Please Don’t Get Your Sunburn-Prevention Advice From Tom Brady
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Tom Brady's health advice continues to be questionable. First he came for our tomatoes. And now, he's got a bizarre way to prevent sunburns. According to an excerpt from his recently released book, The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance, all you need is water—lots of it.
The book features exercise tutorials, nutrition tips, and casual plugs for his TB12 line of supplements and fitness products. As Brady explains in the passage, turned up this week by SB Nation, he credits water with keeping him free of sunburns and his skin glowing:
"When I was growing up, and outside in the sun, I got sunburned a lot ... These days, even if I get an adequate amount of sun, I won’t get a sunburn, which I credit to the amount of water I drink."
The only major problem here, of course, is that it makes no scientific sense. A sunburn is the result of ultraviolet light from the sun damaging your skin cells, the Mayo Clinic explains. It can also trigger DNA changes in those cells, increasing your risk for skin cancer.
So, although Brady's habit of reportedly drinking about 2.5 gallons of water every day may be healthy in one sense, it's unclear how being ultra-hydrated would prevent the process of skin damage. (Unless maybe all those trips to the bathroom are keeping you inside and out of the sun?)
Actual sun protection, on the other hand, usually consists of some method by which you block those rays from damaging your skin. That can be accomplished, in part, by using sunscreen (correctly!). Some sunscreens protect you by using compounds like zinc oxide to provide a physical barrier, while others use chemicals to absorb the sun's rays.
But, because even waterproof sunscreen eventually wears and washes off, you can supplement it by wearing clothes that adequately cover your body (big floppy hats, please) and taking breaks in the shade or indoors. And, hey—you might as well fill up your water bottle while you're in there.
This story originally appeared on Self.
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