For many people, summer is the best time of the year: longer days, bright sunshine, evenings sipping cool drinks by the pool, and barbecues with friends and family.
Summer is a season of vacations, adventures, fun and romance. However, there is a downside: with the intensity of the heat and exposure to the sun, this season can be a difficult time for the skin: in addition to the scorching sun, pollutants and other environmental contaminants can affect its shine and glow.
In some respects, the sun is a great friend of the skin: for example, because it stimulates skin synthesis of the vitamin D that performs multiple functions, being essential for calcium and phosphate homeostasis, which thus increases bone density; because it has a antioxidant blocking free radical-induced damage; because it is a powerful anti-inflammatory; because it stimulates the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin responsible for the cheerfulness; because it strengthens the immune system increasing defenses; the sun also has an antibacterial action, thus reducing bacterial infections resulting in improvement of various skin disorders, such as acne.
And it reduces cell hyperproliferation, improving various skin conditions characterized by this disorder, such as psoriasis.
On the other hand, however, the sun can also be a great enemy of the skin: first of all because it causes the onset of cancers.
It is, in fact, attested that many in basal cell carcinomas (tumors with only local invasiveness) affect more people with phototype I and II (photosensitive skin), that is, with light-colored eyes, red or blond hair, who expose themselves intensely and intermittently to the sun, and who have had frequent sunburns during childhood.
And even with regard to spinocellular carcinoma moles, the primary cause is related to cumulative sun exposure. The sun also can experience solar erythema, which is an inflammation of the skin characterized by redness, the appearance of itchy papules and dry skin.
Photoaging is also mainly induced by UVA rays that spread to the deeper layers of the skin, causing loss of elasticity, loss of tone, appearance of wrinkles, dehydration and damage to the skin’s microcirculation. Beware also of the appearance of sunspots, caused by various UV-induced biochemical mechanisms.
What are spots caused by sun exposure
“Solar lentigo,” commonly called “skin spots” or “sunspots,” are troublesome blemishes that appear as irregularly shaped, ill-defined patches typically in sun-exposed areas. Their color can vary from hazelnut, reddish, brown, and dark brown, while their size can be a few millimeters to one or more centimeters.
The most commonly affected sites are the face, décolleté, shoulders, back of the hands, forearms, and all sites that have been most exposed to sunlight throughout life.
The sun is mainly responsible for their occurrence. In fact, ultraviolet rays interfere with melanogenesis, which is the mechanism that leads to the synthesis of melanin (the pigment that colors our skin), resulting in increased melanin production and the appearance of solar lentigo.
Solar lentigo occurs indifferently in both men and women. People over the age of 60 are the most affected, although solar lentigo can occur even before the age of 40, especially as a result of repeated sunburn.
Melasma, on the other hand, is an acquired hyperpigmentation of the face that most commonly affects women of childbearing age. Unlike solar lentigo, which appears well circumscribed in relation to the surrounding skin, melasma diffusely and symmetrically affects the midfacial region, i.e., forehead, nose, cheeks, upper lip, and chin.
The causes of this condition are unknown, but it is possible to observe melasma more:
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during pregnancy (it is then named chloasma gravidarum);
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With prolonged taking of the birth control pill.
This observation suggests that underlying this is a hormonal stimulation that can increase melanin synthesis by melanocytes.
Who to contact to remove sunspots with the latest generation lasers
Among the most renowned centers in Italy that use innovative laser technologies to Remove skin spots on the face and body in a highly selective and painless manner, we find the Biomedic Clinic & Research, a Multi-Specialty Medical Center for Integrated Medicine located. in Villa Guardia, in the province of Como, which has been combining the use of biophysical systems with conventional medicine for more than 30 years.
Two types of lasers are used for this treatment: The Q-switched N-D-Yag Laser the Fractional Erbium Laser.
The Q-switched laser emits its beam of light by directing itself directly at a predefined target, such as the dark skin pigment (melanin): the brevity and specificity of the beam of light thus limit the emission of heat to surrounding tissues, preventing damage in areas where the laser is not needed and concentrating efficacy only where it is needed, that is, on spots.
Chloasma or epidermal melasma (dark patches of pigmentation at sun-exposed skin areas, usually on the face) and acquired or congenital pigmented lesions (melanocytic lesions diagnosed as benign), can be treated successfully and minimally invasively with the Q-switched laser.
Fractional Erbium Laser offers excellent results with less downtime and discomfort than traditional fully ablative laser resurfacing, without compromising the result.
Because this laser produces less heat than other resurfacing lasers, it allows damaged skin to be gently and comfortably removed layer by layer. It also causes less postoperative redness and swelling, allowing a faster healing process.
