Is Blue Light Creating More Skin Damage Than Sunlight?
Well things have taken a funny turn over here. As I sit in isolation in a country that is not my own, in a hotel room with my partner, wondering what words of wisdom I can try and impart this week. I’m day 7 out of 14 and what have I noticed thus far? I’m so grateful to be healthy, to have someone here with me and to be able to see the sky and open a window. Its such a strange time isn’t it.
The main thing I’ve noticed is my screen addiction is raging I don’t know about you guys but that need for constant mental stimulation when you cant go outside is uncontrollable sometimes. My screen time is up and whilst I made a pact to myself to workout daily, and do lots of facial massage I’m wondering what the impact of all of this screen time is having on my skin and what I can do.
I know lots of you have jobs that involve sitting at a desk in front of a computer, with the addition of a smart phone and a TV too theres no escaping that blue light. Especially now so many of you are working from home.
“We are now seeing increasing data on the potential long-term harms of visible light, and in particular blue light, on our skin.” – Dr Stefanie Williams, Dermatologist.
So we know we can make some effort to protect our eyes, there are some super cute glasses out there now, my current ones are from an Australian company via Asos, I’ll pop a link at the bottom for you. It’s helpful to have a few pairs that wear differently so as to avoid rubbing or pressure building up on the bridge of the nose or behind the ears. There are styles out there for everyone now which is amazing. I noticed an immediate difference in that my headaches stopped and so did my partner so I highly recommend a pair.
Right onto our skin, what impact is blue light also known as high-energy visible or HEV light having on our skin?
Its not a great line up we’ve got potential pigmentation, inflammation and a loss of elasticity showing up as wrinkles and sagging. Holy Moly, writing it down is making me want to close my laptop immediately. The main problem we face is that as humans we rarely take action for our greater health until an irritating symptom occurs. The downside of HEV there is no immediate sign that damage is occurring unlike sunburn for example. The damage will begin to appear over time when it is then harder to reverse/manage.
“Spending four eight-hour workdays in front of a computer exposes you to the same amount of energy as 20 minutes in the mid-day sun. To put this in perspective, seven minutes of sun exposure at 1pm is powerful enough to induce immediate tanning”. – Dr Murad
OK so less doom and gloom. We’re already using SPF, hats, and using ’all singing all dancing’ skincare now we’ve got to deal with HEV light….the good news is your skincare may already be doing the work you just don’t know about it.
The problem with HEV light is it penetrates deep into the skin creating oxidative stress, creating free radicals. What do we know about hoovering up free radicals? All together now – anti oxidents. So we need to ensure our skincare is loaded with antioxidants, and we are eating a diet rich in antioxidants, so were protecting ourselves from all angles.
When I created Kyushi the great blue light debate wasn’t really talked about, not as much as it is now but I’m pleased to report that all of the face oils offer some level of support against HEV light as they are jam packed full of antioxidents. The hero of this piece though has to be the Power of Ten, jam packed with a host of potent antioxidents.
Our skin is naturally rich in Vitamin E but our stores get used up when exposed to free radicals (think UV, Blue light, environmental factors such as pollution) Your skincare should be repairing and protecting all in one go.
So in conclusion to protect from this new normal of blue light.
Switching your phone to night mode in settings
Blue light blocking filters on your phone/IPad/laptop I use this one
Use skincare full of potent antioxidents like Kyushi Power of Ten
Eat a diet rich in Antioxidents which you can find in Fruits and Vegetables. Eat the rainbow so to speak.
Sending Love x