Natural Sunburn Remedies
Sunburns can be one of the biggest beauty faux pas, and when it comes to keeping your skin healthy and youthful looking for as long as possible, you must keep sunburns away, or at least severely at a minimum. This is a critical part of anyones anti aging and wrinkle prevention program. Protect, protect, protect! Everyone loves to go outside on a sunny day. No matter how many times we hear that we always need to protect our skin with sunblock, there are those times we forget or we miss a few spots with the sunblock.
The best protection from sunburn is prevention. But if you do wind up with a sunburn, there are some natural remedies you can use to relieve the pain and speed healing. First of all, drink lots of water to replenish the needed moisture for your skin. Don’t drink caffeinated drinks or alcohol as they are diuretics and will cause you to lose moisture.
Try a cool to lukewarm bath and add some baking soda or oatmeal. Cool slices of cucumber placed directly on the skin will soothe your sunburn. Other items you may use for soothing are cold yogurt or a bit of vinegar.
Your quality of diet following a sunburn will effect healing. A diet rich in antioxidants will speed the healing process for your skin. You should include 5 or 6 servings of foods high in antioxidants per day. Some examples of these foods would include citrus, berries, mango, papaya, dark leafy greens, broccoli, nuts, seeds and legumes.
For the itchiness of your skin from the sunburn, try cold compresses or calamine lotion. Scratching your skin should be avoided because it will only increase pain and the chance of infection.
Ointments made with aloe or a paste made with the Indian herb, country mallow, can help to soothe and cool your sunburn. Do not apply to broken skin.
You can mix your own soothing combination for sunburn relief. Take the contents of 6 capsules of vitamin A and 6 capsules of vitamin E and mix with 1/4 cup of flaxseed oil. Apply this mixture to the affected area.
As your sunburn starts to peel, don’t pull, but gently remove any dried fragments. Topically apply hydrocortisone cream or antiseptic ointment to the area.
If sunburn is severe, with chills, fever, nausea or swelling, then it is an emergency and you could have second degree burns. In this situation, you would bypass home remedies and seek the care of a physician.
