Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Doing short bursts of exercise throughout the day—like climbing stairs or doing a few squats—won’t help you lose weight or fat on its own. If you want to shed pounds, you’ll need more than just these little activity snacks.
Correlational
If you're not very active, doing short bursts of exercise like climbing stairs or jumping jacks for more than 2 minutes a few times a day can help you get a bit stronger and more powerful, especially in short, intense efforts.
Taking short bursts of exercise throughout the day—like climbing stairs or doing a few squats—might help lower your 'bad' cholesterol a little bit, but we’re not super sure yet because the studies aren’t perfect.
Doing quick, intense bursts of exercise—like sprinting in place or climbing stairs—several times a day can help your heart and lungs get stronger, even if you’re not a regular exerciser. But we’re not super sure yet because the studies are small or messy.
Adding a special compound called β-cyclodextrin to sunscreen might help keep more of the chemical filters from soaking into your skin—but that doesn’t mean it makes the sunscreen safer for your body or less likely to cause allergies in people.
Mechanistic
When sunscreen chemicals like avobenzone are trapped inside a special ring-shaped molecule called β-cyclodextrin, they don’t soak into the skin as much as when they’re just mixed in — and this works better in a creamy lotion base using rat skin in a lab test.
Causal
Scientists found that a special ring-shaped molecule called β-cyclodextrin can trap three common sunscreen chemicals inside it, and when it does, those chemicals behave differently when they touch simulated skin in a lab dish.
When these common sunscreen chemicals are wrapped in a special sugar-like molecule called β-cyclodextrin, they take over 2.5 hours to start getting through the skin of rat skin in a lab test—meaning they’re slower to be absorbed, which might make them safer.
When you mix three common sunscreen chemicals with a special ring-shaped molecule called β-cyclodextrin, they don’t soak into the skin as much—up to 15 times less—so they might stay on top of your skin where they’re supposed to work, instead of getting absorbed inside your body.
Some new sunscreens contain enzymes that can fix sun damage to DNA, helping the skin heal itself better than sunscreen alone.
Adding vitamins C and E to sunscreen helps it work better at stopping free radicals and skin damage from the sun.
Sunscreen that has a tint (like a light makeup color) blocks blue light better than clear sunscreen and helps prevent dark spots from forming.
Descriptive
Blue light from the sun and screens can damage skin by creating free radicals and breaking down collagen, even without UV rays.
Even low levels of UVA rays from the sun, which don’t cause sunburn, can break down skin’s collagen and make wrinkles worse over time.
Using sunscreen every day with SPF 30 or higher can help your skin look smoother, clearer, and less wrinkled over several months by protecting it from sun damage.
The word 'sunscreen' was used more than any other word in sunscreen research papers over the last decade — showing it’s the core idea everyone talks about.
The top research institution for sunscreen science in the last decade was a university in Brazil — the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro — which published more papers than any other university.
Most sunscreen science papers published between 2010 and 2020 were full research studies, not summaries or opinion pieces — showing the field was focused on new experiments and data.
The most popular journal for publishing sunscreen science papers was the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, which published more than any other journal in the last decade.
The U.S. published way more sunscreen science papers than any other country from 2010 to 2020, with Brazil, Australia, and France also being very active.
Zinc oxide nanoparticles in sunscreen don’t go deep into your skin—they stay on the surface, and your skin naturally sheds those outer layers, so they don’t build up or cause harm.
These tiny zinc oxide particles glow way brighter under special light than regular zinc oxide does—so bright that they shine as brightly as natural substances in your skin, making them super useful for detailed medical imaging.
Quantitative
Scientists found that tiny zinc oxide particles glow with a specific purple-blue light (385 nm) that doesn’t get confused with the natural glow of your skin, making it easier to take clear pictures inside the skin without interference.
When you put sunscreen with tiny zinc particles on your skin, they stay on the surface—like little beads stuck in your skin’s wrinkles and hair roots—and don’t go deeper into your skin.