If you are a long time reader of my blog, you’ll know that I am a big fan of the many health benefits of sunshine so I’m glad the days are getting longer and the sun is shining more… but while sun exposure actually prolongs lifespan and is important to our physical and mental health, there is no denying that the UV exposure is harsh on skin.
But don’t let that stop you from going outside. A large medical study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine in 2016 found that folks who avoided sun exposure actually had a shorter life span… with a decreased life expectancy that was shorter than even heavy smokers who bathed in the sun.
This was a huge study looked at almost 30,000 participants over a span of 20 years. Researchers tracked health outcomes and life span over two decades and found that even when smoking was factored in, the life span of those who avoided the sun was over 2 years shorter than heavy smokers who got the highest amount of sun exposure!!!
So even heavy smokers who soaked in the sun their whole life outlived non-smokers who avoided sun exposure — by years — while participants who avoided the sun had higher rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and pulmonary disease.
And the results were dose-specific… meaning that the benefits of increased life expectancy with sun exposure went up directly in correlation to the amount of sun exposure. Longer time outside in the sun = longer life span. These findings were expounded upon in this medical review as well as confirmed in a more recent review of the research and published here in Anticancer Research in 2022.
These results show that avoiding the sun is a “risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking” — a direct quote from the medical report. So the verdict: under-exposure to the sun is actually dangerous. You can read this study for yourself here:
Smoking and inactivity/prolonged sitting have long been known to be huge lifestyle indicators of poor long term health… and now we can add a third: avoiding sun exposure.
You know that I never ever ever present negative medical information without giving you tons of positive solutions! So you know if I am bringing it up on my blog here, then there are TONS of things you can do to make your time out in the sunshine safer for your skin, while boosting your whole-body disease prevention and prolonging your life span!
14 Steps To Boost Your Skin Health This Summer:
1. Avoid Peak Sun Hours:
The most important #1 way to protect from ultraviolet exposure is to avoid the sun during the peak UV hours in mid-day. There was a huge medical study that backs this up… Sunscreen was third in order of most effective ways to protect yourself from sun damage and skin cancers.
The ultimate solution, when possible, is sun avoidance during peak sun hours (10AM — 4PM) — this is infinitely better than any sun protection during peak sun hours. You want to get some incidental sun exposure on some exposed skin daily, but to decrease the UV intensity you want that exposure to be in the earlier AM or later PM hours!
2. Wear UV Protective Clothing, Hats and Sunglasses:
The second best way to protect from the sun, if you are going out in the peak hours, is UV protective clothing. Rash guards, hats, sunglasses. And be certain to protect your eyes by wearing UV protective sunglasses, dear reader! UV exposure is one of the leading causes of lens opacity (cataracts) as you age. You can prevent this by diligently protecting your eyes.
Although “sun gazing” is a fad right now — and I absolutely am a huge fan of enjoying early morning sunrises and late evening sunsets — this does not include having those UV rays damaging the lens of your eye by gazing at it. Unless you want to dramatically age your sight and ensure you get early development of cataracts, I do not recommend this practice.
Please do go outside and get those early morning and late evening rays — just wear sunglasses while you do it.
3. Use Only Physically Blocking, Non-Nano Sized Sunscreens:
Clearly sunscreen is not my number one recommendation for prevention of skin cancer. Nor is it my second recommendation either. I prefer to avoid peak sun hours and use sun protective clothing like rashguards, hats and sunglasses, as I wrote above.
Why does sunscreen clock in at tip #3?
- Some chemicals in sunscreen (like the oils, petroleum products, and retinyl palmitate found in most sunscreens) have been shown to actually increase the rates of skin cancer lesions, when directly applied to the skin.
- On top of that, many of the chemicals in chemical blocking sunscreens are shown to disrupt our natural hormone pathways. In fact, oxybenzone, the most common chemical sunscreen used, has been shown to disrupt hormones and is not even recommended for use in children. That’s right… look at all the “kids formulations” sunscreens out there… they generally contain oxybenzone. This chemical not only is a hormone-disruptor, but after applying to your skin it becomes internally absorbed within minutes. Which means children, who are still growing, are getting systemic doses of hormone-disrupting oxybenzone circulating through their bodies on a daily basis all summer long. Yuck.
- More bad news… mineral based sunscreens are increasingly being made in nano-sized particles so that they blend into the skin better… and unfortunately, this means they can potentially be absorbed systemically as well. Even mineral based sunscreens like zinc or titanium dioxide are potentially toxic if they enter your body, so you want to be sure your product does not use nanoparticles.
And in fact, a study (presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting on Nov 19, 2016) found that sunscreen may not have the ability to reduce melanoma risk. This is the longest term study on new mole development ever conducted. And unfortunately, the results reveal that there was no association between sunscreen use and subsequent development of new pigmented lesions. Meaning sunscreen use did not protect from or decrease the likelihood of developing pigmented moles (a marker of melanoma risk.)
- Chemical sunscreens (such as oxybenzone, octinoxate, octisalate and avobenzone) are absorbed into your skin and attempt to neutralize the UV rays once they penetrate your cells, by chemically reacting to the UV radiation.
- This means that the UV exposure is already reaching into your living tissues, and your cells are already exposed to the UV radiation (including your cell’s DNA) by the time it is being neutralized.
- Physically blocking sunscreens, such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, are different. These physically sit on top of the skin and literally block UV radiation from even reaching your skin.
- Physically blocking sunscreens is the type of sun protection you want, and this is the only type of sunscreen I recommend in my online pharmacy for you here.
I’ve compiled my favorite sunscreens in my Skin Protect protocol for you in my online pharmacy here. Meanwhile, avoid chemical sunscreens and never put those on your children! There are tons of physically blocking sunscreens that are easy to apply and don’t leave a thick white residue behind. My favorites are waiting for you here.
4. Take Curcumin To Protect Against Melanoma:
Did you know that Curcumin has been specifically shown to target and kill melanoma cancer cells? Read this study published in the International Journal of Cancer in October 2016 for a good overview on what we know about curcumin and melanoma so far.
If you want to add the anti-cancer benefits of curcumin to your health regime (which I highly recommend if you have any personal or family history of melanoma or even if you just have a history of intense sun exposure) I recommend taking a pharmacy grade supplement that couples a 500 mg dose of curcumin with bioperine to help increase the bioavailablility and absorption of the curcumin.
The one I listed in my Skin Repair Protocol here is my favorite:
5. Use Vitamin B3 to Decrease Other Forms of Skin Cancer:
Clear evidence that a simple vitamin can be cancer preventive: Vitamin B3 dramatically reduces skin cancer rates.
Presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2015 Annual Meeting in May 2014, Vitamin B3 has been shown to be a safe, effective way to reduce your risk of recurrent skin cancer. Researchers looked at over 380 patients with a prior history of non-melanoma skin cancers, giving half nicotinamide supplements and half a placebo, and followed them for a year. They found the patients in the Vitamin B3 group had a quarter less skin cancers total (a 23% decrease) than control patients:
- Basal cell occurrence decreased by 20%
- Squamous Cell Carcinoma decreased by 30%
- Actinic Keratosis decreased by 13%
Niacinamide (Vit B3, also known as Nicotinamide) enhances DNA repair in skin cells damaged by UV light, as well as boosts the immune system and prevents the suppression of immunity by ultraviolet radiation. (Nicotinamide has other benefits as well, including preliminary studies showing a boost in cognition… helping to restore cognition in Alzheimers!)
So… if you have a history of serious sun exposure? Or a history of previous skin cancers? Or you just want less unsightly actinic keretosis popping up in the future? Vitamin B 3 offers 100% all natural holistic chemo-prevention! Vitamin B is safe, inexpensive, proven. Find my favorite Vitamin B3 and Curcumin supplements together in my Skin Repair Protocol, here. I have both topical (lotion) and capsule forms of Niacinamide listed for you here:
6. Eat fruits and veggies daily, especially during the summer:
Medical studies have shown that eating foods rich in carotenoids (like ) and lycopene (like tomatoes) have a photo protective effect in human skin, and have even been shown to cut the number of tumors from UV light exposure on mice significantly… actually slashing the tumor count in half! Foods to eat daily that not only provide this photoprotection to decrease skin cancer risk, but also to protect against premature aging as well, include:
- squash
- carrots
- grapefruit
- oranges
- apricots
- asparagus
- cantaloupe
- mangoes
- nectarines
- peaches
- sweet potatoes
- tomatoes
- watermelon
- and sweet red peppers
7. Get Your Body Grounded Routinely:
Grounding boosts skin health thanks to increased circulation bringing more nutrients and oxygen to your skin, removing free radicals and other skin damaging by products, healing wounds in your skin three times faster, and even deepening your sleep which boosts collagen integrity.
I recently published an article in Current Research In Alternative And Complementary Medicine here (just click this link o read the entire report) all about grounding’s skin boosting potential.
Here are some of the points I touch on:
Multiple grounding studies have shown health benefits to the skin through contact with the DC energy of the earth:
- One double blinded placebo based study found that grounding significantly (and nearly instantaneously) increased blood flow in the facial skin of grounded test subjects, while subjects who were ungrounded had no change in their facial blood flow. [1]
- Another study found that applying DC energy (the same energy flow as grounding) tripled the rate of wound healing for healthy skin, making normal skin heal three times faster. In fact, DC energy improved skin healing in compromised diabetic skin so well that wounds in the diseased skin healed at almost the same rate as totally healthy skin did. [2]
- Another study found that grounding simultaneously decreased inflammation and boosted immune function which then resulted in improved wound healing in multiple test subjects. [3].
- Grounding was even found to decrease blood glucose in diabetic patients, which helps explain why applying a DC energy current to diabetic skin made it heal almost as fast as healthy, non-diabetic skin. [4]
It’s not just your skin that gets anti-aging benefits from the earth — all of your organ systems do. Here is another article I recently published inTrends In General Medicine in July 2024 that goes over the head to toe anti-aging benefits of grounding:
All together, grounding to the earth — a totally natural DC energy source — is a completely natural, exceptionally easy way to support skin health, helping to heal wounds and repair skin by boosting blood flow, improving oxygen and nutrients to the surface of the skin, even protecting the collagen of your skin by improving your sleep.
All it takes is going outside to touch the earth directly, or applying the earth’s DC energy to the skin through a grounding cord or ground stake. Here are the most eco-friendly, long lasting, superior quality (artisan hand crafted) indoor grounding tools in the world:
8. Reduce your sugar intake:
Did you know consuming excess sugar can actually have a cosmetic effect that can be seen in your face? Consuming sugar can actually make you look older — creating wrinkles, sallow skin, discoloration of the skin, and loss of firmness and elasticity. All known as “sugar sag.”
After going through the effort to sticking with natural and holistic beauty products, hydrating well, avoiding photoaging your face, taking high quality supplements, etc… you may be undoing a lot of what you do to maintain healthy skin just by eating sugar. YUCK.
Many studies confirm just how much eating sugar ages our skin. Studies like:
- The Damage Mechanism of Skin Glycation (Nutrients, 2022)
- AGEs In Skin (Methods, 2022)
- Carbohydrate Induced Skin Aging (Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2020)
- An Anti-Wrinkle Diet (Skin Therapy Letters, 2020)
- AGEs, Diet and Health (Biomolecules, 2019)
- Glycation and Human Skin (Pathology Biology, 2010)
- Sugar and Aging Skin (Clinical Dermatology, 2010)
Basically, sugar create advanced glycation end products (AGEs) which accumulate in the body, including the skin, and are associated with many diseases of inflammation and aging, like diabetes, heart disease, cataracts and dementia.
In the skin, AGEs create an abnormal cross linking of collagen which makes it difficult to repair, leading to aging effects that accumulate over time… since this abnormally cross linked collagen isn’t capable of being renewed or repaired, it leads to a decrease in skin elasticity, wrinkles, and even the advanced accumulation of age spots and skin discoloration… all together, something you can notice in the skin as the dreaded “sugar sag”.
Hop over to this free article I wrote for you right here for a great overview of tips to help you beat your sugar addiction to protect your skin:
9. Consume Flavonoids:
Plant flavonoids have powerful anti-inflammatory actions that help neutralize the effects of glycation end products.
Foods high in flavonoids to eat:
- blueberries
- cherries
- blackberries
- prunes
- raspberries
- strawberries
- potatoes
- cranberries
- apples
- beans
- avocado
- tomatoes
- oranges
- rosemary and
- dark leafy greens
are all high in anti-oxidants and should be part of your routine diet, especially if you are looking to protect your skin long term.
The newest double blinded medical study found that Rosemary Extract, taken orally, not only inhibited AGE formation but it actually started reversing the damage that has already be done by AGEs to collagen, with benefits accruing for the entire length of the study, getting stronger and more robust benefits over time.
Published in February 2025 in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, researchers found that taking Rosemary Extract orally might be the most effective way to not only protect against future skin aging, but to actually reverse some of the damage that has already been done. That’s why Rosemary Extract is a phenomenal supplement to take whether you are in your 20’s and wanting to protect against the affects of AGE changes, or decades later in life and wanting to actually reverse damage that is already done.
But be careful — you don’t want to take rosemary essential oils or other preparations that are meant for external use. Be sure to use Rosemary Supplements intended for internal use! So that you know you are taking a safe and effective oral dose of these flavonoids, I’ve added both Blueberry Extract capsules and Rosemary Extract tincture to my Skin Repair Protocol here:
10. Skip The Self Tanner
Here is something new I learned — self tanners actually create those dreaded advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the skin (see #8 above) so self tanner actually may age your skin over time with cumulative use. Self tanners are a glycation product, it’s actually a sugar that binds to skin proteins in the stratum corneum (the top layer of our skin) and through glycation turns the skin brown. In fact, originally self tanners were created as a sugar substitute in the 1920s but were never used because they turned the mouth mucosa brown!
The good news is that this glycation reaction occurs on the dead top layer of the skin, so may affect skin elasticity and aging less than an internally consumed sugar might. However, the bad news is we don’t really know what cumulative effect self tanners have and it is likely to contribute, even if in small amounts, to “sugar sag” and other cosmetic signs of skin aging over time.
So save the self tanner for special events instead of routine use — that’s what I try to do — and if you do use it, be sure to apply self tanner in the morning so you can wash it off in the evening… don’t leave self tanner on your skin overnight.
11. Bathe In Honey:
Add a half cup of honey to your bath water to nourish your skin and speed the healing of any damaged skin. Findings published in 2012 in the International Wound Journal show that when raw honey was used on all types of wounds, it:
- promoted healing
- minimized necrosis
- minimized the amount of skin that sloughed off the wound
- reduced wound size
- decreased affected area around wound
Not only did it help speed wound healing, but it made a measurable improvement in over 84% of wounds!!!! We are talking:
- post operative wounds
- general skin wounds
- infections
- burns
- ulcers
- pressure sores and more!
Honey is all natural, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial, accelerates wound healing and decreases the risk of scarring…. making it the perfect skin supportive, holistic bath soak.
12. Get Extra Sleep:
In addition to the direct skin healing benefits of grounding that we talked about in #7 above, because grounding also improves sleep, that means that collagen repair is enhanced in a second way thanks to grounding.
Recent studies have found a direct correlation between sleep and collagen integrity, suggesting that beauty sleep is real. In this one (published Jan 202o in Nature Cell Biology) researchers found that poor sleep actually caused a decrease in the structural integrity of collagen with an increase in collagen misalignment. So over a lifetime, decreased sleep quality may literally be visible in your skin as your collagen becomes more misaligned, weaker, less elastic, and contributes to accelerated aging.
Conversely, improving sleep over a lifetime helps boost skin healing and even boosts anti-aging benefits by improving collagen integrity and skin repair while you sleep. Grounding helps with that. To read more about how grounding fixes your circadian rhythm and protects deep restorative sleep, hop over here to read this article I wrote for you:
For improved skin vitality, boosted circulation, better wound healing AND deeper beauty sleep at night, grounding is a win-win holistic healing modality. Because grounding is my favorite holistic healing modality, and it’s the most medically studies and verified one, I have organic, hand crafted, eco-ethically USA made grounding tools and offer the to you in my Grounding Boutique right here:
13. Restore Your Gut-Skin Axis:
Did you know that the microbiome in your gut is tied to the microbiome on your skin, and alterations in the gut microbiome is linked to a large number of skin diseases?
Deficiencies in your gut microbiome is linked to an altered immune response and an increase in the development of skin diseases such as eczema, psoriasis, acne, rosacea, alopecia and skin cancer. If you want to read through the medical evidence of how the gut microbiome plays a role in tons of common skin disorders, this review, published in Microorganisms in 2021 is a fabulous overview to start with.
Enter a new way to treat skin conditions: probiotics. A medical literature review just published in Nutrients in 2023 gives strong evidence that probiotics are crucial to long term skin health, and are even anti-aging.
As a result of this latest information on the role of the gut microbiome and long term skin health, I’ve added my favorite skin supportive probiotic formulation to my Skin Repair Protocol here:
14. Re-evaluate your boundaries
Your skin is always speaking to you.
Skin can speak subtly through chronic messages that it whispers to you your entire life… or skin can scream loudly and angrily during acute transitions and times of crisis.
Because our skin replicates so quickly, it is a wonderful mirror for what is going on with the rest of our body and mind:
- If we are anemic, it shows us quickly.
- If we are dehydrated, it shows us quickly.
- If we are malnourished, our skin will lack that robust glow that healthy skin gives.
- If we have been neglecting our selves in other ways, our skin will reveal us.
- If we are unhappy, our skin literally sags.
- If we have lost connection with joy, our skin tells it.
- If we feel ugly, our skin mirrors that.
And because it covers our entire body, every thought we think and every word we say and every intention we ever have passes through our skin on its way to communicate with the outside world. So it doesn’t just protect us from the world… quite the opposite is true too: it translates our inner being to the surface. It shows the world what is going on inside of us.
It is constantly in contact with and intimate with our inner workings. Because of this, skin reflects how we feel about ourselves. Skin forms our barrier, our identity. It forms what we perceive as *us* and delineates *us* from *the rest of the world*. In short, skin represents our personal boundary.
You may want to grab a journal or get into an open meditative mindframe and ask yourself:
- Are you tolerating something that you’d secretly like to say a firm no to?
- Are you letting someone in your energy space that constantly irritates or drains you?
- Do you need to set some healthy boundaries at work?
- Do you need to set clearer boundaries around your time? We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but if you are doing activities you don’t feel aligned with or tending to emotional needs of others constantly, you will find much of that time will disappear and you won’t even know where it all went.
- Do you need to set clearer boundaries between real life and social media, or stop social media entirely (or at least take a break from it for a week or two to see what benefits you receive — perhaps you find you have more time each day, are less drained, and have more time for self care.)
- Do you have a friendship that needs some boundaries clarified and strengthened?
- Do you have a family member that you need to create firmer boundaries and consequences of boundary violations with?
- Do you need more personal space when you are home? Do you have a place where it’s clear to everyone sharing your home that they are not to disturb you?
- Do you need to set boundaries in your sexual relationships?
Double-check that you say no when you need to and have clear boundaries that allow you to do what you truly want to do and enjoy that without guilt.
Enjoy that life giving, mood boosting, beautifully warm radiant sunshine this summer, but do it in a way that protects your skin from too much exposure…
In a nutshell:
- Try to avoid peak hours of sun exposure, going out in morning and evening hours when possible
- Wear a hat and sunglasses
- Avoid yucky chemical sunscreens and use physical sunscreens instead, avoid or reduce self tanner use
- Consider using curcumin and vit B3 to decrease your future skin cancer risk
- Eat fruits and veggies high in antioxidants and flavonoids routinely to nourish your skin from the inside out, add rosemary supplements
- Decrease sugar consumption and restore your skin/gut axis with probiotics
- Get grounded daily, prioritize sleep at night
- & while you are at it, stay well hydrated too, drinking water before, during and after sun exposure.
If you have had this article forwarded to you, be sure to sign up here by entering your email to receive my uplifting weekly newsletter directly into your inbox. And if you can think of someone who could use some uplifting holistic support, forward this email to them too!
Here’s to happy & safe summer days ahead…
xoxox, Laura Koniver MD
References:
- Chevalier G (2014) Grounding the Human Body Improves Facial Blood Flow Regulation: Results of a Randomized, Placebo Controlled Pilot Study. Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications 4:293-308.
- Shaner S, Savelyeva A, Kvartuh A, Jedrusik N, Matter L, et al., (2023) Bioelectronic microfluidic wound healing: a platform for investigating direct current stimulation of injured cell collectives. Lab Chip 23:1531- 1546.
- Oschman J, Chevalier G, Brown R. The effects of grounding (earthing) on inflammation, the immune response, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. J Inflamm Res. 2015;8:83-96 https://doi.org/10.2147/JIR.S69656
- Sokal K, Sokal P. Earthing the human body influences physiologic processes. J Altern Complement Med. 2011 Apr;17(4):301-8. doi: 10.1089/acm.2010.0687. Epub 2011 Apr 6. PMID: 21469913; PMCID: PMC3154031.
- Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Sokal K, Sokal P. Earthing: health implications of reconnecting the human body to the Earth’s surface electrons. J Environ Public Health. 2012;2012:291541.
- Lin C-H, Tseng S-T, Chuang Y-C, Kuo C-E, Chen N-C. Grounding the Body Improves Sleep Quality in Patients with Mild Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Study. Healthcare. 2022; 10(3):581. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10030581
- Joan Chang, Richa Garva, Adam Pickard, Ching-Yan Chloé Yeung, Venkatesh Mallikarjun, Joe Swift, David F. Holmes, Ben Calverley, Yinhui Lu, Antony Adamson, Helena Raymond-Hayling, Oliver Jensen, Tom Shearer, Qing Jun Meng, Karl E. Kadler. Circadian control of the secretory pathway maintains collagen homeostasis. Nature Cell Biology, 2020; 22 (1): 74 DOI: 10.1038/s41556-019-0441-z