Is Indoor Suntanning Good For You?

A recent full-page ad in a New York newspaper by the tanning industry has claimed that the adverse effects of indoor sun tanning as it relates to increasing your risks of melanoma skin cancer are overstated. Furthermore, they claim that indoor tanning is actually beneficial as it produces vitamin D levels due to ultraviolet light exposure.
Having seen many patients in my plastic surgery practice that are regular users of tanning beds, I can assure you that it certainly is not beneficial as it relates to aging of the skin. But this issue aside, some of these other claims require further inspection. Some UV light exposure is certainly not unhealthy, but it is the amount of exposure that is important. You can get all the UV light your skin needs for adequate vitamin D levels in a few minutes of tanning bed exposure. I suspect that most tanning bed users use it far beyond that. Furthermore, the most common skin cancer is not melanoma, but basal cell and squamous cell. These more common types of skin cancer, while far less aggressive than melanoma, far outnumber melanoma and ultimately still require some form of medical treatment, often surgical excision. No mention is made of tannng bed effects on these more frequent skin cancers. All skin cancers are the result of skin type susceptibility and ultraviolet light exposure. It is difficult to imagine that 'excessive' tanning bed exposure does not have the same effects as outdoor sun exposure. Ultraviolet light, regardless of the source, is still....ultraviolet light.
Like all things in life, moderation is the key. Reasonable tanning bed expoure at time intervals of 5 - 10 minutes a few times a week probably has no significant deleterious effects on your risk of skin cancer or excessive skin aging.
Dr Barry Eppley
http://www.eppleyplasticsurgery.com/
http://www.ologyspa.com/
Clarian North Medical Center, Carmel, Indiana
Clarian West Medical Center, Avon, Indiana
Indianapolis