CEimpact Podcast

Sunscreen Updates and Skin Cancer Prevention Strategies

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Skin cancer remains one of the most common cancers in the United States, making effective sun protection an important component of preventive care. This course reviews sunscreen best practices, common patient questions, and recent updates affecting sunscreen products, including the addition of a new active ingredient to the OTC sunscreen monograph. You will be better prepared to provide evidence-based recommendations on sunscreen selection, sun safety, and skin cancer prevention.


HOST
Rachel Maynard, PharmD
GameChangers Podcast Host and Lead, Clinical & Partnership Education, CEimpact

GUEST
Kendall Guthrie, PharmD, BCACP
Director of Co-Curriculum/Clinical Professor,
UMKC School of Pharmacy


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 CPE INFORMATION
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this knowledge-based activity, participants should be able to:
1. Describe current recommendations for sunscreen use and sun protection to reduce the risk of skin cancer.
2. Explain pharmacist-relevant considerations for sunscreen selection, including formulation differences, active ingredients, and patient counseling.

Rachel Maynard and [Speaker] have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

0.075 CEU/0.75 Hr
UAN: 0107-0000-26-289-H01-P
Initial release date: 7/27/2026
Expiration date: 7/27/2029
Additional CPE details can be found here.

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CE Credit And Welcome

SPEAKER_00

Here on Game Changers, we're all about helping you stay ahead of pharmacy practice. But why stop at listening? You can earn CE credit for this episode and hundreds more by visiting CEimpact.com and logging into your account or creating a new one. Get credit, get inspired, and make your learning count. Hi everyone, welcome to the Game Changers Clinical Update Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Maynard. For today's topic, we're gonna dive into the world of sunscreens. Seems like there are so many questions that come up about appropriate use of sunscreens, and pharmacists face these questions every day, especially in the summer. Now you can expect to get even more questions because a new sunscreen ingredient, Vemotrizenol, was added by the FDA to the list of permitted sunscreen active ingredients, and it's the first one in 20 years to be added to that list. So to help us find out where this new ingredient fits in and how to ensure appropriate sunscreen use more broadly, I am thrilled to welcome our expert guest, Dr. Kendall Guthrie. So welcome, Kendall. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Excited to have you and thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to meet with us. But um, for our listeners to get to know a little bit about you, would you mind just sharing a little bit about your background and your current role and why you're interested in this topic?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah,

Meet Dr. Kendall Guthrie

SPEAKER_01

sure. So um I am from the Kansas City area. My background, so I graduated from UMKC School of Pharmacy, Goruz, and I went and did a community residency, um, worked in the community setting for a little bit, had the opportunity actually to come back to UMKC School of Pharmacy and kind of jump into my my residency director, her her shoes. Um, and so still practiced in community pharmacy and then currently uh serve as our director of co-curriculum here at the school, where I help students with their professional development and a lot of those extracurricular activities. But in this role, I also have always taught in our self-care course and our self-care applied skills lab and specifically uh teach our students about sunscreens and sunburns and those types of things. So I was really honored to be asked to do this because it fits right in with what I do.

SPEAKER_00

So excellent. Well, again, thank you so much for the time. It sounds like you have a real practical background and experience to speak to this topic. And it is one of those, I think we get these, I really do think, you know, every day these questions come up in practice. And there's a lot of misconceptions and confusion out there. And I think with a new ingredient being added to the mix of sunscreens, we are going to get more questions. So really excited to chat about this with you. Um but let's go ahead and jump right in and talk about that new ingredient.

Why Bemotrizinol Gets FDA Approval

SPEAKER_00

Um, Vemo Tries and all we were sort of practicing how we might say it. Um, but it is a new option that we might start seeing in sunscreens. So maybe you can speak a little bit, Kendall, to what this product is and how it how it came to be approved, what sort of that process looked like, what it is, where it's gonna fit in.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So we were kind of joking right before this about, you know, the different pronunciations we've heard uh for. So we try to be consistent, but may jump a little bit um back and forth. Um but BMO tries and also it's a it's a new ingredient. As you mentioned, it's really exciting in the sunscreen sunscreen world because we haven't had a new ingredient in about 25, over 25 years in the United States. And some of that was um the regulatory framework uh here in the US. And so actually back um with the CARES Act. So there was a CARES Act uh back in 2020 with everything that was going on with COVID and the coronavirus. And what that act actually did is it finalized some of the regulations um with sunscreens that had kind of just been in limbo for a while, quite a while, for decades actually. And it also updated that regulatory framework to say that without getting into too much of the, you know, nitty-gritty of it, um, basically to approve a new sunscreen, um the FDA had to follow a pretty complex rulemaking process. Um and what the CARES Act did is it updated that framework and said that they could now follow what's called an administrative order process, which is just a lot less, there's a lot less back and forth. It moves a little more quickly, it'll give the FDA a little more authority to move things quickly, it sets up some funding mechanisms. So it, you know, gives some funding for those reviews and in a timeline as well. So now there's kind of this set timeline that moves things a little bit quicker. And so, as part of that, um, sunscreens obviously were kind of highlighted as one of the categories that really needed some improvements under this process because it had been obviously 25 years since a new ingredient had come to the market. Um, and so this was, you know, the first ingredient that's come forth because of this new process. And it's pretty exciting because we'll get into some of the weeds with the different sunscreens here in a little bit. Um, but it it's kind of this ingredient is kind of the best of both worlds. So we have our chemical sunscreens, we have our mineral sunscreens. Like I mentioned, we'll get into that a little bit here here in a bit. Um, but this is kind of the best of both worlds with this ingredient. So you get the the broad spectrum coverage, you get more of that transparent covering. So, you know, one thing people don't always like a lot with the mineral sunscreens is that they can leave kind of this white coating on your skin with this new ingredient. We get this transparent coating, um, but you like I said, you still get that broad spectrum coverage. We don't see quite the sensitivities that we do with some of the other chemical ingredients, um, and we don't see the absorption with this one. So some people probably have seen in the in the news and different things that they found that some of these chemical ingredients can actually be absorbed. We're still trying to figure out what that exactly means, um, but they don't actually see that with this ingredient. So, yeah, kind of get the best of both worlds with both types of uh sunscreens that we currently have on the market.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, excellent background. Uh, there's a lot to unpack there. So let's unpack. And I agree. I like how you sort of laid out some of the key considerations and differentiators with this product, uh, this ingredient. And I do want to delve into some of those a bit more. But thank you for the background also in the regulatory framework and how this came to be. The other thing uh that I thought was interesting, because I think anytime with any sort of new ingredient, drug over-the-counter, that sort of thing, there are questions around um the evidence to support it. And you sort of talked about that a little bit. But um, one thing that I think is interesting is that this ingredient I think has been around in in other countries for some time. Maybe you can speak to that a little bit too before we get into the the product more the ingredient more specifically, in terms of the the worldwide use history that we have with it. I think that can help provide some reassurance too.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. And that was I, you know, as I, you know, have updated myself on this and kind of gotten up to speed with everything. That, you know, I think was a concern or a question people had is well, how did this come to market so quickly when it's taking decades to do that? Exactly. Exactly. Um it actually isn't new. So it's been used for, you know, 20 plus years um in Europe, in parts of Asia. Um, so there was actually a pretty solid, robust foundation of evidence um to build on and to submit to the FDA. Um, so it was not new, it was just a matter of, again, that regulatory framework changed that allowed that submission a little bit quicker and it actually allowed the manufacturer to submit to the FDA saying, hey, we have all this evidence. Um, can we submit just this one ingredient versus kind of in the past we had to look at everything altogether, you know, to make any changes? And so it just sped it up. But yeah, not new, definitely not new, lots of data and lots of real world, that's hard to say, real world evidence build on from being used, you know, in these other countries.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Yeah. Because I think sometimes with sunscreen there um there are some misconceptions out there, concerns. And so having that reassurance, I think, is is just good to have to be aware of um and that that worldwide history of use. Okay, so now let's get into the the ingredient pemotrizinol a bit more. So

Chemical Versus Mineral Sunscreens

SPEAKER_00

you highlighted a couple of things when you were first introducing it. One of the big things I think is the whole chemical versus mineral sunscreen distinction, because we have the chemical ingredients, which are you know things that we've historically had, like oxybenzone, octinoxate, avobenzone, but those are sort of the chemical ingredients. And then you mentioned mineral as well, which are the zinc oxide, titanium dioxide. So maybe spell those out a little bit more. What are the differences between chemical and mineral sunscreens in general? And then again, where this sort of fits into that distinction.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so the chemical and mineral sunscreens are really differentiated. Um, and again, I don't want to get into too much of the scientific kind of nitty-gritty, but really differentiated kind of based on their structures and how they work as well. We used to think that mineral sunscreens reflected UV radiation and chemical sunscreens absorbed UV radiation. We now know we have a lot more data to show that they both actually absorb that UV radiation and kind of turn it into heat and prevent it from being absorbed into those kind of underlying structures of the skin, which is where we get, you know, the risk for skin cancers and things like that down the line. Um so they they both work a little similarly. And again, those mineral sunscreens also do kind of reflect some of that UV radiation, but it really gets down to their chemical structures. Um, so if you think of the chemical sunscreens, um, they're gonna be uh more dissolvable in that um in that sunscreen base. So that's why with a lot of those chemical sunscreens, you don't see kind of that white cast or that white coloring on the skin, where those mineral sunscreens, they're um they sit right on top of the skin. They're really kind of just particles, solid particles that are suspended in that sunscreen base. Um, and so they're really gonna sit on kind of that upper layer of the skin. And again, in the past, we thought the chemical ingredients, based on some of these studies that we've seen, the chemical ingredients are absorbed more. You know, we don't see that absorption with the mineral sunscreens, but again, with this new ingredient, it's kind of um dispelling that a little bit because it's showing that we don't actually have that absorption, even though it is this chemical type of sunscreen that typically had that absorption in the past.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So uh what's sort of different about this new Bematrizenol is that it is considered a chemical sunscreen. Is that right? It's considered a chemical sunscreen ingredient. So that's it falls into that bucket, but it is uh not absorbed, would you say, to the same extent as perhaps our historic chemical sunscreens that I mentioned?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I do want to make one kind of important, I think, distinction here too, is that we talk about absorption um almost in a negative sense because we know that those ingredients those chemicals ingredients are absorbed. We don't really know what that means yet. All that they, all that the FDA has found is that those ingredients, those chemical ingredients are absorbed to some extent, more so than what we used to think, but we don't exactly know what the long-term effects of that uh are yet. That's why they're asking for more data from manufacturers for those ingredients. But yes, with this new ingredient with the BMO Trizanol, we are not, they they did not find that same extent of absorption. And the reason I say I just want to make that important distinction is I don't want individuals to think or that they can't recommend. So, you know, healthcare providers listening to think they can't recommend those ingredients. I don't want um users thinking they can't use those ingredients. They have not come out with that type of recommendation on those yet. They're just saying, hey, we these are absorbed more than we thought they were at one point. Um and so we need a little more data to figure out what the long-term effects of that are.

SPEAKER_00

I really appreciate you calling that out. I think um the the question about absorption has been a hot topic over the past few years. And that's why this new ingredient may get some attention, as you say, but uh to the same point, the absorption hasn't necessarily translated into a clinical concern. And when we think about the the risks with either not using or improperly using sunscreen if people are not wanting to apply a lot of, say, a mineral sunscreen because it does up have sort of that cast, as you mentioned, you know, all of that has to come into play when we're thinking about appropriate recommendations. So I'm glad you called it out. Um I do want to go back to the point about um, you know, the the the broad spectrum question too, because um let's just hash that out a little bit more. And we and how that also ties into what we're trying to prevent and how it how broad spectrum can help prevent some of those outcomes that we're thinking about when people are using sunscreen.

Broad Spectrum And UVA Versus UVB

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So when you think about the long-term impact of ultraviolet radiation, um some of those long-term things. So obviously, immediately we're trying to prevent sunburn, but long term, we're trying to prevent things like skin cancers, photoaging, you know, there's other things that happen long term with those. Um, we know that the primary sources of UV radiation that cause those are UVA rays and UVB rays. UVB rays are primarily what are going to be causing sunburns, and we know that both contribute to photoaging and skin cancers. In the past, we thought UVA was a little more linked to photoaging. We now know kind of both contribute to those. Um so what you're looking at, when you look at the SPF of a product, it's really telling you the efficacy that product has against UVB radiation. So it tells you that you have that UVB coverage and kind of to what extent you have that. It does not actually measure the UVA, UVB. And again, we know both contribute to these kind of long-term effects. And so what broad spectrum does, if it has broad spectrum on the label label, it tells you that it actually is effective against both UVA and UVB rays. And so you know that you're fully protecting yourself against skin cancers and photoaging and some of those other long-term effects.

SPEAKER_00

So when we're recommending a sunscreen, that broad spectrum recommendation is important. That's one of the key things to be looking at when we're with a patient perhaps in the skincare aisle is looking for a broad spectrum product. And this new ingredient is broad spectrum.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. Yep. Yep. And it actually has pretty because once you get into the broad spectrum, different broad spectrum coverages, they all cover a little bit differently too. And this new ingredient covers a pretty broad range of rays within that UVA and UVB spectrum as well. Because typically, sometimes what they have to do is you have to start combining different ingredients. So if you look at the back of a sunscreen label, a lot of times you may see three or four different ingredients. And what they're doing is they're trying to capitalize on the coverages of those different ingredients, the stabilities of those different ingredients. And so sometimes you may have one ingredient that is really good in the UVA spectrum. So you have to combine it with something that's really good in the UVB spectrum. So you're fully covering this ingredient, actually covers both. Not saying it won't be combined and it has been approved to be combined with some different ingredients, but we do get more coverage with it in and of itself as well.

SPEAKER_00

That is interesting. And it'll be interesting to see how these products start to come out because I do I know thinking about some of the labels I've looked at with the chemical subscreens, you might see like four different ingredients. And so it will be interesting to see if this, as you say, maybe is alone or how how many other ingredients it might be combined with. So uh that's a good call out there. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and another thing too, uh, a lot of times uh you have to combine ingredients again to make it more stable. So to make it more photostable. So we have some ingredients that may be really good within the UVA spectrum, but they're not very photostable. So when they're exposed to light, they tend to break down really quickly. So we have to add some stabilizing agents. This new ingredient, in and of itself, again, has been proven to be pretty photostable. So we don't get that um kind of issue that we've seen with some other ingredients as well.

SPEAKER_00

Interesting. Okay. So uh the broad spectrum is one aspect, and then uh you touched on the SPF consideration, but let's get into that a little bit more. So I

Choosing SPF Without False Confidence

SPEAKER_00

I'm I'm guessing that this product ingredient, keep saying product, but it is an ingredient that will be within products, uh, that it will have potentially a range of SPFs depending on the product. And so when people are looking for an SPF, I think this is one of those age-old questions. What SPF should they be looking for? What is the minimum? And how much extra benefit do you get from going up?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. So as far as FP SPF is concerned, um, yes, this has been proven to be effective. So it does have, you know, the the UV ray blocking uh abilities or UV ray absorbing abilities that we've seen with the chemical sunscreens. Um it's gonna, it can have a range of different SPFs that we may see depending on the concentration. So depending on the concentration in the product, we see different um SPFs. And again, it depends on the final formulation of the product. So you may see it combined with other agents, which also affect the SPF. So we can't sit here and say like this ingredient has this one. Right, right. It depends on a lot of things. As far as what SPF to look for, um it kind of depends on the organization that you look at. Um, so if you look at the FDA, they recommend a minimum of 15. So 15 or above is kind of the minimum that you're looking for. And again, broad spectrum, kind of like we talked about already. If you look at the American Academy of Dermatology, they're recommending 30 plus. So a minimum of 30 plus. So at least 15 is what you're looking for. That's gonna give you about 93% protection. And then as you go up, you kind of get incremental changes. So you get uh about 97% protection once you go to 30, and then up to 50, about 98. So you kind of start losing, you know, the the you don't get as big of jumps the more that you go up. So about 15 minimum is what I would say. If you have somebody that is really fair skinned or they burn really easily, or they have maybe they're on a medication that puts them uh higher risk of, you know, uh a sunburn, things like that, then maybe start considering those 30, 50 in those individuals. It's not wrong to just recommend 30 across the board for anyone. Um, but I definitely am gonna start thinking, okay, maybe those higher protections for those individuals that are at a little bit higher, higher risk for um those outcomes.

SPEAKER_00

I think that's a really practical way to think about it. And I've always been can, you know, can I think there can be confusion around FDA's recommendation limit of, you know, minimum of 15 A D of 30. And so how do you reconcile that? But as you say, it sort of depends on the patient too. And also what they're uh one thing that always rings true to me about sunscreen is the best sunscreen is the sunscreen they'll use. And so if they're going to use and want to prefer a sunscreen that's SPF 30 or 50, that's great. If they're only going to want to use something that's 15, that's great, right? It's it's mostly about what they're going to use and use properly and consistently.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. The best sunscreen is the one that they'll use. And I think it's really interesting that when you talk about using correctly and consistently, because um, one of the things that I think we see a lot, if you think about it, if someone who is outdoors a lot, so think about the summer and they're outside a lot, an individual could easily use multiple containers of sunscreen in a week if they use it appropriately. And most people, I would say, I don't think it's uncommon that someone has a sunscreen product or bottle that they use one for the entire summer. So we know people don't use these appropriately. Um yeah, it's just interesting when you think about how many bottles you would actually need. And I I fall into that category myself. So yeah, it's it's interesting once you start thinking about it from that lens.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And I and I think going back to the SPF question of what to use, it's also we don't want people to feel more protected because they're using an SPF 70 product and therefore feel like they don't need to use as much of it. So we don't want it to have sort of the opposite effect, like they're they're safer because they buy a higher SPF. So I think that's where that patient education piece really comes into play and making sure that people are understanding it's not SPF 100 is not going to, it doesn't mean you don't need to reapply every two hours. You still do, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. And to uh to that point, you know, there's some proposed regulations that the FDA hasn't finalized yet that would update furthermore some more of the sunscreen regulation. Um, and one of the things they're proposing is to actually have kind of a maximum SPF that can be on a label. Um and I think uh don't hold me to this. I think it's 60 plus is kind of that maximum that can be on the label. Um, again, that's not finalized, but that I think you bring up a good point and that you don't want to give people a false sense of security. Kind of on the other end of the spectrum, um, there's been a lot of talk about, you know, we don't see as many of these, I feel like anymore, but there used to be a lot of SPFs that were like SPF of eight or SPF of six. And that gives people a false sense of security that well, I'm using SPF, you know, but are you using enough to actually prevent, you know, skin cancers, photo aging, sunburns, things like that?

SPEAKER_00

Great, great point. So um thinking about this new ingredient, uh, we said it's broad spectrum. Uh, we

Water Resistance Labels That Matter

SPEAKER_00

talked about the SPF question. How about the other question that often comes to mind for me when thinking about recommendations is the sweat resistance, water resistance, that sort of thing. And I don't know if you know where this one is going to fit into that discussion, but um maybe speak a little bit about what you're thinking about with those considerations when recommending a product to.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so no, that's a great point. So to be considered a water resistant or sweat-resistant product, um, there's some additional testing that manufacturers have to go through to determine if it can be and it, there's two different kinds of categories that can fall in. It can fall into the 40-minute or 80-minute. Are you water resistant for 40 minutes? Are you water resistant for 80 minutes? And that's all determined based on some additional testing that they would have to do. One thing that I would say is there's no such thing as waterproof or sweat proof. We used to see some labels that had that on there, and they've now come out and said, you know, there's no such thing. It's gonna wash off at some point. We're just trying to get you a little bit of extra protection when you're in the water and things like that. Um, so definitely I would also recommend if you're gonna be outside, you're gonna be swimming, you're gonna be doing some kind of activity where you're sweating a lot, you would also, so we've talked about there's a lot of things to look for. We've talked about the broad spectrum, we've talked about the SPF to look for. The other thing that you would want to look for on the label would be that water resistant, sweat resistant. And then you're looking at the label to see, okay, is this one good for 40 minutes? Is this one good for 80 minutes? And making sure that you reapply in that frequency as long as you're still swimming, as long as you're still sweating, those types of things.

SPEAKER_00

Great call. I I do think those are sort of the three main things to be looking at. You know, there's a lot, and and the ingredients are gonna be questions patients have too, but those three are sort of nice uh bits of the stool, a three legged stool, you know, to think about if you're thinking about a recommended material. recommended product. So with this new ingredient and thinking about maybe the patient population who could be using it, I think I saw it's for children six months and older. Is

Sunscreen For Kids And Sun Avoidance

SPEAKER_00

that um your understanding as well?

SPEAKER_01

Or yep. And that's been the kind of universal recommendation for sunscreen products is six months and older. Children less than six months of age are going to be at a little bit, well, you have to think about surface area. So a small area on a on a little person is a bigger surface area. And so they are they get they have increased risk of absorption. They also have increased risk of those adverse effects that we sometimes see. So the sensitivity reactions, the photoallergy, phototoxicity reactions that you can get with some of the sunscreen ingredients just because they have a more sensitive skin. And so six months and older now with that being said, I'm not going to make a universal recommendation here because I want individuals in this circumstance to be talking to their pediatrician. But sometimes even if you're a little bit less than that but you cannot avoid being out in the sun, the pediatricians will still recommend some sunscreen products for individuals less than that. The big thing here is that we want people talking to their pediatricians about that before they make that decision. So as a universal recommendation, yes, six months and older is kind of what you're looking for when using a sunscreen product. Other than that, you're going to be looking for obviously keeping them in the shade, out of the sun, using protective clothing you should be recommending those for everybody anyways, but especially that population where we can't use sunscreens.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. Avoidance in that population in particular but I'm glad that you mentioned that that's something we haven't talked about in terms of skin cancer prevention, prevention of photoaging is all of those other non-sunscreen measures too, because staying out of the sun, covering up sunglasses, hats, all of those you know non-sunscreen options, those are still to be used in addition to sunscreen. And I think it is an important reminder when people are asking about sunscreen, don't forget about those other factors too.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. Sunscreen is like to use your uh analogy from a second ago, it's one leg of that stool. So there's a lot of different legs that go on that stool. And really using all of them together is what's going to be the most effective. I think the only other one that I can think of is you know avoiding the sun during those hours when it's the strongest. So 10 a.m to 4 p.m kind of that middle of the day range, which is typically when people are outside because that's the day and that's when you can go out and have fun, but um trying to do what you can to avoid those kind of strongest rays where possible.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. Okay. So we

Apply More Reapply More

SPEAKER_00

also sort of touched on the proper application and application reapplication and you mentioned how people should be going through a lot more sunscreen than perhaps we are. And so can you just remind us what are sort of those recommendations? And I'm always surprised when I hear them because it seems like people should be like when I put on sunscreen, I'm putting out a lot and it just seems like it doesn't go very far. But maybe you can remind us about what is recommended for you know guidance. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

So you want to make sure that before you go out in the sun or before you're recommending somebody go out in the sun, that they're using they're applying sunscreen 15 minutes before they are exposed to those UV rays. So 15 minutes, you kind of want to give that 15 minute window for you know it to kind of create that film and not just walk outside and it immediately be washed off or you know you sweat it off. So 15 minutes before you go outside and then once you're out in the the UV radiation, you want to reapply every two hours unless again, unless you're using a water resistant product and you are sweating or swimming, then you're going to be reapplying every 40 to 80 minutes as long as you're still doing those types of activities. But every two hours is kind of a a general rule of thumb as far as how much to apply, I've seen some different recommendations. The FDA says about an ounce for your entire body. So face um entire body I've also seen if that's kind of a hard um amount to grasp, I've seen you know a teaspoon for every extremity, a teaspoon for your head, a teaspoon for front and back. So if that's a little bit easier. But if you think about an ounce and I feel comfortable saying this because it's actually on the FDA website but an ounce about a shot glass is isn't I mean quite a bit of you know of compared to what some people may be using.

SPEAKER_00

So but yes it's an ounce about every two hours. Okay. And uh not forgetting about those important not forgetting your lips and using uh sunscreen in your lip balm and the ears, tops of the feet all of those areas that people tend to forget about uh yeah right yeah part the part in your hair that hairline that tends to be uh kind of a common area so yeah not forgetting all of those different areas too and then again you mentioned um sunglasses as well being a kind of an important additional component to this and making sure that those are UV you know blocking sunglasses right right absolutely you know you mentioned um the part and thinking about how to effectively get sunscreen there and it made me wonder about sprays and then it made me wonder about formulations in general and so what general advice do you do you think about when talking to a patient in terms of choosing amongst those formulations sprays uh there's balm you know the sticks there's the regular lotion what what are those considerations?

Sprays Sticks Makeup And Powder Myths

SPEAKER_00

How do they come into play?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah really I mean any of them have kind of been approved as that you know generally recognized as safe and effective formulations if they're if they're on the shelves. With sprays though you do have some kind of administration steps to be aware of. So you want to make sure that you're not spraying it directly you know in an individual's face or directly on your face. You want to make sure you're either spraying it in your hands to apply it to your face or using a cream based or stick based formulation on the face. So so any of them would be okay. The one that they have come out and said that is not approved is the powder sunscreens we don't have any of those powder sunscreens dosage forms that have been uh approved as safe and effective by the FDA yet. And there are some stipulations with sprays as well. So there's some kind of additional testing additional data that they have to provide with sprays some different formulation considerations with sprays that you have to consider as well but that would kind of be on the manufacturing side. So any of them you know are okay. It's just again a matter of applying it as frequently as you're supposed to and so if there's one, if there's somebody that says I'm not going to take the time to apply a cream it takes me longer you know I'm not gonna use it because of that then maybe that's somebody that is spray. I think the other kind of formulation consideration is you do see a lot of SPF like cosmetic type products. So there's a lot of makeups that have SPF, a lot of moisturizers that have SPF, those types of things, which is great. But you just want to make sure that those individuals are aware that they are also still want to be applying every two hours. So just because you put on makeup that has SPF in it, you still are going to have to reapply you know in two hours with a sunscreen product. And so making sure that that also doesn't lead them to be kind of falsely or feeling like they're falsely protected when they're not continuing to reapply.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah great call out there. It does make it more user friendly I think when they are in in products like that. So you're you're more likely perhaps to use them but as you say the reapplication is still so important. And when thinking about uh you know the the spray options I think the other thing to call out is that they're flammable. So you know sometimes people are grilling or whatever outside and using these and just a little reminder on that because I think that's something that maybe people don't think about so much.

SPEAKER_01

So yes 100% don't use these around flips. All right well let's talk about um is there anything else to call out in terms of this new ingredient and some of those considerations that we've been chatting about already or anything else we might not be thinking about anything else you wanted to address with that that ingredient specifically I don't think so I'm looking I'm looking at my notes here one thing I don't know that we quite touched on uh completely was just um that it has less irritation so they've seen less of kind of some of those photoallergy phototoxic allergic type reactions sensitive sensitivity type reactions and some of the other chemical ingredients as well we may have mentioned that already um but that's just kind of another benefit of it is that we're not seeing some of those local reactions with it. So yeah I think we touched on I I think the biggest thing I would stress is that again not it's not new we have a lot of data and it's effective it's you know been shown to not be absorbed and then kind of those safety considerations when you look at those topical reactions it's been favorable there as well so looking like it's going to be a really good ingredient to add to kind of our arsenal of uh sunscreen ingredients.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely yeah with the broad spectrum the uh SPF considerations the water resistance considerations all of those and and having one more as you say menu option in our menu is a is a good thing especially when it comes to ensuring people feel comfortable and want to be applying their sunscreen.

SPEAKER_01

Yes and people have been asking for this for quite a while because again it's been used in other countries and so people have had access to it in other countries. And so people have been asking for this approval for quite a while. So I think there'll be a lot of people excited that they have access to it here in the States as well.

The Base Tan Myth And Cloudy Days

SPEAKER_00

Excellent well let's just wrap up with a few myths maybe some rapid fire myths that people often ask about because you know I think there's a lot sort of floating around out there and I'd just love to know any any that come to mind for you and how you might help dispel them if you were chatting with a patient about these.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah so the biggest the the biggest myth I can think when I think about just sunscreen sunburns in general is people saying that you need a base tan to prevent you from getting sunburns or to prevent you you know from having some of these reactions um which is actually just just not true. That is your body's protective mechanism. So what you're seeing uh when you see a suntan uh is your body's protective mechanism so it's actually showing you that there's already some damage that's occurred. So it's not going to protect you from future sunburns. It's not going to protect you from skin cancers to have that base tan. So still important even if you have a base tan, still important to be looking at sunscreens and thinking about what sunscreens you need to be using. Kind of another big one is when you think about sunscreens is people thinking that you don't have to wear sunscreen if you are if it's a cloudy day or you don't need to wear sunscreen if you're swimming because you can't get sunburned underwater. And actually very, very minimal of UV radiation is reflected by water. I think it's like 5%. So like 95% of those rays are still getting to you. Same thing on a cloudy day there may be a minimal amount of those rays you know that are reflected or that are screened but you're still getting exposure to that UV radiation. And we know that UV radiation exposure is cumulative over your life. And so the more that you're exposed over a lifetime kind of the higher your risk of skin cancers later. So even on a cloudy day even if you're swimming still need to be using sunscreens.

Vitamin D Without Risky Sun Exposure

SPEAKER_01

I'm trying to think if there were any I was trying to think of some of these ahead of time some of these if there are any other ones that I had thought of how about how about the the vitamin D question like people are very worried about making sure they're getting enough vitamin D.

SPEAKER_00

There's been more attention on that too and so sunscreen is preventing UV absorption and so how how do you handle that question?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah so um with with vitamin D, you know, sometimes people think you know we need we need sunshine to convert kind of the vitamin D to the actin form that we need. Therefore I need to be outside or I'm going to be vitamin D deficient. And we now know again the risks of that exposure kind of outweigh the benefits of that. And also we know that we have vitamin D rich foods a lot of our foods now are fortified with different vitamins and we also have really great vitamin D supplements if it comes to that. And so even the American Academy of dermatology no longer they don't recommend using sun as a form of vitamin D. If you need supplementation, we have great supplements but most people can get the needed vitamin D just from the foods that they eat. And so they're not recommending you know using going out in the sun and using that as a form of your vitamin D supplementation.

SPEAKER_00

Gotcha good clarification and it's one of those things I think to the point that you made earlier about people not necessarily going through sunscreen as quickly as you would expect they're probably also not applying it as thoroughly as you would expect and so you're probably getting some absorption from sun regardless even if you are putting on sunscreen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well and you you still get you get uh UV exposure in a car you get UV exposure on a plane and you are being exposed all of the time to UV radiation. So yes, you are getting some of that exposure regardless of you know where you're going, what you're doing everyone's kind of exposed to that at some point.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. Okay. And um I'm glad you call that the water too because that's another thing where um there are uh like rash guards that you can wear underwater too as another like we think about covering up when you're out in the sun but you can also do that in water too. And so that's just another option for people especially if they're going to be in the water for a long time another layer of protection to help prevent that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. And you you bring up a good point too in that sometimes people feel falsely protected with the you know thinking that they're wearing different clothing and I'm protected. And so I think the important kind of call out there is that tighter weaves and darker colors are kind of what are going to if you hold it up to light and you can see light through it, that means that those UV rays are probably getting through it as well. And then to your point, they do make some you know clothing rash guards things like that that actually have some of those UV protectants built into it. Sometimes there's an additional cost with that. So if that's prohibitive you know for a patient uh just you know letting our patients know that making sure it's just those darker colors and tighter weaves and things like that um can help as well because yeah I think sometimes people think that any clothing but again if you can hold it up and you can see light through it that probably means that um some of those UV rays are getting through there as well.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely okay so bonus question uh you mentioned the photostability of the ingredients as well and that being a consideration of obviously we're using sunscreen in the sun often. And

Expiration Dates And Hot Car Storage

SPEAKER_00

so what do you tell people about when to throw it out if it's been in the sun, if it's over a year, you know, if there's no expiration date on it, what is the guidance you share with patients?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah so I think it's kind of twofold here. So if it has an expiration date on it, use it by the expiration date would be kind of the advice there. And then if it doesn't, it's three, I think three years is kind of the industry standard. So um if you don't see an expiration date on it but you know you've had that product open for you know over three years, go ahead and throw it out. It's one of those, it's one of those situations uh it reminds me a lot of like nitroglycerin counseling when you say if you need that nitroglycerin, you want to make sure that it's effective kind of same thing with sunscreen. So if you have any reason to question it, you can't remember when you opened it you if there's no expiration date on it, it's probably best practice to go ahead and throw that out and get a new bottle. But yes either the expiration date or that three year timeframe is kind of the industry standard on that.

SPEAKER_00

Gotcha. Gotcha great clarification that I think too if if you're noticing the texture color well anything like that. It's just like you would sort of do with food perhaps you know just if anything looks off just replace that bottle. And again that would be a good reminder if people are asking that question to be reminding them about proper application, reapplication and you probably shouldn't have that bottle around for yeah if you have it for three years you may not be using enough of it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah absolutely that that that's great as well. Yeah if you open it up and it pours out like water probably it's been exposed to the sun a little bit too long. One thing we can we can recommend people do is a lot of times we go out in the sun and we just you know have our sunscreen bottles like on a table or in a you know it's exposed to the sun somehow if they can protect that in some way. So you know keeping it in the shade or keeping it you know wrapped in a towel things like that can kind of help with the stability of the product too.

SPEAKER_00

Good call out and not so difficult to do because you usually have a beach bag or something that you're you're with and you can just throw it in there and just that's a good reminder. Yeah good call out. Yeah well uh Kendall we've talked about a lot of great practical tips is there anything else we didn't cover that you want to chat about or we ready to wrap things up I think we we covered a lot of ground here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah I I honestly I think we have covered kind of the the important points here. So I don't think I have anything else to add.

SPEAKER_00

Excellent well I I think we were able to learn about this new ingredient this Vemo tries and all and um I haven't seen any products with it yet but um have you have you Kendall have you seen anything yet?

SPEAKER_01

No so it actually so it was kind of officially approved on June 9th and then in that administrative order they said that they gave it kind of the 60 day window before they could actually start uh you know uh selling the product. So August 9th I believe is kind of that date. And then the manufacturer has actually said that it's probably going to be more like end of August September timeframe when we might actually start seeing those products.

SPEAKER_00

Okay great great clarification there then uh so maybe towards the end of the summer but very soon we'll start to see it on shelves. So expect those questions to be coming.

The Game Changer Takeaway

SPEAKER_00

We talked about the importance of the broad spectrum uh choosing the right SPF the water resistance considerations application reapplication and wrapped up with some myths so I think this is a great discussion and really appreciate your time and Kendall it is our game changers podcast so we always wrap up with a game changer.

SPEAKER_01

So what would you say is the game changer that you want our listeners to walk away with yeah so I'm this kind of lame I know but I'm gonna repeat something we already said but I think it is the most kind of important game changer. So I'm just reiterating that you know the best sunscreen for someone is the one that they will use and that they will use appropriately. So you know any any sunscreen is is better than no sunscreen. So as long as you're getting your patients to recomm you know to use sunscreens you're not you're not making a bad recommendation. So um I think I would just reiterate that point.

SPEAKER_00

I love that that I agree is the is the game changer and not being so worried about what is the best the best is the one the patient will use and use properly. Yeah absolutely all right thank you Kendall so much for your time really appreciate your expertise on this and it was a great discussion. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Excellent well we talked about a lot of re practical tips today and these will all be summarized in the practice resource that goes along with this podcast. And we hope today's conversation gave you something useful to bring back to your practice that's always our goal so before you go be sure to claim your continuum education credit, your time and engagement calendar and we want to make sure you get credit for it. Thank you so much for being part of the game changers community and we look forward to seeing you all next week.