I’d like to use a course of treatment to generate a natural tan before an upcoming event, but the online advice is very strongly anti. How is it so much worse than natural tanning outside?
In: Biology
Tanning in general increases your risk of skin cancer. Tanning beds work by giving you an even higher dose of the type of UV light that causes both tanning and skin cancer. There’s no clear evidence that this high dose for a short time is better or worse, healthwise, than the low dose for a long time you get from the sun, but neither is great. Research shows that people who use tanning beds have skin cancer rates nearly twice as high as those who don’t.
The sad truth is that tanning and skin cancer are inextricably linked. You just can’t have one without the other. So you have to ask yourself whether exposing yourself to that risk is worth getting the tan. If you decide it is, then the only real consideration between a tanning bed and laying out in the sun is whether you want to pay for the faster tan in the salon.
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