We have become a nation of sun worshipers. The golden tan is akin to the national symbol of beauty, and some will do anything to attain it. The sun is very dangerous to your skins health, sure it may feel nice to be warm under the sun. However in actual fact it can be very damaging to your skin and dangerous to your health.

Sun tans are still popular, even though the sun causes damage to your skin. The trick is to tan safely, protecting your skin as much as possible whilst still working on your tan.

When its summer its such a nice feeling, I do not think very many people like the winter. In the summer we do not have to wear the thick clothes, and we can stay outside for longer! We can even have barbeques outside.

The best way to protect your skin from the sun is to use a suntan lotion, but have you ever actually tried to buy one? It can be so confusing! What is a SPF? And what is a UV? There are so many different terms which all add to our confusion.

A natural tan happens because your skin absorbs the UV radiation given off by the sun, this radiation passes through your skin and damages it. Melanin is produced by melanocytes in the skin which makes the skin darken. Almost everybody associates a tan with being healthy, but in actual fact the exact opposite is true. A tan occurs because your skin is already damaged.

The number of UV rays that reach the earth changes each and every day, if you have noticed on the weather report, they will often give a UV index. This shows how many UV rays are reaching the earth at any given time.

UV is invisible, but it is always present. Even during cloudy, overcast days there is still UV light around. Ultraviolet light can be split into two categories, UVA and UVB, both are actually dangerous. Sometimes Ultraviolet light is used to treat certain medical conditions.

Ok so how do you interpret the UV index? Well it is on a scale of 10. The higher the number, the more rays that will reach earth. The higher the index, the less time it will take to burn. And, therefore, the higher the number, the easier it is for you to receive a bad skin burn which can lead to precancerous and canserous growths (especially nodular melanoma - the deadliest of all the skin cancer types with a mortality rate of over 95%).