People who tan excessively might find it luxurious and relaxing, but one expert says increased health risks are not worth the bronze and beautiful look.
AUSTIN (UWire) — A recent study conducted at Virginia Commonwealth University found 25 percent of students surveyed show symptoms of a physical addiction to tanning.
“Tanorexia” is a relatively new concept, Carolyn Heckman, a researcher at the Fox Chase Cancer Center who led the study, said in an e-mail.
Heckman and her team sent a survey to 400 students at the University and identified symptoms as feeling the need to tan more and more over time, feeling sick or uncomfortable when trying to stop tanning after tanning regularly for a while and tanning despite awareness of potential problems such as burns, pre-cancerous lesions or wrinkling.
“I believe that it has the potential to be a serious health risk,” Heckman said.
“At this point, we look at symptoms similar to other substance dependences such as alcoholism.”
The center’s research group is continuing its study, looking at ways to address such an addiction.
“Some of the same strategies used for treatment of traditional substance disorders, such as psychological counseling, may be helpful,” she said.
“We are comparing the use of education, psychological counseling and showing people UV-filtered photos of their own skin damage that is not normally visible to the naked eye.”
Dr. Kent Aftergut, a dermatologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said he has patients who have had multiple skin cancers and keep tanning despite knowing its risks.
“They say, ‘I just can’t stop,’ and ‘It makes me feel so good,’” Aftergut said. “That’s one of the characteristics of addiction.”
He said addressing a tanning dependency will be different than addressing a drug addiction.
“With a drug addiction, someone could immediately overdose and die or get into a car crash,” he said.
“Tanning isn’t an immediate threat so it isn’t as urgent.”
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