Do not skip on sun protection

Tom Brady may be the winningest quarterback in NFL history (207 wins over 19 years) but that doesn’t make him infallible. In his 2017 audaciously titled book, “The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance,” he drops the ball when it comes to understanding how to prevent sunburn and the enormous importance of doing so correctly. His claim: He avoids sunburn by drinking 2.5 gallons of water a day, and it keeps his skin from peeling. Not one drop of science there.

Unfortunately, half of all Americans are as careless as Brady is about protecting themselves from sun damage. A study last year in JAMA Dermatology found that 34% of the 31,000-plus people surveyed had been sunburned in 2015. The most at-risk used self-tanners, did outdoor aerobics, were obese and were binge drinkers. A study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that only 14.3% of men and 29.9% of women regularly use sunscreen on exposed skin and face when out in the sun for an hour or more.

Your smart steps: Use micronized zinc oxide only. No coral-killing, hormone-disrupting ingredients like oxybenzone and octinoxate, avobenzone, octocrylene and ecamsule, which a new JAMA study found are absorbed through the skin at levels that may be harmful. Choose an SPF of 30 or higher; re-apply regularly. Wear sun-protective clothing; a UPF (ultraviolet protection factor) of 50 allows less than 2% of UV rays to come through the clothing. Stay safe out there!