Slathering up with sunscreen can help you look younger. In a study published Monday in the , researchers in Australia found that people who regularly apply sunscreen are 24 percent less likely to show signs of increased aging. There’s just one catch: You have to apply sunscreen every day to see the results.
“Protecting yourself from skin cancer by using sunscreen regularly has the added bonus of keeping you looking younger,” Adele Green, one of the study’s authors and a senior scientist at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, . “And the study has shown that up to middle age, it’s not too late to make a difference.”
Researchers tracked 903 Australians over four years and split them into two groups: one that used sunscreen every day and another that used the lotion more sporadically. At the end of the study, researchers created silicone molds of the participants’ hands and had judges rate how aged each mold appeared.
In addition to looking at the effects of sunscreen, researchers found that supplementing with beta-carotene did not influence skin aging.