Sunburn

Hi Everyone,

I am just posting a query about the sun because yesterday I got sunburnt on my face and chest. I live in the North of Ireland and have been so depressed all winter without any sunlight. It has been a particularly long, grey, wet winter here and suddenly at the weekend and yesterday the sun came out big-time and we had hot weather and blue skies. I work from home and decided to do my editing on my back deck yesterday. I have been desperate to get my Vitamin D from the sun and thought I was going to have to wait for my two week holiday to Spain in late June, early July so I was thrilled with the sun yesterday!

I basked in the sun for several hours without any sunscreen and ate my lunch outside too. I really didn't realise that I was getting burnt. I suppose I just assumed that the sun in Northern Ireland is very rarely hot enough to burn anyone especially in April. We very rarely even have hot sun in the summer months here. It usually rains most of the summer.

Anyway, I woke up this morning and my chest and face are bright red. I have fairly pale celtic skin although I have tanned nicely in the past if I use a high factor sunscreen. I hate using chemicals on my skin so for the past few years I have used a sunscreen by Carribean Blue which only has zinc oxide and herbal ingredients. I found it very effective on my skin and on my 5-year-old son's skin and we didn't burn at all in Greece last year in July. The only thing is that since following 811 I thought I would like to get more sun on my bare skin. I thought it would be good for me and help me get some much-needed Vit. D. I am also a bit wary now of micronised zinc oxide as I have heard that the micro particles can be totally absorbed into the body as they are so tiny.

What are other people's views on this? What is the best thing to do in future? Should I continue to use the natural sunscreen I have or should I not use any at all? Is the sun damaging to the body or not?

Thanks for any help,

Janet