What helps with sunburn?

In case of sunburn, the skin is damaged by the strong UV radiation. In the course of an acute inflammatory reaction, various endogenous substances are released in the skin, which lead to the typical symptoms of sunburn. These include itching, which is felt by those affected to be particularly distressing.

A good way to relieve the itching is to consistently cool the skin. Moist towels and quark wraps are just as suitable for this as cooling creams. Cortisone creams can also be applied to the skin to inhibit inflammation, but they do not directly relieve the itching.

Why does the skin itch after sunburn?

If excessive UV-B radiation reaches the skin when exposed to the sun, the cells of the uppermost skin layer (epidermis) are damaged. If this cell defect is so large that it can no longer be compensated and repaired by the body’s own repair mechanisms, the affected cells send out endogenous messenger substances to the surrounding tissue. These messenger substances are called cytokines and cause an inflammatory reaction in the affected skin section due to UV radiation (dermatitis solaris).

The cytokines affect the blood vessels that supply the affected skin area and cause them to dilate, resulting in increased blood flow in the affected skin area. This results in the redness typical of sunburn and also causes the affected skin to feel hot. The blood vessels also become more permeable, allowing fluid from the blood to enter the tissue and cause swelling.Cytokines are also responsible for itching and pain. The itching after sunburn can therefore be a component of the actual inflammatory reaction of the skin, but very often it only sets in at the beginning of healing, also caused by messenger substances in the blood.

Itching of the skin even weeks after sunburn

The itching after sunburn usually subsides within a few days, so it is unusual to suffer from itching for weeks afterwards. The primary cause of such itching is then no longer sunburn, but something else. A possible cause is an allergy to the sun (see above) or dryness of the skin.

In the course of a severe sunburn, the skin loses a lot of water. If you have a tendency to dry skin anyway, you may still have very dry skin weeks after sunburn. A lack of fluid in the skin leads to itching, so intensive care of the skin should be taken especially after a sunburn.