Living near the equator, Elephants spend their lives in the sun. As you can see from the video above, they also understand the need for protection and regularly spread mud over their skin as a form of sunscreen. Regardless of your latitude, everyone experiences exposure to the Sun’s damaging rays.

While everyone knows about sunscreen (you should use SPF 30+ and re-apply several times throughout the day!), did you realize that your clothing has a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) as well?

Forced by the presence of the ozone hole, Australians developed a rating system for sun protective clothing. Through laboratory testing with Ultra-Violet (UV) light, they determined that darker, tight-knit or tight-weaved clothing posses a higher sun protection factor. While some manufacturers such as Coolibar design sun protective clothing, you can make your regular clothing more protective by adding SunGaurd to your laundry.

The sun may have a bad rap, but it provides benefits for the body as well through the synthesis of Vitamin D. In fact, 20 minutes of sun exposure produces the same amount of Vitamin D as 100 glasses of milk!

While it would be reckless to expose oneself to the sun unprotected between 10AM – 4PM, it may be beneficial to give yourself limited exposure (no more than 20 minutes) either early in the morning or late in the evening to catch up on Vitamin D…

So remember, do as the Elephants do, and protect yourself!