Do any supplements or foods help prevent sunburn or skin damage from sun exposure? Can any increase your risk of sun-related skin damage?

A few days before a CO2 laser skin treatment I took Heliocare. A previous CO2 treatment took over 2 weeks to heal, but this one only took 2 1/2 days. I hope I didn't reduce the effectiveness of the treatment.

Remarkably, on a cruise, a few years back, I found that Aztaxanthin effectively prevented me from getting sunburn until I overdid it....when spent hours on deck without sunscreen the day after I spent a reasonable time outside without being sunburned. It is an effective protector but you cannot expect to do what I did and think anything will save you from being burned. Still, though, I wasn't burned as much as I deserved to be for my ridiculously long uncovered exposure at peak sun.

I am fair skinned, live in Hawaii, and am a surfer. For various reasons, I no longer use sunscreen, but avoid sunburn with other methods. On the rare occasions when I know those methods will be inadequate, I use a polypodium leucotomos product, and it totally works for me. My exposure is usually only and hour or two, but it is in the mid-day sun at 22º latitude, and normally I would redden in 20 minutes and be burned in an hour.

However, Polypodium leucotomos was recommended to me by my family doctor, who is herself a surfer. She and others to whom she's recommended it, who all have significantly longer exposure times than I normally do, have also found it to be highly effective.

What about PABA? It used to be listed as an ingredient in topical sunscreens, but fell out of favor. I used to take 500 mg/day for about a month before hot weather, never got burned.

If it's too late and you're burned, I've found that piercing a vitamin E capsule and rubbing the oil from it on the burn will dramatically lessen the pain and blistering from the burn. I was burned on both legs and put oil on one leg and not the other. The oiled leg was close to normal the next day, but the other was red and painful for 2-3 days. It's not the best-smelling solution, but it does work.

Astaxanthin absolutely works to prevent sunburn, a Japanese study confirms it. I have been using it for three years now and I no longer get sunburned while doing normal things in the yard and forgetting to limit my time. I don't try to push it, but every year prior to starting on 8mg dose I would get a sunburn, because of just forgetting to get out of the sun for whatever reason. It has many other benefits, but astaxanthin REALLY works and it is reasonable priced.

I was a towhead in my youth, and m still fair skinned. In my youth (until age 55 or so) I could never tan. I went straight to red, then straight back. In my mid 50's I starrted supplements of Alpha Lipoic Acid and CoQ10 about 100 mg each for other reasons. I found out that: A) No more chapped lips, no lip balm for about 15 years and B) I could sunbathe at will without sunburn, I could actually get a tan (wow). BUT ultimately there was skin damage, maybe because I went to extreme. I quit after two seasons.

I have been taking astaxanthin for several years. I decided to conduct my own test re: its sunburn protective effect. In August I was at Laguna Seca Raceway enjoying some autoracing. I had already applied sunscreen to my face and neck but no where else. At 11 AM I removed my shirt. About every 15 minutes or so I visually checked my shoulders for signs of inflammation. I continued until about 1:15 at which time I figured I'd better not push my luck so I put my shirt back on. Normally without some sort of protection I would start to pinken after about 20 minutes. After an hour I'd be red and after two hours would have a full-on sunburn. But the day after my little experiment, which is when any burn would be obvious, there wasn't the slightest sign. The claims for most supplements have to be taken on faith, as it is difficult to conduct one's own study. However in this case I had objective evidence of its effectiveness which was quite gratifying.

I have heard that L Tyrosine also helps reduce damage from the sun. Is that true? I didn't know about the others and I do take astaxanthin. I have been taking pycnogenol for tinnitis. I am very fair skinned and so far have not had a sunburn this year. I do live in Colorado so am exposed to the sun.

Asthazanthin is your go to supplement that protects from photo aging UVA/UVB rays. It's been called: the internal sunscreen.

I recall reading about Pycnogenol (French maritime pine bark) and sun protection. Is there any merit to these claims?

What about sun damage like the brown, spots on the skin for aging people? Can you include this in your answer?