The Skin Dork received a letter from the American Academy of Dermatology in April, 2022. Quote:

“Thank you for contacting the Academy’s Member Resource Center. The AAD does not promote or recommend sun screen products.”

There you have it.

So, just why are you using sunscreens? They do NOT prevent skin cancer or melanoma. They do NOT reduce the incidence of unsightly pre-cancerous lesions (see ACTINIC KERATOSIS) and they increase skin flare-ups, accelerate aging, introduce a variety of free radicals and highly inflammatory skin chemistry, have a hard time even preventing temporary sunburn and feel lousy.

Why are you using sunscreens?

Wear a hat and protective clothing. If your skin is a mass of sun damage after fifty years of basking on the golf course in Florida nude, that skin leather look can be reversed to a large extent. But the damage from skincare products is often permanent.

Get off the sunscreen addiction. Lots of problems in your appearance will go away. Coating your children in sunscreens has no clinical, esthetic, therapeutic or preventive rationale.

The difference in an SPF of 15 and one of 85 is less than 5% – and for what? Blocking UV rays necessary for Vitamin D metabolism? Reducing sunburn while increasing skin inflammation?

Change my mind.