HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 January 1942, Page 4

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

THERE’S MORE TO SUN-TAN THAN SUN. PRECAUTIONS TO OBSERVE. (By the Health Department). This is rather a touchy subject with some folk round about this time of the year, with the sun-tan season in full swing. Acquiring that healthy-looking bronzed appearance is one of the nicest occupations in the world —if you aren’t in too much of a hurry. Take it easy at the start. Don’t be one of the people who spend their days trying to get brown, and their nights trying to get to sleep. Sunburn isn’t all that it seems to be. It isn’t the sun’s heat that burns you. The ultra-violet rays cause the change in colour. They cannot be felt, and a sensation of heat is no safe guide in regulating your sun-bathing schedule. Mountain climbers have been badly sunburned while climbing in temperatures below zero. If you. burn easily, get your sun tan in the shade. The ultra-violet quality is just the same. Don’t be fooled by a hazy day. Haze is no barrier to ultra-violet. A veil of some thin fabric, red or yellow in colour, is, however, usually effective in delaying sunburn. Water and sand reflect ultra-violet, and. strange though it may seem, if you snuggle up under the shade of a tree right next to the beach, you can be almost as badly burned as if you were stretched out in the sun. While a coat of sun-tan gives you that much-to-be-desired appearance of perfect physical fitness, it is not necessarily a sign of good health. It’s a matter of a substance called melanin. This is a pigment which forms in the deeper layer of the skin as a result of the action of that deceptive ultraviolet light. If you have a good supply of melanin in your tissues, you tan. If the supply is deficient, you may merely burn and freckle; if it is absent, you cannot tan at all. But you get the benefits of sunshine under any of these conditions. And one of the most valuable of these benefits is . the very necessary supply of Vitamin. D, which is formed by the direct action of the sun on the skin.