Skin Cancer, Sunscreen and SPF

Up to the early 1980's, sunscreens and sunblocks were religiously believed to be only for beach applications. The Australians have been the largest and most faithful users of sunscreens and sunblocks, and yet they have the world's highest skin cancer patients.

How UV-rays damage the skin
The epidermis, the outer-most layer of our skin, is no thicker than the normal writing paper. About 90% of the skin mass is collagen - a large protein that contributes to the skin form, function and strength. Collagen is the principal recipient of UV-induced skin damage. The UV-rays suppress collagen production by turning off the collagen-producing genes. Simultaneously, UV-rays activate collagen digestion by stimulating production of the destructive enzymes. Each occurrence will damage the skin with a micro rupture. Over the years, the micro-rupture will become macro, leading to prematurely wrinkled skin and hyper-pigmentation.

Is walking under the shade and staying indoor safe?
In his early years in the beauty industry, Dr. Pierre witnessed countless cases of premature-aging (UV-induced photo-aging) and hyper-pigmentation among his large customer base of helpless men and women. No Skin Care products in the market could address the problem of the day then. Day creams were made only to moisturize the skin. From his years of painstaking observation, Dr. Pierre discovered that the cumulative effect of the daily micro skin damage caused by indirect exposure to UV rays is as harmful. A few minutes walk under the shade outside, or staying indoors (with lots of natural lighting) is still unsafe. In our tropical climate, the UV-rays are intense. So long your eyes can see an object there are visible rays present, so as UV-rays, since UV-rays are directly beside the visible-rays in the light spectrum. So, there's no need to lie under the hot sun at the beach to get UV-induced skin damage. A small daily dose is enough to do harm over the years.

The Revolutionary Dr. Pierre Herbal Cosmeceuticals 3-in-1 Sunscreen Day Cream
Pierre saw the urgent need to do something to turn the tide. So, in 1983 he researched and developed the first revolutionary sunscreen day cream with an SPF 8 (that is, ability to protect the skin 8 times longer than an unprotected skin). He incorporated 3 application functions in the cream - as Sunscreen, Makeup Foundation and as Moisturizing Day Cream! Today, Dr. Pierre has 4 unqiue anti-UV formulations in his line of Hernal Cosmeceuticals products.

DR. PIERRE Herbal Cosmeceuticals products vs the Competition
Making Skin Care product is no big deal, because most Skin Care manufacturers made them with Free Standard Formulations obtained from their Chemical/Raw Material suppliers. However, every DR. PIERRE product is uniquely researched and developed by Dr. Pierre himself to yield that unique efficacy and effectiveness that Free Standard Formulations could not deliver. DR. PIERRE products render fast positive results and yield a much silkier, radiant, youthful and baby-soft skin within days!

Countless people globally have benefited from Dr. Pierre's unique and revolutionary concoctions.

Is Higher SPF better?
Over the years, several competitors followed Dr. Pierre's footsteps, with several companies trying to outdo one another by offering SPF indices of up to as high as 100, in the expense and risk of the end-users! These companies irresponsibly (or ignorantly) educate end-users into believing that the higher the SPF the better. Dr. Pierre instantly saw the immense risk and warned the general consumer public (in the U.S. in particular) against using sunscreens with SPF that's higher than 15.

Reasons:
1. To yield higher SPF, higher concentrations of UV-absorbers need to be used. These are chemical block ingredients and will cause serious skin sensitizing.
2. UV-absorbers, while blocking UV-ray penetration into skin, absorb UV-rays and allow them to accumulate on the skin surface. Over time, via radiation delayed pigmentation and photo-aging results.
3. The extremely high SPF gives end-users a false sense of safety, and will prompt them to expose more and longer to direct sun. This will lead to amplified accumulation of much larger doses of UV-rays, thus larger doses of UV radiation through the skin, and a much higher chance of contracting skin cancer.
4. An unprotected skin of an average Caucasian will take about 15 to 20 minutes to show the first sign of Erythema under the direct hot sun. So, an SPF 100 sunscreen is supposed to protect the skin 25 to 33 hours longer (100 X 15 / 60; 100 X 20 / 60 ). However, the Sun never appears that long! And for the Chinese, with an average time of 25 to 30 minutes of exposure before the first sign of Erythema appears, SPF 100 translates into 42 to 50 hours of protection!
5. For lower SPF product, it requires only a little of or no UV-absorbers. Dr. Pierre use physical block ingredients, which work by reflecting and deflecting the UV-rays, thus rendering the UV-rays little chance to accumulate on the skin surface.
Today, several papers have been published by researchers on the risk of high SPF products. The FDA has issued a cap to limit labels of SPF to 30 max.

Article by Dr. Pierre