run, I couldn't do fitness, because it hurt so bad to put on shoes.  Iif I did, I had to make sure that I was taking off my socks because my skin was literally leaking and my socks would stick to me after 10 minutes, it was so disgusting, so you guys apply every two hours when you're in the sun.

Another hype moment for you guys, people are you with me about this all the time, but it's super true. I will literally plan my days outside around this 10 to 3 block, but mostly like noon and 1 o’clock.  I will literally try as hard as I can to not be outside at noon to 1 o'clock because the ultra-violet rays, which cause sun burns are strongest during that time.  Because the sun is going to be higher, there's no horizon there. It's not a myth, it's absolutely 100% true. Just think about it logically, and you'll come to the same conclusion, but you have to be careful during that time because there's less shade, if any, at all, you're probably not even looking for shade at that time, you're probably doing something that's keeping you busy.  So you're not saying as hydrated. So you can absolutely get a sunburn; if you are one of those people with those cool sun shades for the beach or for your pool, just remember that shade-providing materials can still give you a sunburn because they still let light through because there's no blackness under it, it's not completely dark when you're under it, so light is still getting through, and if that's true, you can get sun burned. So if you're still doing that, it's going to take a longer because there's fewer rays coming through, but you can still get sunburn.  So continue applying or just go inside. You can also wear protective clothing, so Lulu Lemon and cool Avar and even Amazon now have brands of UVA and UVB resisting clothing, so you can wear them and look like a normal person.

Coach Shaun: And still go out and do fun things. But at least at that point, you are protected.  And these are some are long sleeve summer shirts and sports bras, whatever it is, but at least for that point, you know that there are some clothing brands that are specifically created for that. So you can do that too. And then, of course, when you're outside, looking as it, looking at it as Fireside, where you're saying uses when you can just protect your eyes.  Especially if you're looking at anything reflective like water, that's going to be pretty bad for you, it's staring directly at it, it's not going to feel good, and like I was mentioning before, don't underestimate cloudy days because you can still get sunburn when it's cloudy, so because UVA rays can penetrate clouds, they can also find fact reach below the water surface, which is why for at least a couple inches to feet on the top of water, it's still warm. Well, it's because the rays are penetrating the water.  Mermaids can't even breathe under water. I'm not in that world, but I don't think they can. So unless you can breathe under water like a fish, you need to still put sunscreen on if you're going to be in the water, and if you are in the water, and this to me, it now seems like such a duh moment, but so many people don't do this the water is reflective, so if you are playing beach volleyball then you'll want to get under your chin, so anything that's going to be reflected at the bottom of your nose can get sun burns, that hurts also. So just remember: its sunscreen everywhere. If someone can see it, it can get sunburn. Let's just leave it at that.

And then the last thing I want to say about protecting yourself from the sun is just to look at the date of your sunblock or your sunscreen, because there is a date mark on it, and if it's past the day, so out of date, just like food, you don't want to use it.  I’m not kidding, it's not as effective or whatever it is, think about medications, you don't want to take medications that have passed either, maybe you do, but it's probably not good practice.  The efficacy of that lotion is compromised, so you need a new bottle, they literally have them everywhere.  There’s no excuse for you to not pick up the new sunblock or sunscreen. So just do that.

So, now that I've kind of lectured you for the past 10 minutes about how to not get sunburn, I was not born yesterday, and I know that even though you logically understand the words that are coming out of my mouth, and you might even agree with me on all of the above. You're like, Wow, I didn't even think about that. I'm going to do that from now on. You're probably not going to just start judiciously applying sunblock or sunscreen 30 minutes before you go outside and every two hours during your summer vacation or any time you go outside.  You don't have to enjoy your vitamin D however you want to, but basically you're going to get a sunburn at some point, so let's focus on how we can minimize the pain of that from that.  These are all tried and true, y'all, I have tried everything, and these are the ones that I have found work the best, and also we have the fewest amount of weird marks on your body.

So, here’s one story. It's still kind of embarrassing. So I was 15 maybe, and I went to a county fair with one of my best friends, and it was fun. I loved it. I was wearing a new shirt that I absolutely loved that was not UVA or UVB resistant, and it was kind of see-through and I was like, Oh, that's so cool, because you can see one of my sports bras.  Then, I don't know, four and a half hours after we're at the fair I feel really hot and kinda tired and really dehydrated.  I don't feel good at all. So in addition to a bunch of other health things going on at that point, which I will leave it for you to deduce, I had a second degree burn, disgusting on my chest, it was bubbling, and there was a liquid in the bubbles and the blisters, it was disgusting.  This was literally like 17 years ago.

Coach Shaun: I still have a line on my chest from where that sunburn started and my skin is still not the same color.  I didn't pop any of the blisters and I was in a bunch of pain, I tried to not have to go home for two days so that my mom wouldn't yell at me for not putting on sunscreen.  I didn't put on any, or no, I think maybe leaving the house, I put in one layer and I thought, Oh, that's so good. No, that it was the worst ever. I never got another sunburn that bad, but that's also the flip flop day as well, because why would I only want to burn one part of my body when I can burn in several.  So when you get a sunburn, one of the best remedies, but it's literally my favorite because it provides a sensation almost immediately, but it also helps to stop the burning, is taking a cool bath or shower.  With half levels of cold eventually, but you don't want to start with that, because your skin is literally burning; the sun cooks you and you say this really hurts.

So the first thing you want to do is stop that continued burning from happening, so running where you're burned under cool water first and then cold water and getting a little bit colder, so you're not shocking your system that will help to stop the sensation of the burden.  It’ll start to lessen the inflammation and lessen the itching.  If you're already at the itching stage, you can add oatmeal to your bath, which might be a little bit painful at first, but it will help to soothe your skin and then colloidal oatmeal helps to dampen down the inflammation and reduce your itching.  So first day you're going to want to take a cold bath or cool shower, and then after that, you can start to take oatmeal bathes so that you're not as itchy. First week, you probably want to be doing that, also right away, you can spray or blot your burn with white vinegar.  If you have a little spray bottle that you've used for annoying cats or training your dog to not do something, just put the white vinegar in that little spray bottle and then spray it onto your sunburn, you're going to smell like a salad, there's no way around that, but you'll feel so much better.

It feels amazing, and it stops the cooking, it makes you feel better, it relieves the pain and the itching.  You can also blot it on if you have either like a makeup blotter you can use or just cotton rounds, you can just blot it on and leave it a little bit.  Don't rub it in, just let it sit there and soothe you.  It's worth it.

Aloe is one we all know about.  I keep aloe gel in my refrigerator she its cold.    And if you don't have aloe and you're waiting for your significant other to come back with it, do not use coconut oil, don't do it.  Your only resort is, I don't know, midnight, and you really can't stand the itching and you're in so much pain: only use cold-pressed organic coconut oil after blistering has subsided.  If you still have blisters, you don't want any ointments, you don't want any gels, you don't need anything, no oils, nothing. You would only want to put aloe and that's only if you can actually get it to the skin instead of just on the blisters, because that's just going to keep the heat in. Alright, you don't want to trap the heat, because then it'll just continue to burn and you'll feel worse.  Along the lines of the shower, if you can, you want to put ice on it.  If you've already done the shower or maybe you can't shower for whatever reason, use ice pack or a cold compress, that'll help.  If it's one of those hard ice packs that you keep for your cooler or something, that's probably not going to feel good because it's hard and plastic probably, so if you have something like frozen veggies, that'll be easier.

Coach Shaun: No popping blisters. When you get a burn that blisters, there's liquid inside, but that liquid will be re-absorbed by your body.  You won't have to worry about it, but do not pop them, it causes immediate pain. It's worse for you overall, and it's just going to leave scarring, so leave the blisters intact as much as you can, sometimes it's inevitable. There's no way around it, you will pop them if you're wearing clothes.  But if you can just leave it so that the skin that’s already dead. Just leave it. Just leave it alone.  Lots of water, hydration is important in the summer time anyways, that hydration is not an underrated solution to your sunburn, and you're probably already dehydrated being in the sun anyways, being active in the sun, laying in the sun, just being out and about. So you're probably already dehydrated, so make sure that you're drinking water, but more importantly that you are balancing your electrolytes as well.  The easiest way, and this is not a paid advertisement at all, is the liquid IV.  I keep liquid IV around me all the time in the summer time to help me balance my electrolyte, even if I'm doing something simple like playing frisbee on the beach or throwing a football back and forth, I always want to have something like what I be with me to put into my water so that I'm keeping my electrolytes.  If you're not in taking a lot of sodium, that's a really easy way to throw out your electrolytes because you're sweating a lot, and then you're just drinking normal water and that's not going to be good for you, so just keep that in mind too.

Protect your skin from further damage, I feel like this one should be pretty self-explanatory if you already have a sunburn, try not to go back out in the sun with the burn showing, especially if you only have sunscreen or suntan lotion.  You want sunblock 100%, whether that's one of the shirts or a special shirt, or you have a 100% UV protective umbrella or something, but do not go out in the sun with a sunburn because it's just going to feel worse.  Don't peel it.  In addition to being super gross and disgusting and probably making all of your friends hate you immediately, it is literally so bad for your skin because you will inevitably come to a point where you're peeling off healthy skin.  So gross, moving on.  When you're trying over-the-counter medications, you can use burn creams, they are specifically designed ones at CVS or Walgreens that you can get that are specific for sunburns.  But if you just have a burn cream, like you've burned yourself on the stove or something, those burn creams will help.  Sometimes they take away the pain, sometimes they'll help reduce inflammation, they might burn for a second if they are topical gels.

So just be conscious of that.  Do not use ointments like A&D or antibiotic ointments.  Don't use any of those because you'll just end up trapping in the heat and making it worse and avoid using anything that ends in “caine” (i.e. Lidocaine).  Those are going to be really bad chemicals for your skin, they're just going to hurt. So even though they might have worked for you in the past or something else on a sunburn, it's not going to feel good, so don't use them.  You can also try sprinkling talcum powder on your sheets to minimize chafing.  If you have that around randomly, I never do, but just in case, you can sprinkle the talcum powder on your sheets to minimize the chafing and friction in your bed.  My favorite is literally blowing up an air mattress because it retains less heat in your normal nature, so if you're at home and you have that available or maybe you're out and about an Airbnb using an air mattress is going to feel better because it doesn't retain as much heat, so you're kind of giving yourself some extra space.  I always know the day that I get the sunburn that night, I never sleep well.

Coach Shaun: My electrolytes are off, I am in pain. So the more you can do to ease the pain, the better off you're going to be.  If that does include popping an aspirin, that's totally fine too. And then the last one, I've had some success with this, but honestly, it's never the one that I reach for: tannic acid from the green tea or black teas, as long as they're 100%, so if you have a water down version of green tea somewhere that's not going to help you.  You’ll need to just create the tea and then use the tea bags and you can use two tea-bags in cool water and then place those tea bags on top of your eyes or on your face even to decrease swelling and help relieve the pain.  They also have a compound in them as an anti-oxidant that helps repair skin damage, so it's good for you all around green or black tea, 100%. You can absolutely use this. I'm not a tea drinker, so that's probably why I don't use this method because I never have this just chilling around in my house, I always go for the cold shower or the white vinegar.

But like I said, I've been through this for as long as I can ever remember.  I hated my mom putting the sunscreen and sunblock on me when I was a child, and I had one of those really cool long-sleeve swim suits to try to protect myself too when I was little. Nothing worked, I was just a pain in the butt, and I was screaming and crashing around and she said, Alright, this isn't going to go well for you.

I wasn’t doing it on my own, which is how when I was 15, I got that blistering sunburn, which I'm sure I had pictures of somewhere and I can post on social media, so you guys can see how absolutely awful I was.  I was just crying, I was in so much pain and I tried everything to make it go away. I don't do that, it's just it takes time, and that's okay, because your body has to be able to process it.  This is the one thing that ties in sunburns to nutrition and fitness and health and all this other stuff.  Your body is doing the best it can for you based on what you've given it to survive and succeed.  Your body is never trying to kill you.  And if it is, you're probably doing something wrong.  So when you do something wrong, sunburn, your body is like, Hey man. Why did you do that? I've kept you alive for so many years and I was just chilling here trying to help you have a good summer, and then you had to me and gave me a sunburn.

So treat your body like your best friend: what would you want to do for your best friend, you'd want them to be out of pain, and you would want to be able to help them relieve some of the inflammation and also make sure that they're not peeling or any of those other sun burning things.  Just try to relax as much as you can, take deep breaths, hydrate, you use white vinegar and make sure that you're putting on your sunscreen over the summer. That's all I got for you. Realistically, I hope that was helpful. If it was, send me a DM, let me know, I want to know what other topics I can help you guys out with.  This is not an exhaustive list of how to prevent a sunburn and also how you treat it, I'm sure there are many other ways that you can both avoid and also help after, and if you have any of those, please let me know. I would love to hear from you guys if you have something .  If you’re like, Hey, I got a sunburn and this one time I was going in two days, we're doing this one, I need it, whatever, whatever it is.

Coach Shaun: But also too, I would love to be able to share it with you guys.  Send me an email, text me whatever it is that you want, just connect with me in any way. And as always, it's a pleasure. Thank you so much for listening to me, and I have an amazing freaking week, guys.

Coach Shaun: We hope you all enjoyed this episode of Crash, Course right on Live Unbreakable.

Coach Dan: And if we made you smile or just have to think about something in a new way, go ahead and screenshot post or share this episode and we can get your feedback and share more knowledge with the world now get out there and eat, train live subscribe to our Crash Course podcasts, so you never miss a beat and be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn to keep up with it all.