Over the years I have heard from countless sources that tanning (indoor especially) is incredibly dangerous. I know that it increases your risk of skin cancers and other skin damage, early aging, etc but I am having trouble explaining to my partner the severity of the damage. I am bad with words. Can someone please eli5 the reality of it so I can get him to stop tanning? Thank you!
In: Chemistry
Indoor tanning can be thought of as putting yourself in a weak microwave. Those waves can mutate (not accurate term, but appropriate for ELI5) the DNA in your skin cells. Most skin cells will die when this happens, leading to things like sunburn. But if one of those waves hits your skin just right it will mutate a skin cell in such a way that it will not stop growing. This is skin cancer.
We are exposed to low levels of different kinds of radiation all of the time.
Typically, your body can handle and repair any issues this radiation can cause. Just like your immune system can fight and protect you from a wide variety of viruses, bacteria and other microbes (some cancers/tumors too).
Just like your immune system, it can be overwhelmed by high levels of certain viruses and microbes. This means getting sick, maybe very sick and maybe even dying, especially if your immune system isn’t working properly.
Same thing with radiation exposure: too much, too quickly of the bad stuff and your body cannot repair itself and you won’t survive. A little less exposure, spread out over more time *can* allow your body to recover.
Small amounts of radiation can be tolerated, but some of the damage done doesn’t go away, but accumulated over the years. This holds true for Ultraviolet radiation as well.
The key is to minimize your exposure over your lifetime. Many factors, such as genetics and skin color will play a role. At some point, with enough exposure, your repair system breaks down and that’s when neoplasms (tumors and cancers) can begin.
UV radiation damages DNA by creating Thymine Dimers–basically anywhere you have 2 thymines next to each other on your DNA strand, including on the anti-sense strand, the high energy of UV radiation can fuse the thymines together. Depending on where this mutation occurs, it can interfere with normal cell functions.
For instance, if this occurs in an Oncogene region, or a tumor suppressor gene region, these functions will not work properly and can lead to cancers. If the thymine dimers occur in a region of DNA that isn’t being transcribed, it may cause no issues.
TLDR: Best to keep exposure as low as possible, it adds up over time. Genetics, etc…, help determine how dangerous exposure can be
So, radiation. Radio signals are radiation. And cellular, and WiFi, and microwaves, and light, and X-rays. It’s **ionizing** radiation that hits the skin with enough energy to alter DNA very quickly. Ultraviolet light is ionizing radiation, pretty much neighbors with X-rays.
It will melt your face, I’ve known a few people with faces like baked potatoes in their 40’s and 50’s from habitual tanning or just sunbathing while ginger. On the other hand, living like a vampire and rarely seeing the sun really does keep you looking youthful.
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