Healthy Suntanning?

[jessica9]

Hi everyone! Kim offered a link to this site on another thread, and it has a lot of information about natural skincare! So I was looking around and found information on "Healthy Suntanning", which seems like a contradiction, but I have to say, after reading the article, a lot of it made sense. Here is the link -

http://www.skinbiology.com/morehealthysuntanning.html#9.1%20What%20is

I would be really interested to know what some of you think about this. I remember always having a tan as a kid and spending a lot of time swimming, and always being happy and healthy! I don't think I am ready to run out an get a bad sunburn, but I am going to Croatia this summer and plan to spend a lot of time on the beach! Life is too short!

 

[jessica9]

yeah! that info on antioxidants is gold! i'll never stop wearing my daily spf (i know, i'm obsessive about it!) but it does sort of make you rethink some of what you've been told about the sun, and realize that there is another opinion on the matter. i will feel a little less guilty in the sun now!

 

[tashbash]

So I am confused.....is it talking about tanning period or just tanning outside in the real sun?

 

[Jennifer]

wow. that was very informative! thanks for posting. i've read it time and time again and i do believe it.

by the way, where in croatia are you going? i was there summer of 2004 and it was THE BEST! the water/beaches were sooooooo nice. i loved how most of the beaches had no sand LOL i stayed at my uncle's beach house in opatija for 2 weeks and then went to zagreb for another 2 weeks.

 

[vanilla_sky]

I believe I get all my sun that I need even wearing sunscreen and just walking around, none sunscreen blocks sunrays completely, and there is plenty areas on my body that i dont put my sunscreen on (such as my head). sun also goes through clothes etc. so i believe i get all the sun benefits just being outside wearing sunscreen. I believe that spending a lot of time on the beach with low spf brings more harm than good.

 

[jessica9]

oh! awesome! a fellow american-croat! my grandma is from pula, which is in istria, that little hook that is between italy and mainland croatia, and yes, the beaches are gorgeous there too and i am super excited! i'm pretty much just staying there for two weeks, and staying with family i've never met with my grandma. maybe i could take the train somewhere...is there a city you would recommend, or would you recommend just hanging out on the beaches?

 

[jessica9]

what i gathered from the article is that to get the tan color, you pretty much need to build up a good amount of melanin. but you also need to burn it slightly. the burn plus the build up of melanin produces the color of a tan, so you don't need to spend a whole lot of time out in the sun, and you still should wear sunscreen, and you can still get a tan. he recommends taking a certain cocktail of antioxidants while tanning to combat the damage the sun does to the skin - mainly lowering vitamin c levels. so you take the antioxidants to supplement what the sun does to the antioxidants, which makes sense since they fight free radicals and you are out in the sun. so as far as tanning beds go, i guess what he says would apply to that too. take antioxidants before you go tanning if you want a tan!

i found it really interesting what he said about retin a and retinols, since i have used retin a for 10 years now, and was always told how bad it was to use when you go to the beach.

 

[sherice]

interesting

 

[Jennifer]

jessica, i'm gonna PM you because i feel bad it's so off topic LOL

 

[Little_Lisa]

Very nice article! Thanks for posting! :clap

Like Kim said, I take antioxidants on a daily basis and up them before exposure to the sun or tanning beds. I take grapeseed extract which studies have shown to contain more powerful antioxidants than vit. C, E, and beta-carotene. I also take CoQ10, daily greens, and Ambrotose to boost my immune system and keep it strong. I take a multi vit and a few other supplements but the ones I mentioned are the ones I rely on the most.

Too much of anything can be a bad thing so I think the key to tanning is moderation.

I hate chemical laden sunscreens so I don't use them at all. I have a tanning lotion which I love called Maui Babe Browning lotion. It's not a sunscreen so you have to limit your time in the sun with it but can increase it as you develop a tan. It contains caffeine from coffee which is it's main ingredient. Caffeine was shown to lower the risk of skin cancer in mice in a study conducted by Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J.

I hope you have a great time in Croatia! Sounds fun!

 

[jen19]

i think the article was saying that "moderate", responsible sun exposure promotes good health, tanning gradually and avoiding burns, using the right sunblock....but, he was talking about real sunlight, not tanning booths and I don't think one of the benefits was "looking younger" Sun damage, in any way shape or form, causes wrinkles and sagging skin. How quickly or how bad depends on how much tanning you do, and probably genetics. I love the look of a suntan, but I'd also like to look young for a long time and tanning is not the way to do that.

So, think about what you are doing, there are alot of other studies saying entirely different things!