← ASCP Esty Talk
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- [00:00]
A
Hey Esti, have you ever posted or thought about posting anonymously on those other social media platforms because you're afraid of the backlash? Well then this community is for you. Join the HHP Collective where your opinion is appreciated and the education is elevated. Visit hhpcollective.com for more information and use code ASCP26 to browse your first month for free. And don't worry about writing it down because you can find the link in the show notes. If you're an esthetician, you know how frustrating it is when clients don't return consistently. Stop using software built for salons and start using Spa Sphere. Spa Sphere is built specifically for estheticians with simple tools like treatment plans and skin reports that get clients to come back. It helps you turn one time appointments into loyal regulars so your clients get better results and you make more from every session. ASCP members can try it for $1 for 90 days at Spa Sphere AI ASCP. Hello and welcome to ASCP and the Rogue Pharmacist with Benjamin Knightfuchs. In each episode we'll explore how internal and external factors can impact the skin. I'm Maggie Stasik, ASCP's program director. And joining me is Ben Fuchs, skincare formulator and pharmacist. Hi Ben.
- [01:32]
B
Hello Maggie.
- [01:34]
A
Ben, SPF looks like a simple number on a bottle, but it's based on very specific testing conditions that don't always reflect real life. Can you break down what SPF actually tells us and what it doesn't?
- [01:48]
B
Yes. SPF does not tell you about the potency of an ingredient or the potency of a of a sunscreen, sunscreen containing product. SPF is only a measurement of the protection from burning. And remember, ultraviolet rays from the sun come in two main forms. Three really, but two main forms. They call them UVA and uvb. UVA is associated with aging. It goes a little bit deeper. And UVB is associated with burning. UVB is also the ray that gives you the vitamin D. Vitamin D is produced by the action of UVB on cholesterol on the skin produces vitamin D and it's really the best form of vitamin D, by the way. Much better than supplemental vitamin D or even food. Vitamin D is the kind of vitamin D you get from the sun. So SPF only tells you about uvb. It's only a measurement of UVB protection. That's first of all, it's a multiplication factor that refers to how much longer you can stay out in the sun without burning. So looking at you, Maggie, I'm Gonna assume you burn in about 10 to 15 minutes, correct? Yeah. All right, so let's say 15 minutes. If you wear an SPF of 10 now you're gonna burn in 150 minutes. If you wear an SPf of 20 now, you're gonna burn in 15 times 2300 minutes. Follow me.
- [02:57]
A
Yeah.
- [02:57]
B
If you wear an SPF of 30 now you're gonna burn in 450 minutes. 15 times 30. So you take the amount of minutes it would take for you to burn. Ordinarily, for me, it may be 20, 25 minutes. I have darker skin, You a little bit lighter, 15 minutes or so. And then you multiply it by the spf and that tells you how much, how much time you can stay on the sun without burning. The reason this number is important to, to figure out what it is and what it isn't is because there's a tendency to think that, oh, an SPF of 100 is, is stronger than an SPF of 30 or 20 or 10. It's not true. It just lasts longer. And so what you want to consider when you're using an SPF is how much time I'm gonna be out in the sun. If you burn in 20 minutes now you wear an SPF of 30, you're gonna be out in the sun for six. You can stay out in the sun for 600 minutes or 10 hours without burning. Who's gonna be out in the sun for 10 hours? And you say, okay, well, who cares if I just put it on? You know, just better, Better safe than sorry. Well, the problem is, is the higher the spf, the more chemical sunscreen you're forcing your skin to interact with. And chemical sunscreens are not nice chemicals. They're nasty chemicals. In fact, if you go to Hawaii, you can't even wear em in the beach or in the water because they'll kill the coral. Even health food stores like Whole Foods is not selling products that have these chemical sunscreens in them. And I always get in trouble when I say this, but you can't get around the fact they're drugs. And when I say drugs, they're regulated by the FDA as over the counter drugs. You can't manufacture them unless you have an over the counter drug license. And for good reason, because first of all, they're providing a medicinal type of benefit by protecting you from the sun. But. But also they're toxic. And so if you wear an SPF of 30, when you don't need an SPF of 30, you only need an SPF of 5 or 10, you're just forcing your skin and your body to have to interact with these toxins which by the way are very fat soluble. So they do penetrate through the surface of the skin. So they're problematic molecules. Do you need them sometimes because you don't want to burn? Yeah, of course you do need them. But I've always said use zinc oxide. Zinc oxide not only protects you from burning, but it also protects you from uva. And keep in mind, if you're using a UVB blocker that doesn't have UVA protection in it and you stay out in the sun longer, what does that mean? You're now gonna be contacting UVA much longer because the signal to get out of the sun is gonna be missed and you're just gonna be exposing your skin to higher concentrations of the aging rate. So it's really a problem. I think in my humble opinion as a nutritionist and as a pharmacist, I work on the inside of the body primarily. Not to say that you don't want to use a topical sun protection if you absolutely have to, but get it off your skin when you come in from that, from the, from in, from the sun. Don't leave it on your skin, don't wear it if you don't need it. And keep in mind that SPF does not mean higher potency, just means higher duration. So a low, a lower SPF is much more appropriate if you don't want to force your body or your skin to interact with these chemicals and then reapply if you're going to stay out in the sun longer. But really the best bet is titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. I'm partial to zinc oxide as a pharmacist because zinc oxide is a healing tool. It'll heal your sunburn as well as protect you as well as help protect you from sunburn. So it's really a no brainer except for the fact that zinc oxide products tend to be more expensive. It's harder to work as a formulator or from a manufacturing perspective with zinc oxide. And also zinc oxide sometimes makes your skin white. Although if you have a cleverly formulated product that won't occur. The best way to protect yourself from the protect your skin from the sun is to use internal nutrition. We have systems in place for protecting us from the sun that don't necessarily involve blocking the sun. SPFs and SPF containing ingredients and they screen the sun. SPF blocking greens block the sun. But antioxidancy is a completely different strategy than that. Will protect your skin from the sun. So making sure you're loading up with good quality antioxidants. Vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, zinc, vitamin A. There's a lot of nutrients that you can use that have antioxidant properties. Pigments from vegetables. I always tell people who are afraid of or concerned about exposure to the sun to make sure you're. You're not only eating greens and blues and reds and oranges in terms of fruits and vegetables, but braise them a little in butter so that those pigments are released, particularly as we get older. Or if you have a gallbladder missing or you have intestinal problem where you don't absorb your fats, braising your veggies in butter can help pull out those fats, those pigments, and support their absorption through the gut. If you have a gallbladder missing, you're gonna be especially prone towards issues with the sun or if you have intestinal health problems, as I mentioned. So you wanna be careful about getting digestive and nutritional. Digestive health and your nutritional status. Also quick hack, they make vitamins or not vitamins, but supplements that contain vitamins for your eyes. And if you've ever seen things like ocutive or ocuvite or vision fx, these are nutrients that protect your eyes from the sun. They'll also protect your skin from the sun. So things like N acetylcysteine, taurine, zinc lutein, zeaxanthine, vitamin A, selenium, these are all nutrients that they sell for protecting your eyes. If you want a quick down and dirty way to protect your skin, you can use those eye vitamins or eye supplements and you'll get skin protection as well.
- [08:23]
A
Where do you see the biggest misunderstanding around sun protection and spf?
- [08:29]
B
The sun's your friend. We have this heliophobia in our culture where I talk to people all the time. I never go out in the sun. They say that's too bad because the sun is your friend. We grew up in the sun. The sun is, has health properties, salubrious properties. It's important for producing serotonin and melatonin, especially first thing in the morning. You know, I tell people first thing in the morning, if you can look out, look straight at the sun without burning, of course, without causing any problems for your eyes. It'll support the conversion of melatonin to serotonin, which is obviously important for, for brain health and for mood, also for digestive health and for the health of the circulatory system. So love the sun, respect the sun. We talk about vitamin D all the time, but we feel better when we're out in the sun. Everybody does. So we want to kind of get away from this idea that the sun is this mortal enemy in the sky whose main purpose in life is to break down our bodies and cause us to age. Also, melasma hyperpigmentation, which is one of the main reasons why people are so scared of the sun, especially as we get older. Want to use sun protection, is not really a sun issue as much as it's a destabilized hormone issue. So don't blame the sun for so much. Don't blame the sun for accelerating aging. Don't blame the sun for melasma. Really respect the sun. Don't burn. That's the one thing is you never want to burn. And as I said, as much as I don't like chemical sunscreens, if the option is burning, wear a chemical sunscreen. Just get it off your skin as soon as possible and as low as use as low an SPF as possible. But really, the sun's our friend. You want to get regular sun, if not on a daily basis, at least three or four or five times a week. And when I say getting regular sun, I mean head to toe. And notice that you feel better when you're out in the sun. And that improvement in mood, feeling better when you're out in the sun is a function of the health benefits of the sun. So really, if you want to know what the biggest misunderstanding is about the sun and sun protection is that we have this terror, this fear culturally. Not everybody, of course, but culturally there's a fear of the sun. And so making sure that you get a little bit of sun every day is really important. If in, for whatever reason you can't get a lot of sun, you want to either use a sun lamp. You know, there's seasonal affective disorder that happens in places like Washington where people don't get a lot of sun in the wintertime. Use a sun lamp and lay out in the sun. You could get them for 100 bucks or so on Amazon and make sure that you're using, if not vitamin D supplements, which you know are not that great. Use vitamin D containing foods or vitamin D supplements, if you will, because vitamin D is very, very important. And not a day goes by, almost certainly not a week goes by, without us learning more about what vitamin D can do for the body. Vitamin D is a major, major, major player in calcium metabolism and calcium health. And calcium is your cell's activator without vitamin D, you can't absorb calcium. If you don't absorb calcium, cells are going to be less than functional, and that's going to lead to aging and ultimately to illnesses. And we're finding out more and more about the importance of vitamin D and calcium. So get some sun. Get it. If not every day, get it four or five times a week if you can. If you live in a place where there's no sun, get a sun lamp.
- [11:36]
A
That concludes our show for today, and we thank you for listening. But if you just can't get enough of Ben Fuchs, the ASCP's rogue pharmacist, you can find him@truthtreatments.com for more information on this episode, or for ways to connect with Ben Fuchs, or to learn more about ascp, check out the show notes.