Olidhealth.com – Going on vacation on the beach? Sure it is nice as occasionally to relieve built-up stress. Get drenches by seawater or just sunbathing to get some vitamin D and get tanned it ok. However, skin that too long getting sun exposure could harm your skin. If you don’t apply skin lotion to protect your skin, intense exposure could give redness called sunburn. It is so painful if don’t have proper treatment. There is an effective way to treat sunburn such as taking a cool bath or giving moisturizer immediately. Read this article thoroughly to know other ways to relieve sunburn faster and prevention before this happens again.
What Cause of Sunburn Happens?
In general, Sunburn is a condition that the skin that gets burned by intense light. The main cause is unblocked ultraviolet radiation that could burn your skin if don’t have any protection. There are several degrees of severity to classify sunburn and how to treat it effectively. In United State, sunburn cases are rather high than in other countries because the majority of people there have lack melanin pigment. There are also several cases that cause sunburn such as [1]:
- Certain medications could make skin sensitive to light exposure.
- Too long getting light exposure (both sunlight and artificial light).
- Misuse of the tanning bed to get instant pigmentation.
- The low ozone layer in the atmosphere (depend on where you live).
How to Treat Sunburn Efficiently
Treating your sunburn is depend on what sunburn degree you have. First-degree sunburn such as redness, swelling, blistering with other symptoms could be treated at home with simple remedies. Moreover, Second-degree is mild to severe condition with the same symptom, but third-degree is a severe condition to have medical attention. How to treat early sunburn symptoms is relatively simple and cost-effective like cooling your skin and drinking adequate water. Below are effective ways to treat your sunburn immediately.
Soothe Your Skin With Cream or Moisturizer
As first aid to treat sunburn, topical cream or moisturize is the best way to relieve sunburn and ease the pain. Moreover, if you have aloe vera moisturizer, you could apply it immediately after taking a cool bath. Aloe vera contains anti-bacterial and anti-inflammation agents to deflate sunburn inflamed skin and soothe your skin. Furthermore, Aloe vera gel from its original plant has more benefits as natural remedies to prevent scar marks and speed up recovery [2]. Other topical besides aloe vera that has anti-inflammation properties its good as an alternative choice to relieve sunburn.
Cool Bath May Relieve Sunburn Pain
Taking a cool bath is a simple tip for you that may relieve sunburn pain and cleanse your skin against bacteria that could infest sunburn wounds. Moreover, Bathing with cool water has many benefits for health stress release, and regulating body temperature. Apply topical cream after a cool bath could treat your sunburn effectively to prevent infection and speed up the healing process.
Wear Loose Clothes
These tips are also a good choice if you have a sunburn blister. Loose clothes with cotton fabric have light pressure to avoid blisters getting pop up. Moreover, it’s comfortable to move around with small friction against your wound. Cover up more skin that may increase sunburn recovery.
Pain Killer Medication May Reduce Sunburn Pain
Sometimes, sunburn makes unbearable pain if It affected your skin all over the body. To treat that, consume medication especially with nonsteroidal anti-inflammation drug variants (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen or aspirin to reduce pain and decrease inflammation symptoms [1]. However, this medication also has side effects to make your skin more sensitive to light. Consider this method on your need to treat your sunburn effectively.
Drink More Water
While getting sunburn, your body may need more water because sunburn could make your skin dry, blisters, and even nausea or vomiting in severe cases. Drinking water with high electronic substance to make your skin hydrated and maintain bodily fluid level [1]. Keeping your body stay hydrated could treat sunburn more efficiently.
Home Remedies To Relieve Sunburn Symptom
Sunburn treatment may take some time to be recovered completely. To speed up the recovery process, there are some home remedies tips to decrease recovery time as follow:
- Honey – Has an anti-inflammation effect to reduce inflamed sunburn and get rid of blisters. Apply the honey directly to your sunburn wound and it will faster its recovery [3].
- Essential oil – Coconut oil, eucalyptus oil, or lavender oil is a good example of essential oil that could ease itchy and deflate blisters gradually.
- Potatoes – Good choice to help release heat on sunburn wounds. Apply it as dressing could make a cool sensation in the skin and make it moist.
- Cucumber – It has a beneficial effect to relieve inflammation. Make it like pasta and applying it could help you to treat sunburn swelling [4].
Don’t Do This While You Have Sunburn
There are some tips that you should do if you want to get rid of sunburn effectively. Some of the tips may be practice occasionally but don’t do it frequently. The more you withstand its pain, the faster the sunburn gets healed.
Scratching Make It Worse
Control your hand if you have the urge to scratch your sunburn wound. It could worse sunburn symptoms and lead to infectious problems. Moreover, if you get blister sunburn, hold your urge and apple topical cream to elevate the itchy in your skin. Wet towel and compress your sunburn wound if is getting irritated.
Don’t Pop The Blisters
After you get a sunburn, some people may also get blisters. This watery under the skin could appear on the same day or several days after sunburn. Sometimes, Blister could have resistible itchy that make you want to pop it. We suggest applying lotion to relieve itchily and don’t try to pop it.
Popping it up could worsen skin problems such as infection, have a long healing period, and lead to scar marks in your delicate skin. As time goes on, it will deflate and be safe to peel off leftover skin. You just be patient and time will heal it.
Ice Pack Just For First Aid Sunburn Symptom
Your family or friend may suggest compressing it with an ice pack. However, it is just to relieve the pain and itchy, not to treat it. Long-term ice pack compression also could worsen and lead to infection. If you get blisters sunburn, use this method carefully that the blisters are not popped up. Occasionally using this method is fine to relieve inflammation but let your skin dry before applying this method again.
How To Prevent Sunburn At a Later Time
Sunbathing is a good source of vitamin D to build up bones and other metabolism. However, don’t take sunlight exposure too long or you would get sunburn. Once you get a sunburn, you would think twice to let it happen again. Prevention against sunburn is good to preserve your skin healthy and avoid unnecessary expanse caused by that. There are some tips to prevent sunburn at a later time before you go on an adventure.
Use Ultraviolet Sunscreen
If you have pale or white skin, you should apply your skin with sunscreen frequently. This skin is more susceptible to get sunburn since its lacks melanin pigment to protect you from Ultraviolet A and B (UVA and UVB). Check thoroughly about its content, term, and condition before you apply sunscreen. Moreover, don’t apply sunscreen if getting its expired date since it could be toxic. How to properly apply sunscreen? Well, check its label because different compounds could have different applications.
The essential oil in some cosmetic products also has a skin protective factor (SPF) against dryness and radiation [5]. It’s relatively safe to use for preventing sunburn, but don’t forget to do a patch test before applying it to your skin.
Know Your Skin Limit
Having white skin is obviously good for beauty and getting attractive, but not good for light exposure. White-colored skin is having a low melanin pigment to cover up your skin against UVA and UVB. Moreover, Tanning your skin to get more melanin is not help it. That attempt has a temporary effect to have brown skin and doesn’t protect you against sunburn.
Covering up your body with dark color clothes may reduce the risk of getting sunburn but it would get hot if used in long-term under sunlight since it absorbs sunlight effectively. As additional information, get sunglasses to cover your eyes since it is so important to prevent unwanted dazzling light that could harm your eyes.
Know The Time To Avoid Sunlight
In some cases, there is powerful sunray that you should be avoided. The time between 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. is the worst time to get exposure more than 1 hour. However, getting this light under 30 minutes for medical is acceptable since it’s good to get some vitamin D within the time [6]. Limit your outdoor activity and covering your body is necessary to block some UV rays to damage your skin.
Conclusion
Getting sunburn while taking some vacation is troublesome, but it could be treated with simple remedies. For instance, Applying anti-inflammation cream and moisturizer and taking a cool shower is the first step to speed up sunburn recovery. Moreover, applying sunscreen and covering up your skin is a preventive way to reduce sunburn risk at a later time. Knowing this beforehand could treat your sunburn efficiently.
Reference
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK534837/ – Sunburn explanation about the definition, risk factor, and treatment.
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6245421/ – Aloe vera composition and uses for skin and other treatment.
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4158441/ – Honey benefit for treating burned skin.
[4] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23098877/ – Cucumber has antioxidant properties to deplete swelling in skin wounds.
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3140123/ – Essential oils have SPF to prevent sunburn and protect against UV Radiation.
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3897596/ – Good time set for obtaining vitamin D from sunlight.