It's a fact: There is no such thing as a safe or healthy tan. Tanning increases your risk of basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. Your best defense is to avoid tanning altogether.
While often associated with good health, the ``glow'' of a tan is the very opposite of healthy; it's evidence of DNA injury to your skin. Tanning damages your skin cells and speeds up visible signs of aging. Worst of all, tanning can lead to skin cancer. It's a fact: There is no such thing as a safe or healthy tan.
To make your tan look healthy make sure you moisturize well before and after you get sun exposure, as well as apply sunscreen If you will be exposed to the sun for a long time. Another important factor that make your tan look healthy,is to eat lots of carrots as they will help make your skin look great.
According to Dr. Peter Katz, board-certified dermatologist with Forefront Dermatology, “there is no such thing as a healthy or safe tan. Tanned skin is a result of damage to the skin cells, your skin producing pigment in response to UV damage in an attempt to protect itself.
The reason you don't tan is because you don't have enough melanin in your skin. Melanin is the tanning colour in our skin. When we go in the sun it is produced to protect our skin. The evolutionary advantage of white skin was that, when there was seldom any sun; skin started to produce less melanin.
Type IV – Brown skin color, brown hair, and brown eyes, tans more than average, rarely burns, and rarely freckles. Common ethnic background: the Mediterranean, Southern European, Hispanic.
Individuals with fair skin have a low production of melanin, which increases their sensitivity to the sun's rays. This skin type is particularly prone to sunburn and often struggles to tan. However, it's not impossible for fair skin to achieve a slight tan.
No amount of tanning is safe, as the tan itself indicates that your skin is damaged.
Today, having a tan is associated with people that have an active, outdoor lifestyle. A tan therefore makes people look healthier and fit. Pale skin is often associated with sickness (e.g. anaemia) which is another, indirect reason why a tan makes people seem healthier.
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It's a fact: There is no such thing as a safe or healthy tan. Tanning increases your risk of basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. Your best defense is to avoid tanning altogether.
Dendrites become shorter as the melanocytes age, making it difficult to place melanosomes and pigment evenly throughout the spinosum layer, thereby reducing the epidermal barrier defence.
Indoor tanning speeds up skin aging
Indoor tanning is known to cause wrinkles, brown spots and thick leathery skin. Indoor tanning ages your skin 3 times faster than sunlight: indoor tanning can emit up to 15 times more UV radiation than sunlight.
Currently, no safe or proven method exists to increase melanin – the pigment, or color, in a person's skin, hair, and eyes. A person's genetics determine their natural melanin levels and skin color. In general, people who have darker skin tones have more melanin than those with lighter skin tones.
Health Benefits
Several health benefit claims such as improved appearance, enhanced mood, and increased vitamin D levels have been attributed to tanning. Furthermore, the Indoor Tanning Association claims that “catching some rays may lengthen your life” [5].
Males preferred darker tans more than women. A similar study found that males not only rated dark tans as more attractive (vs. light or medium tans), but also perceived dark-tanned women as thinner (Banerjee, Campo, & Greene, 2008). Tanning's powers extend beyond simple attractiveness.
According to a study called “Shades of beauty,” light brown skin tones are often the most physically attractive skin color (Frisby et al., 2006). They used four models for that study. They did not change the skin tone, but they imaged each model to three different skin tones: light, medium, and dark.
So how does a tan make you look thinner? Not only does it cover any signs of cellulite or skin creases, but it also gives definition to areas that usually look slightly less defined.
The Bottom Line: Evidence suggests that tanning greatly increases your risk of developing skin cancer. And, contrary to popular belief, getting a tan will not protect your skin from sunburn or other skin damage.
Genetic factors influencing sunburn and tanning
Certain genes influence melanin production and skin color, affecting whether you tan or burn. People with fair skin have less melanin and are more prone to burning, while those with darker skin have more melanin and are more likely to tan.
Paleness may be the result of decreased blood supply to the skin. It can also be due to decreased number of red blood cells (anemia). Paleness of the skin is not the same as loss of pigment from the skin. Paleness is related to blood flow in the skin rather than deposit of melanin in the skin.
Papaya: Like carrots, orange fruits and vegetables, such as papaya, help to enhance your tan naturally thanks to its high beta-carotene levels. Melon: This refreshing fruit, rich in antioxidants and beta-carotenes will help you to keep your golden skin tone.