How to Protect Your Skin From Visible Light | Lab Muffin Beauty Science
Summary
TLDRLab Muffin's video delves into the effects of visible light, particularly blue light, on skin health. It explains the difference between UV, visible, and infrared light, highlighting that blue and violet light, due to their high energy, can cause skin damage similar to UV rays. The video discusses the impact of different colors in the visible spectrum on skin, emphasizing that blue light can lead to pigmentation and free radical production. It suggests protection methods, including the use of antioxidants and avoiding direct exposure to light, and hints at upcoming content on blue light from screens.
Takeaways
- 💡 Visible light, particularly blue and violet light, can cause skin damage, similar to UV rays.
- 🌞 The Sun's light consists of 3-7% UV, 44% visible light, and 53% infrared radiation.
- 🔵 Blue and violet light, which fall between 400-500 nanometers, have higher energy and are most likely to damage the skin.
- 🔬 Research on the effects of visible light on the skin is still developing, and past studies may not be fully accurate.
- ⚠️ Blue light increases skin pigmentation and dark spots, especially in people with darker skin tones.
- 🧬 Free radicals produced by blue light can damage skin cells, leading to aging and other skin issues.
- 🟥 Red light, unlike blue light, doesn't harm skin and may even speed up skin recovery.
- 🧴 Sunscreens with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are less effective against visible light, but iron oxide in foundations can offer some protection.
- 🍃 Antioxidants like vitamin E and certain plant extracts can help reduce skin damage from visible light.
- 🕶️ Avoiding exposure through shade, hats, and clothing is a recommended strategy to protect the skin from visible light damage.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video script by Lab Muffin?
-The main focus of the video script is to discuss the effects of visible light, particularly blue light, on the skin and how it can cause damage similar to UV rays.
What are the three types of light emitted by the Sun mentioned in the script?
-The three types of light emitted by the Sun mentioned are ultraviolet (UV) light, visible light, and infrared (IR) radiation.
What is the energy level of UV light compared to visible light and infrared light?
-UV light has shorter wavelengths and higher energy compared to visible light and infrared light, which have longer wavelengths and lower energy respectively.
Why is blue light of particular interest when discussing visible light damage to the skin?
-Blue light is of particular interest because it, along with violet light, has the shortest wavelengths and highest energy within the visible light spectrum, making it more likely to cause damage to the skin.
What is HEV light and why is it significant?
-HEV light stands for high-energy visible light, which includes blue and violet light. It is significant because it has been found to cause damage to the skin similar to UV damage due to its high energy.
How does the damage caused by blue light compare to that caused by UV light?
-While both blue light and UV light cause skin damage, they have different effects. UV light directly damages DNA and causes specific microscopic changes in the skin, whereas blue light is thought to cause damage through the production of nitric oxide and free radicals.
What role do free radicals play in the skin damage caused by visible light?
-Free radicals, produced by visible light, are highly reactive and can attack substances in the skin like DNA and proteins, leading to skin damage that results in an uneven texture.
How do different colors of visible light affect the skin differently according to the script?
-Different colors of visible light can have opposite effects on the skin. For example, blue light has been shown to cause skin cell death and increase pigmentation, while red light has no effect on cell death and can speed up skin recovery.
What is the difference in the pigmentation caused by UVA1 and visible light in people with darker skin?
-UVA1 causes a grayish pigment that slowly turns brown, while visible light causes a brown pigmentation immediately.
How much more visible light is needed compared to UV light to have a noticeable effect on the skin?
-Studies have found that between 8 to 30 times as much visible light is needed compared to UV light in terms of joules per square centimeter to have a noticeable effect on the skin.
What are some ways to protect the skin from visible light damage?
-Some ways to protect the skin from visible light damage include using products with antioxidants, staying in the shade, wearing hats and protective clothing, and using ingredients like iron oxide that can protect against visible light.
Outlines
🌞 Understanding Blue Light and Skin Damage
The video script discusses the impact of visible light, specifically blue light, on the skin. It explains the difference between UV rays, visible light, and infrared radiation, highlighting that while the Sun emits a spectrum of light, it's the high-energy visible (HEV) light, particularly blue and violet, that has the potential to cause skin damage. The script delves into how blue light, due to its shorter wavelength and higher energy, can lead to the production of nitric oxide and free radicals, which are known to attack DNA and proteins in the skin, leading to aging and pigmentation issues. The research on visible light's effects is not as advanced as that on UV light, but emerging studies suggest that blue and violet light can have similar damaging effects as UV, especially in individuals with darker skin tones.
🛡️ Protecting Skin from Visible Light
This paragraph explores methods of protecting the skin from the damaging effects of visible light. It clarifies that traditional mineral sunscreens, which contain zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, are not effective against visible light as they primarily absorb UVA and UVB rays. The script suggests that iron oxide, an ingredient commonly found in foundations, can offer some protection against visible light. Additionally, the use of antioxidants, such as a mixture containing vitamin E, feverfew, and soy, can help neutralize free radicals caused by visible light exposure. The video also emphasizes the importance of avoiding direct exposure to light, recommending staying in the shade, wearing hats, and protective clothing as effective preventative measures.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Visible Light
💡Blue Light
💡UV Rays
💡Infrared Radiation
💡HEV Light
💡Free Radicals
💡Antioxidants
💡Pigmentation
💡Mineral Sunscreens
💡Iron Oxide
💡Skin Tone
Highlights
Visible light, especially blue and violet light, can cause skin damage similar to UV radiation.
Blue light, also known as HEV (High-Energy Visible) light, has higher energy than other colors of visible light, making it more damaging to the skin.
Research on visible light's impact on skin is less advanced than UV research, and older studies may have mixed UV and visible light, leading to unclear results.
Blue light has been shown to cause skin cells to die, slow down skin recovery, and increase pigmentation, particularly in people with darker skin.
In contrast, red light can promote skin recovery and does not increase pigmentation, showing that different colors of visible light have varied effects on the skin.
Blue and violet light can produce free radicals like nitric oxide, which can damage DNA and proteins in the skin.
Free radicals from blue light can slow down skin cell production and break down collagen, leading to uneven skin texture and aging.
Visible light does not directly damage DNA like UV light but can still cause significant skin damage, particularly through free radical production.
UV and visible light affect skin differently: visible light causes brown pigmentation, while UVA1 causes a grayish pigment that later turns brown.
People with darker skin are more susceptible to pigmentation from visible light, with 30 minutes of midday summer sunlight in Texas being enough to cause visible light damage.
Mineral sunscreens, even with thick layers, are not effective at protecting against visible light, despite common misconceptions.
Iron oxide, commonly found in foundation, is effective at protecting against visible light, but there's no standard measurement for this protection like SPF for UV.
Antioxidants, such as vitamin E and feverfew, can reduce free radicals from visible light by half, providing some protection for the skin.
Avoiding light exposure, using shade, hats, and clothing, can be more effective at protecting the skin from visible light damage than relying solely on skincare products.
Future topics include discussing the potential skin damage from blue light emitted by screens, such as phones, laptops, and tablets.
Transcripts
it's lab muffin here your resident beauty science nerd and today we're
going to be talking about visible light more specifically we're going to be
talking about blue light and what that does to your skin we all know about UV
rays from the Sun damaging your skin and you might have also heard of infrared
radiation but what about the wavelengths of light that we can actually see will
they damage your skin how can you protect your skin from visible light
let's take a closer look the Sun produces a lot of light as well as the
wavelengths of light that we can see which is called visible light
there's also ultraviolet or UV light which has shorter wavelengths and higher
energy UV is one of the main causes of aging skin on the other side at longer
wavelengths than visible light there's low energy infrared or IR radiation the
energy from the Sun that we get on earth is about three to seven percent UV 44%
visible light and 53% infrared even though there's less UV in total UV ends
up causing more damage because each individual UV particle or photon has
more energy it's like being hit with a single bullet or being hit with a bunch
of balled up tissues that way the same as ten bullets but there's been more
research that's been finding that visible and infrared wavelengths can
also cause skin damage
so why is blue light the color that everyone's interested in and not the
other colors like red or yellow? most of the time when people say blue light what
they really mean is blue and violet light and the reason why these colors
are more damaging is because of physics shorter wavelengths of electromagnetic
radiation from the Sun have more energy in sunlight UV has the shortest
wavelengths which is up to 400 nanometers visible light is longer from
400 to 700 nanometers so it's lower in energy
infrared has longer wavelengths from 700 nanometers to 1 millimeter and out of
these 3 it has the lowest energy if we zoom into the visible light region the
order of the colors is ROYGBIV red orange yellow green blue indigo and
violet infrared is past the red end while ultraviolet is past the violet
end blue and violet have the shortest wavelengths of the visible region around
400 to 500 nanometers and therefore out of all of these colors it's got the
highest energy so these colors of light are the ones that are the most likely to
cause damage that's similar to the UV sun damage that we've been researching
for years and years because of their higher energy blue and violet light is
often called HEV light which stands for high-energy visible light
the research on the impact of blue and visible light on your skin isn't as
advanced as the research on UV so it's a bit less clear exactly how it causes
damage to your skin and to make it more confusing older studies on the effects
of blue light aren't as valid because the electromagnetic spectrum is a
continuous spectrum there isn't any sort of strict divide between
ultraviolet and visible-light except for what human eyes can and can't see a lot
of the time the lights used in the older studies actually produce UV as well as
blue and violet light this means that the effects that they found could have
been from the stray UV light and not actually because of the visible blue and
violet light at all here's what the research shows so far about light and
skin just like how UVA and UVB have different effects on the skin different
parts of the visible light spectrum can also have different effects depending on
their wavelength which translates to color or energy different colors in the
visible light spectrum can even have opposite effects on your skin here's
what the studies have found in cultured human skin cells in in vitro studies
blue light caused skin cells to die while red light had no effect in animal
studies blue light slowed down skin recovery after it was irritated while
red light sped it up and green and white light didn't make a difference in people
with dark skin blue light increased pigment and caused dark spots on the
skin while red light didn't so far it seems that blue and violet light are the
colors of visible light that caused the most damage to skin and it seems like
they caused this damage by producing nitric oxide free radicals these free
radicals are really reactive because they have an unpaired electron which
means that they can attack other substances in your skin like DNA and
proteins I've talked about free radicals before in my video on antioxidants that
I've linked in the caption below there's a lot of different types of damage that
free radicals can cause they can slow down skin cell production and they can
break down collagen for example so with all this free radical damage you end up
with damaged skin that looks more uneven
in texture even though both visible light and UV light both cause skin
damage it's important to note that they have different effects on your skin so
you can't compare the two types of light directly for example visible light
doesn't directly damage DNA but UV does visible light also doesn't cause the
same microscopic changes in your skin that UV does UV for example increases
inflammatory interleukin 8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha and p53 which is a
tumor protein that suppresses cancer both UV and visible light caused
pigmentation or skin darkening in people with darker skin but the pigment caused
by visible light lasts longer than the pigment caused by the longer wavelengths
of UV called UVA1 the exact color of the pigment is also different UVA1
causes your skin to get a grayish pigment that slowly turns brown after a
while but visible light causes pigment that's brown straight away
you also need different amounts or doses of UV and visible light to have a
noticeable effect on skin each particle or photon of UV has more energy than
each photon of visible light so again it's like a bullet versus a balled up
tissue but the total energy to have an effect on your skin is also different so
with the tissue analogy not only do you need enough balls of tissue to get the
same weight as a bullet you actually need a whole lot more different studies
have found that you need between 8 and 30 times as much visible light as UV in
terms of the units for light energy which is joules per square centimeter
the effects of visible light also depends on the type of skin you have in
terms of skin tone in one study none of the tested
amounts of visible light caused pigmentation in people with light
fitzpatrick II skin but people with darker fitzpatrick IV to VI skin
developed more pigment the smallest amount of visible light that causes
pigmentation in all of the dark-skinned people in one study was 40 joules per
square centimeter this translates to about 30 minutes of sunlight in midday
in summer in Texas one theory for why visible light has different effects on
dark skin and light skin is that visible light might interact with melanin to
form damaging free radicals the ones that I talked about earlier so if you
want to protect your skin from visible light what can you do you might have
guests with mineral sunscreens that contain zinc oxide and titanium dioxide
but that's not quite right even though a lot of people call these
ingredients physical blockers they don't actually work that way they mostly work
just like organic also called chemical sunscreens that absorb some wavelengths
so even in studies where they used a really thick layer of mineral sunscreen
they still didn't protect against visible light but there are some
ingredients that can help iron oxide which is used as the main pigment in
foundations is effective at protecting your skin against visible light but
there isn't a standard for measuring how well any sort of product protects
against visible light so there isn't a well-used measure for how well something
protects against visible light like how we have SPF for UVB and PPD for UVA
since visible light causes damage via free radicals antioxidants can also soak
them up which I've talked about before in another video the one that I've
linked in the description one study found that the free radicals from
visible light were halved when an antioxidant mixture with vitamin E and
feverfew and soy was used on people's skin and
just like with UV avoiding exposure to light can work better than just using
skin care products you can stay in the shade
you can wear hats and clothes as well to protect your skin from visible light
damage and that's all for today's video I hope you liked it and you learned
something new next time I'll be talking about whether or not you should be
worried about skin damage from blue light from screens like your laptop
phone tablet or computer stay tuned to find out more as always subscribe follow
yay science see you next time for more nerding
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