Daily sunscreen helps middle-aged skin stay young: study

Alan Mozes

HealthDay Reporter

Monday, June 3 (HealthDay new) - in the never-ending search for the fountain of youth, scientists have searched everywhere under the Sun. But now a report group of Australian researchers that the answer lies out of the Sun.

Regular daily use of sunscreen seems to slow down considerably the process of aging of the skin in women and middle-aged men, they say.

The conclusion follows from 4.5 years spent tracking use of sunscreen and its ultimate impact on the quality of the skin among more than 900 men and women aged under 55 years.

"This has been one of these beauty tips, you hear often cited, but for the first time that we can return with the science," said the co-author of the Adele Green, head of laboratory and senior fellow research study with the Queensland Institute of Medical Research at Royal Brisbane Hospital. "How to protect yourself from skin cancer by using sunscreen regularly has the added benefit of look you younger."

"And the study showed that up to middle age, it's not too late to make a difference," said Green, who also suggested that the use of sunscreen is likely to benefit in the same way those over 55, although his team did not specifically assess a potential advantage among older users.

The conclusions appear in the issue June 4 of Annals of Internal Medicine.

Perhaps surprisingly, the authors point out that, to their knowledge, their current effort is the first rigorous scientific exploration of the potential protective effect of sunscreen on the aging of the skin in people.

Green and his team looked at data collected in a study on the prevention of the skin cancer conducted between 1992 and 1996 to Nambour, Australia.

The authors focused on 903 complexion for most men and women who were under the age of 55 years, assuming that aging in this age of the skin are brought mainly by what is called "photoaging", as opposed to simply grow old.

About half of the participants worked mostly outdoors, so that approximately four out of ten were regular smokers.

All participants were assigned at random to two groups of solar protection. The first was specifically designed to use a Sunscreen SPF 15 on a daily basis, applying to their head, neck, arms and hands every morning and reapply after swimming, heavy sweating or spend a few hours outside.

The second group was not informed to avoid sunscreen, but rather use it as they wished.

The study also assessed the potential impact of dietary antioxidants on the quality of the skin. Each group of participants was divided in half, during which a subgroup was given 30 milligrams of beta carotene to take daily, while the other was given a sugar pill (placebo).

Using a process called «microtopography», the team analyzed then skin changes such as changes in the texture and roughness, by looking at the status of the left hand of each participant.