Sunburn: The right treatment with home remedies
What is sunburn?
Sunburn is an inflammatory reaction of the skin to the UV components in the sun’s rays. UV radiation penetrates the skin, destroys the cell tissue present there and the blood vessels dilate immediately, causing the skin to turn red. At the same time, increased blood flow, which means the body heats up, and possible blistering are associated with sunburn.
Symptoms of a sunburn
Not only an obviously reddened skin can be a symptom of a sunburn. Other side effects can also occur. Common symptoms can include:
- reddening of the skin
- increased blood flow
- blistering
- Fever
- nausea
- Vomit
- dizziness
- tinnitus
How to treat sunburn
If you or your child has sunburn, it is important to treat it as quickly as possible. You can take the following measures to successfully relieve sunburn:
- Drink a lot: Since the body is deprived of a lot of fluid when it gets sunburnt, it is necessary to compensate for this loss of fluid by drinking plenty of fluids.
- Avoid the sun: Basically, the first thing to do is avoid the sun so that the condition of the sunburn cannot worsen in this way. Shade offers you and your child protection from the sun. But keep in mind that you and your child are not completely safe from UV radiation there either. Some of the sun’s rays are reflected, for example, by house walls, light-colored floors or bodies of water.
- Cooling: In the case of sunburn, it is necessary to cool the affected areas of the skin. Cooling can be done with wet compresses or with cool showers. The cool-down should be cold, but not freezing, otherwise metabolic problems or hypothermia could occur. To cool and thus alleviate sunburn, you can also use an after-sun lotion that has a high water content but only a low fat content. Such lotions are dermatologically designed for sunburn and also have a cooling and soothing effect on inflamed skin.
Note:Cooling with envelopes made of yoghurt or quark is not advisable, as they can cause infections due to the bacteria they contain. Attempts at relief with flour, powder or oil are also questionable, since these agents could also increase the risk of infection. Under no circumstances should perfumed care products be used in the event of sunburn, as this could lead to skin irritation that only aggravates the condition of the sunburn.
Going to the doctor with sunburn?
In the case of a particularly bad sunburn, the measures that you can personally take against the skin irritation are no longer sufficient. You should definitely consult a doctor in the following cases:
- If the skin is very red
- If blisters form – caution: If blisters have actually formed as a result of sunburn, you should under no circumstances open the blisters yourself, as otherwise there is a risk of infection.
- In case of sunstroke , which is accompanied by headache , nausea, vomiting.
- In case of heat stroke
- Sunburn in babies and young children
From a purely external point of view, the skin recovers relatively quickly from sunburn. After a few days of sunburn, the upper layers of the skin peel, which is complete after about five to eight days. Then everything seems the way it used to be. However, this assumption is a fallacy, since the UV rays burned into the skin and caused damage to the genetic material there. The risk of skin cancer increases with every sunburn.