Oprah: Five Big, Fat Beauty Lies
March 8, 2007 by admin
Filed under Aging Fabulous
As a teen, summer days were spent in the quest for the perfect tan. With cocoa butter and baby oil, my friends and I baked in the midday sun.
Fast forward to adulthood and the breaking news health headline reads: “Eighty percent of your lifetime sun damage occurs before age 18.”
The information has come too late for us, as we are now well past the teen years. The consensus? We are toast. Literally. Left to wait for the sun skin damage to start revealing itself in premature wrinkles and worse yet, skin cancer.
But wait. According to adjunct assistant professor of dermatology at Stanford University School of Medicine Dr Katie Rodan, the dermatologists calculated wrong. “A recent study revealed that we actually get only 23 percent of our total UV exposure by age 18. At 40 it reaches about 46 percent; by 59, 74 percent.”
“No one can say anymore, ‘I’ve already blown it,’” Dr Rodan stated. “You can still prevent sun-induced aging by getting serious about sunscreen.”
This is just one of the beauty myths debunked in the April 2006 issue of Oprah Magazine. Four other beauty myths challenged are: sleep deprivation causes dark under eye circles; greasy food and chocolate cause breakouts; drinking lots of water hydrates the skin and crossing your legs causes varicose veins. To read the truth about these beauty myths, read Five Big, Fat Beauty Lies.
