Sunscreen really should be the last resort. Your first priority should be to stay out of the sun. If you are in the sun, protective clothing will protect you better than sunscreen.

London:

For those of you who find the mess, smell and cost of putting on sunscreen a major seasonal irritation, there is good news, of a sort. According to a recent study published in the medical journal the Lancet, there is no conclusive proof that sunscreens actually prevent skin cancer. The only safe approach to sun protection is to stay out of the sun as much as you can and to cover up with sun-protective clothing and a hat when you are out in it.

According to dermatologist John Hawk, a skin-cancer specialist and spokesperson for the British Skin Foundation, the problem is not in the products themselves - which can be very effective - but the way in which we use them. “Very good research suggests that most people don’t use sunscreen properly,” he says. “They go out on a cloudy day in the middle of summer thinking that they don’t need sunscreen. They don’t realise that they have to apply sunscreen 15-20minutes before going out, and then every hour or two after that. And they don’t apply enough, because it is messy, boring and expensive. For all these reasons, they get cancer.”

“Fair-skinned or freckly people are most at risk,” says Hawk. “Black and Asian skins tend not to get cancer, but they do age in the sun.” Men are particularly bad at sun protection as studies show they tend to think putting on cream or lotions is not masculine.

Anything that stops you getting sun on your skin is going to reduce your chances of melanoma (the most deadly form of skin cancer) and could mean fewer wrinkles. But, says consultant dermatologist Dr Richard Turner, of the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, UK.” Sunscreen really should be the last resort. Your first priority should be to stay out of the sun. If you are in the sun, protective clothing will protect you better than sunscreen.” Of course, allowing for the fact that many people will strip off on a hot day, your final line of defence for the bits of your body that are not swathed in fabric should be to use an effective sunscreen and use it properly. But choosing from the range of available sunscreen can be an ordeal.

It is more a matter of taste than science, providing you get the basics right. Your sunscreen should offer protection against both UVB and UVA rays. UVB rays are more harmful, and are the main cause of burning, cancer and ageing, says Hawk; UVA rays are around all day, year round, and have mostly an ageing effect.

Getting too hung up on what sun protection factor (SPF) actually means — for instance, how many minutes an SPF 15 will allow you versus an SPF 30 - is basically pointless. “Since the protection will disappear after a couple of hours whatever SPF you are using, just go for the highest SPF you can find - 50 or above, if possible,” says Hawk. This way, if you don’t put on enough you’ll at least get a bit more protection than you would with a lower SPF.

Cosmetic frills aside, then, expensive sunblocks will not necessarily protect your skin any better than the cheap ones. Combine this with avoiding the sun between 11am and 3pm, and covering up with decent protective clothing when you can, and you will do your skin a huge favour in summer.

Exercise keeps obese women fit

Washington: Just a few minutes of exercise every day could help improve fitness and health of women who are inactive and overweight, US scientists say.

Conducting tests on overweight and obese women, many of whom had high blood pressure, researchers at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge found that even ten minutes of exercise a day improved their fitness and toned them up enough to lower their overall risk of early death. The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association is the first to reinforce with concrete medical data that exercise does not have to be an all-or-nothing venture, and lead researcher Timothy Church says the information should be used to encourage sedentary adults to find the time for some activity each week.

While everyone knows that exercise is good for you, 20 percent of US adults admit they do no exercise at all and most do not get as much as is recommended, reported health portal News Medical.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health recommend at least half an hour of moderate exercise to reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer.

The Institute of Medicine, which advises the US government, says people need to get themselves slightly out of breath for close to an hour every day. — HNS