- Image by Evil Erin via Flickr
I was reading this blog post, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/health/22brod.html?ref=health, over at the New York Times site and it talks about the interesting correlation between sun tanning and addiction. Here is one of the excerpts that caught my attention:
When Dr. Richard F. Wagner Jr., a dermatologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, reported five years ago that as many as half of local beachgoers met the psychiatric definition of a substance abuse disorder, he received an e-mail message from a man in Canada who described himself as “a poster boy for your study.” The man said he traveled all over the world to maintain a tan, and even though he knew he could get cancer as a result, he could not stop.
In a new report in The Skin Cancer Foundation Journal, Dr. Robin L. Hornung and Solmaz Poorsattar of the University of Washington in Seattle wrote that the “continued purposeful exposure to a known cancer-causing agent suggests that factors besides lack of knowledge are driving individuals to tan.” Although many say that a tanned appearance is their strongest motivation for sunbathing and tanning bed use, “tanners also report mood enhancement, relaxation and socialization” as their reasons, the authors wrote.
I always wondered why people, knowing that exposed sunlight causes cancer and aging effects, would continue to do it knowing that there are other options like tanning lotions to brown their skin. This quote talks about people’s other reasons for doing it like mood enhancement, relaxation and socialization. I personally always enjoyed the physical sensation of the sun on my bare back on a hot day at the San Diego beaches. I don’t do it that often because I protect my skin. If only someone could invent some super fabric to make tanning clothing that is light weight, skin tight and breathable so that you could lay in the sun, feel the sun and get those physical sensations and endorphin releases that you get from the sun, and still protect your skin from the harmful UV rays.
I tend to lean towards this sort of addictive view of tanning as things like tanning lotions are to the point today that they work well and give you the brown skin you want. People knowing this still don’t take advantage for whatever other reasons. The physical feeling of the suns rays into your skin creates such a pleasurable experience that people can’t seem to stop. Sure drinking and cigarette smoking may be addictive too. I enjoy those things from time to time but me being a human, with the capacity to reason, I choose to use my intelligence over my emotions when making these decisions. Therefore I don’t lay in the sun unprotected very often at all. But I admit there is a definite pull to do so. I believe I am in the minority though when it comes to not falling victim to addiction. So I could see sun tanning as addictive.
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