Heliotherapy at the service of the human body and its well-being

As France begins a fourth week of containment, the weather is good. Fanny Agostini encourages you to take advantage of it in order to do you good, thanks to a sun treatment, whose rays are essential to our body. But watch out for overheating.

Fanny, confinement or not the watchword to feel good at the moment is heliotherapy: to do good with the sun.

Our skin is made to absorb UVA. The skin, which we recall is the most voluminous organ in the human body. Its surface in adults is between 1.50 and 2 square meters. Imagine that our epidermis is like a large solar panel, capable of capturing these famous UVA rays to convert part of the cholesterol into vitamin D3, and thus fix calcium and phosphorus on the bones.

A study shows that after a long period of exposure to the sun spread over several days, what is called osteogenic activity, i.e. the formation of bone, increases by 10%.

To take advantage of solar radiation it would be important not to wash?

Washing before exposure is a mistake because hard water and soap will inhibit the natural protective action of the upper layer of our skin and you risk sunburn more easily.

Another parameter that interacts with exposure to the sun is our diet. The best is that it is rich in antioxidant. Bet on raw vegetables preferably. Conversely, reduce the sugar. Research has shown that sugars are harmful to collagens and accelerate the aging of the skin by drying it faster, which does not mix well with the sun.

Finally you tell us that the sunglasses would be false friends?

Words of navigator, like France Guillain who abandoned the glasses for the cap. The drawback of sunglasses is that they will filter out part of the UV, thus depriving our brain, via the retina, of precious natural light information. This somewhat skews our perception and does not allow us to be informed in real time of the intensity of solar radiation which tells us to take shelter before blushing lobster.

Soak up the sun over the next few days, taking into account your skin type and not exaggerating the duration of daily exposure.