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eLearning Series:
Enjoy a Healthy Looking Tan All Year Long:
Sunless Tanning
( 11 pages )
INTRODUCTION TO TANNING
This
guide sheds light on body tanning, sharing tips, secrets
and
other helpful
information on using the variety of sunless
tanning solutions available these days. And you’ll
also learn about the benefits of each, the drawbacks, how well
they work
and much more to help you with your own tanning goals and planning.
For example, you’ll
learn about various skin types and the appropriate sunscreen
agents for each. And you’ll find out
why you should reapply sunscreen especially after swimming
or heavy perspiration.
With this guide,
you will read about the most recent research and findings
available so that you
can discover more about
body tanning, covering as many bases as possible from A
to Z. You’ll find answers to questions like: Which sunless
tanning
products are safe? What are the two kinds of sunscreen
agents? Can you tell me more about ultraviolet A and B or
OVA and
OVB sunrays and the sun protection factor (SPF) for my
protection?
Note that the
contents here are not presented from a medical practitioner,
and that any and all health
care planning
should be made under the guidance of your own medical
and health
practitioners. This content only presents an overview
of tanning research
for educational purposes and does not replace medical
advice from a professional physician.
SUNLIGHT & UV
RAYS
The human body
benefits from sun exposure. And a little bit of tan protects
you from the sun. Right? Wrong!
The body does
indeed benefit from sun exposure. But a little bit of tan
does not necessarily
protect
you from
the sun.
Let’s see why.
The sun’s rays
are a major source of vitamin D and help the body’s systems
acquire much needed
calcium
for building
hearty
bones. However, most people do not need to spend
large amounts of time exposed to the sun in order
to get
their required
amount of vitamin D and shouldn’t. Because the
body’s health can suffer
negative effects when it’s exposed too long to
the sun’s rays, especially if it’s unprotected.
Results
can vary
from skin
and eye damage to immune system suppression and
ultimately cancer, even for the young.
In a nutshell,
let’s look at the basic facts about sun exposure.
There are three
kinds of invisible ultraviolet (UV) rays in the sun that
reaches earth: UVA, UVB, and UVC. When these rays
come in contact with our skin, affects of UVA and UVB can be
tans, burns and other reactions like acne and cancer. So we
need to be proactive and protect our skin from harmful damage.
It
is notable that the effects of all UV rays are not the
same. Depending upon the season, time of day and place on
the planet
in relation to the sun; i.e.
your altitude and latitude, the rays’ intensities vary. For example, during
summertime, UV rays are at their strongest. Between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., the
rays are strongest. And close to the equator and at high altitudes (where
air and cloud cover are less, resulting in increased harmful
penetration of UV
rays into the environment), the rays are strongest.
In order to protect
ourselves from the harmful UV rays, we need to first look
at the skin’s
first defense, melanin, a chemical present in a variety
of colors
and concentrations in most people's skin that helps with defense from the
sun. Melanin reacts with UV rays and absorbs them. Or rather the rays act
upon melanin,
to be more specific, causing the melanin to spread out or grow, increasing
its presence in response to the sun’s exposure, resulting in a sun tan.
The darker the skin color, the more melanin the skin has
for protection. And
“tanning” for darker color is included here; “color” does not have to refer
to just the
original skin color.
Tanning may look
great on the surface, but the amount and length of time a
person is exposed to the sun determines
the amount of possible damage
and future
risk of damage that’s likely. For example, people who are exposed to
the sun in huge doses like ship crews, field workers and
beach surfers, are
at higher
risks for skin damage than indoor workers. What happens is that when
the amount of UV exposure is greater than what the skin's
melanin can handle,
a sunburn
can result. And those with lighter, fairer skin who have less melanin,
absorb less UV, suffering less protection.
Research shows
that UV damage from the sun is the main cause of skin cancer.
In fact, the
U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) reported that
one person
dies from skin cancer every hour and one out of every five Americans
will develop
skin cancer during their lifetime.
Americans have
repeatedly heard the negative message about the damage of
ultraviolet (UV)
rays since the 1980’s. The message’s focal point
was that
about 80 percent
of people’s lifetime dose of radiation was obtained by the time they
reach 18 years of age, damage from the sun’s rays having had a cumulative
effect
throughout life. As a result, once young men and women finished with
their high school years, many tossed aside the concept of skin-protection,
not
believing there was anything that could be done from that point on
to help.
However, recent
studies show that the previous negative message may not be
true. A report published last year by
“Photochemistry and
Photobiology” journal,
said that the false information was a result of misinterpretation
of published data in a mathematical sense. And another, shared
by the
Netherlands
and
the United States, concluded that by age 18, most Americans are
only exposed to
less than 25 percent of their lifetime UV dose.
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