Around half the UK population gets sunburnt at least once a year, according to a study by Melanoma Focus. So, how should you treat it?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best way to deal with sunburn is to avoid it,\u201d says Dr Wedgeworth, who adds that you can\u2019t reverse the underlying damage once it has happened, regardless of which products you use. \u201cHowever, if it has happened, treatment should be mainly supportive: soothe the skin, take appropriate pain relief, drink plenty of fluids and use bland moisturisers on intact, unbroken skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
What about aloe vera, a cactus-like plant whose extracted gel has been used for thousands of years to treat sunburn, abrasions and dry skin? \u201cI\u2019m not a huge fan of aloe vera or aftersun gels,\u201d says Dr Wedgeworth. \u201cThey can feel soothing if they\u2019re alcohol-free and non-irritating, but they don\u2019t undo the injury and are often too light to support damaged skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
An iced coffee will cool you down on a hot day<\/p>\n
In theory, yes, but it\u2019s not quite that simple, says Dr Baumgardt. \u201cAny cold drink will feel very cooling at first. They\u2019re refreshing and cool the interior of the body down a little. But the reason to drink cold drinks in the heat is simply hydration, not cooling. Our bodies are perfectly capable of regulating and offloading excess heat through sweating, which cools the skin, and something called piloerection, which is the opposite of goosebumps. When we\u2019re cold, goosebumps cause the hairs on our arms and legs to stand up to keep the heat in; when our body needs to cool down, it naturally flattens body hair to release trapped heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hot drinks, on the other hand, trigger the body\u2019s sweating mechanism, thereby cooling the body down faster.<\/p>\n
And while it\u2019s important to drink plenty of water when we\u2019re in the sun, iced coffees and beers are less than ideal, he says. \u201cAlcohol and caffeine are diuretics, which means they make you urinate more, and this can lead to dehydration,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s fine to have a cold beer while you\u2019re on the beach or watching the World Cup, but make sure you balance each drink with a glass of water to stay hydrated and cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wait 30 minutes after eating before going for a swim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around half the UK population gets sunburnt at least once a year, according to a study by Melanoma…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[847,13888,59,102,2281,1103,48101,20208,5438,229265,58919,56,54,55,157732,514],"class_list":["post-687921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-conditions","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-health-and-fitness","tag-heatwave","tag-melanoma","tag-skin","tag-standard","tag-sun-cream","tag-top-story","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-us-content","tag-vitamin-d"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}