I like to tan as much as the next light-skinned bi-racial girl. In fact, a couple years ago a 6-minute daily session was free at my gym.
And of course my dumb butt took full advantage of it. That daily dose of faux vitamin D got me through the depression I didn’t know I had until I stopped tanning.
Before we head off to Cancun next week there is nothing more than I’d like to do than go plop myself down in a tanning bed for 10 minutes a day. Four days of that is all it takes to give me that “healthy glow.”
I don’t know who declared that it’s a social faux paus to arrive in a sunny location sporting a pasty white winter anti-glow but I believe them.
Unfortunately.
Before my Senior trip, before my best friends’ weddings, before my own wedding and honeymoon, before a trip to St. Lucia and sometimes just for kicks –I’ve tanned.
Problem is, using tanning beds before 30 triples your Skin Cancer risk. In fact, the reason why I stopped tanning at my gym a few years ago is because of the FACT that International Cancer Experts have now rated tanning at the electric beach up there with smoking, arsenic and mustard gas!
Using tanning beds are downright dangerous. For example did you know this:
The risk of melanoma was increased by 300% for those using tanning beds occasionally and by 800% for those using tanning beds more than 10 times a year. The FDA estimates that about 38,000 people will be diagnosed with melanoma this year in the U.S. and 7,300 people will die from this condition.
If you’d like to kill yourself and know that it’s absolutely your fault, go ahead and pay to die by using tanning beds. Evil. Evil. Evil. You may as well be a chain smoker.
How could I be a responsible human being, wife, mother, daughter & best friend to all my loved ones if I took the further risk of developing Skin Cancer (that’s in addition to all the damage I’ve all ready done) by going to the kill yourself quickly centers tanning beds?
I can’t.
Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to Cancun -pasty white- I go!
What about you, how often have you tanned? Are you kicking yourself now like I am?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Here’s my take on tanning. I am a cancer survivor (colon cancer not skin cancer) so the thought of paying money to give yourself cancer is absolutely horrifying to me. But I’ve softened my position over the years.
And here’s why. If you go to a warm place (yes I am jealous) in the winter, you will have to severely limit the time you spend outside or totally cover up (and what fun is that!) So an occasional tanning before you hit the beach in winter seems better than burning yourself once you get there. What do you think?
Judy
Judy, I know that is exactly what I was thinking. This is especially true for Dave and my fairer skinned white friends. I can pretty easily go out without getting cooked, but I’ve been trying to do better with sunscreen so that I don’t get the sun damage on top of everything else. I guess an option is to use the fake tan lotion so as not to look pasty and be use sunscreen the whole time, so as not to burn. It’s defintely not the fun in the sun carelessness I used to enjoy when I was younger (I never burned ever). Now, I’m trying ot be more careful, but I can’t see EVER going back to a tanning bed now that I know what I know about them… but I get your point!
Sorry to hear about what happened to you, I didn’t know about that!
Whoa! Some seriously wrong information in here. Please allow me to give the other side.
First of all, the report you quote says that tanning increases your odds of getting melanoma by 75%, not 300%. That sounds pretty scary but to put that in perspective, according to Dr. Lisa Schwartz, author of “Know Your Chances” it raises your risk of melanoma from 0.2% to 0.3%.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100304/NEWS/3040341/Law-curbs-teen-tanning
And even that figure is manipulated. The study that’s quoted cherrypicked the most damaging studies while leaving out ones like a CT study showing a lower rate of melanoma among women who tanned. Four studies have been conducted in the U.S. and none have found an association between indoor tanning and melanoma. By the way, virtually all of the knocks on indoor tanning are not that it is worse than natural sunlight, just that it is as bad as natural sunlight. The report that linked indoor tanning with “mustard gas” just put it into the same category as sunlight, red wine and salted fish, by the way. So if you’re going to close tanning salons, close the beaches too – oh and all of Florida, the “Sunshine State”.
But to evaluate the risks of too much UV you have to look at the risks of too little UV which are likely 100 times as high. Humans are meant to get sunlight. We typically get 90% of our Vitamin D (as well as other benefits) from exposure to sunlight. Because of our modern lifestyle – lots of time indoors, lots of clothing – we don’t get as much as we need. The really bad advice dermatologists have been giving for 30 years has made the problem even worse where now 77% of Americans (according to the Center for Disease Control) have insufficient Vitamin D.
The risks of low Vitamin D are HUMONGOUS compared to the risks of skin cancer. While 10,000 people die from skin cancer each year, well over a million (more than 100 times as many) die from horrible diseases whose risk is significantly increased by low Vitamin D. These include heart disease (the # killer – more than 500,000 each year), stroke, breast, colon, prostate, pancreatic and about 16 other cancers, diabetes, MS, osteoporosis, influenza, asthma and on and on. For example, people with low Vitamin D are four times as likely to die from breast, prostate and colon cancer – each of which kills far more than skin cancer. Another study found that people over 50 with low Vit D were 77% more likely to die during any given year than those with sufficient Vit D. Just this week Danish researchers issued a landmark report showing that Vit D is critical to activating and powering your entire immune system. Without it, you cannot effectively fight off any serious infection.
So who has sufficient Vitamin D? Indoor tanners. Studies show the majority have sufficient Vit D and average 90% higher levels than non-tanners.
It’s time to stop this anti-sun/anti-tanning campaign. Sure, tanning involves some risk – what doesn’t. But avoiding UV seems to have much higher risks. I can’t blame you for holding the opinion you do after this long and wrong campaign by dermatologists to convince you that sunshine (and man-made sunshine) is going to kill you when it’s the only reason there is any life on planet Earth.
Thanks for the chance to respond at such length. Oh, and whether indoor or outdoor GET SOME SUN but use your head… don’t burn, protect your eyes, exercise moderation.
Thanks for your opinion, Get Some Sun.
I’ll take it into consideration, but I probably won’t ever use a tanning bed again. I do get enough sun during the summer in MI & being biracial I do tan easier, so I don’t use sunscreen every day of my life.
Sometimes I also take vitamin D drops. I don’t think I’m in any danger of not getting enough vitamin D.
I do think more people should be much more aware of the problems that can be associated with using tanning beds. It’s usually that we don’t know the problems or risks rather than the other way around. I’d argue that more people take more risks with sun tanning and tanning beds than not getting enough sun…. unless they live in Alaska or something most people aren’t hiding from sun.
It seems most people in America are sun worshippers.
but anyway, thanks for your alternate perspective.
I hate sunscreen and wearing a hat, but after having some skin cancer cut out I know I have to use these things. I also have some sun protective shirts that work well. I spent hours in the sun when I was young, trying to tan like everyone else did. Now I’m paying the price.
I’m right there with ya, Grace. Tanning beds are EVIL. And I’m a little curious what Get Some Sun does for a living… because, not to disrespect, but I’d likely hear that side of the story alot easier if there was a profession to back it up. Right now, I think I’ll stick with the dermatologists and what they have to say, since they deal with so much skin cancer and all…And why, by the way… would they start a “long and wrong campaign against the sun?” I don’t see a real motivation for dermatologists to start something false there – and not that many people are listening anyways, sadly. Plus, a vitamin D deficiency can be helped pretty easily with vitamins. You don’t need to expose yourself to dangerous uv sun in order to get it.