Have you ever seen Vitamin C sunscreen claims?

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mishmish

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In my spam today, up popped this, supposedly written by a doctor on a website called healthydirections.com and I have to vent :

"(intro)......Instead, you can make your own natural, homemade sunscreen out of vitamin C powder. Vitamin C plays a potent role in diminishing the effects of free-radical damage and can be quite effective in protecting against ultraviolet light damage. It can also be absorbed into your cells and is generally present up to 36 hours after it has been applied topically. Therefore, it can still give you sun protection even after you’ve washed your skin or gone swimming.

Here’s a simple homemade sunscreen recipe using vitamin C powder:

Homemade Sunscreen Recipe​

  • Mix 2 tablespoons of vitamin C powder in 8 ounces of water.
  • Put the solution into a spray bottle and squirt yourself with it regularly (say, every hour or so).
Vitamin C breaks down rather quickly in solution, so you don’t want to make it in huge quantities unless you’re doing it for a family reunion!"

As a skin cancer survivor (lots of bad burns as a kid, lived in Middle East and Mediterranean area for decades as an adult) this freaked me out. What do our chemistry-knowledgeable members think about this? It's the first time I've seen the claim. First, I don't want to be unfair...so, could it possibly work? How would you quantify an SPF? And secondly, what effect would all that vitamin C have when sprayed on your skin every day? Will we see this concoction being sold at farmer's markets and fairs with magical claims of its effectiveness?
 
@mishmish, if you take a look at Better Business Bureau complaints for that company (using the url you posted), there are numerous complaints. I would not do business with them. Some of their products can be purchased on Amazon, which would probably protect from the auto-order problems that seems to be most common problem reported to the BBB.

I did not find any warning letters from the FDA to them regarding any of their products, or claims made on the website, though. That is not to say that their products are good or bad, only that I did not find any such letters.

Back to vitamin C thing; there is some truth to claims about vitamin C providing protection against UV & UVB rays, however, the studies only seem to suggest a supportive role, not a primary treatment role, as far as I can ascertain.

Here is one article with several links to studies and papers on the topic: Vitamin C and Skin Health

Here is an abstract on pubmed referencing results of topical vitamin C on pigs: Topical vitamin C protects porcine skin from ultraviolet radiation-induced damage - PubMed

Here is another article from Baylor College on the topic: Benefits of adding vitamin C to your skin care routine

None of these suggest to me that vitamin C alone is sufficient or even capable of providing the same protection as a 50 SPF sunscreen.

I certainly hope we won't be seeing this DIY 'sunscreen' that isn't really a sunscreen at Farmer's Markets and so forth because that potentially could do a lot of harm. It would warrant an FDA warning letter to the makers of such products as 'misbranding'.
 
This is just dangerous misinformation. People should not make their own sunscreens as their is no way of testing if it is effective.

If vitamin C was a great sunscreen it would already be commercialized!

It might be worth reporting it to the FDA.
 

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