Endorphins Make Tanning Addictive

Rambo Tribble writes: Research published in the journal Cell describes a mechanism whereby exposure to UV light leads to endorphin production in the skin. Additionally, they show that rodents exhibit the characteristics of addiction to those substances. This adds to earlier studies which demonstrated withdrawal-like symptoms in frequent tanners One of the researchers, Dr. David Fisher, commented, "It sounds like a cruel joke to be addicted the most ubiquitous carcinogen in the world,' The researchers conclusions are subject to some skepticism, however. Addiction researcher Dr. David Belin is quoted as opining, "... their study is going to be seminal even though their conclusions are not supported by their results." The BBC offers nicely rounded coverage, as well.

No worries

[Anonymous Coward]

Geeks can't get a tan from their mothers basement.

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[fustakrakich]

Grow lights don't work?

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[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty sure tanning salon would be less expensive.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Your mother's basement sees plenty of sunlight.

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[CongoMongo]

That's what windows are for. :)

I've seen it.

[Sqr(twg)]

I can certainly believe that tanning would be addictive. I know some people who just don't seem to be able to stay off the tanning beds. At age 30 they have the skin of 60-year-olds. (Although this is in Sweden, where you only get a couple of hours of natural sunlight per day in the winter, and lack-of-sun depression is probably more common than tanning addiction by orders of magnitude.)

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[Anonymous Coward]

You sure that brown color is from tanning?

San Francisco joke is offensive. Funny too, butt still ;)

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[Anonymous Coward]

but.. by the time your cock is clearly displayed in front of them its generally too late, when you walk in as not a black man and pickup a girl, they surely can't be expecting a big black cock..

"sorry i was expecting bigger and blacker i've changed my mind"

I've never been told that before

i hope they all get dick cancer for being such shallow douches

Re:I've seen it.

[Mashiki]

Seen the same thing here in Canada, also the land of a few hours of sunlight in the winter. And yep, lack-of-sun depression is far more common here as well. Few years ago, they ramped up the "take D3 supplements" and the winter depression bit does seem to be dropping off slightly.

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[purpledinoz]

Most of the Canadian population isn't that far north. Toronto for example is at 4342N, which is about the same as Florence, Italy (4347N), and southern France (Marseille, 4318N). Calgary is at 5103N, which is around London, England (5130N) and the middle of Germany (Dresden, 5102N). Stockholm is much farther north, at 5920N, similar to Whitehorse at 6043N. It's really interesting to compare the latitudes [wikipedia.org] between North America and Europe. Europe has great weather considering how far north it is.

Re:I've gone tanning and yes it feels great

[jythie]

Comparing it to runner`s high is what I was thinking too.

I think the criticism of the paper was a little off, or at minimal the person was creating an unnecessarily high bar. Not all addition is equal, not all withdraw symptoms are crippling, and "must be life destroying" only applies when you are talking DSM level addiction, not the physiological process.

Caffeine would be a good example of this. Physically addicting, has withdraw symptoms, but does not rise to the level of DSM addiction since people generally do not choose it over all other things. But it is still addictive.

John Denver was right again

[king neckbeard]

First, Colorado legalizes weed, resulting in a Rocky Mountain high, and now we have evidence that sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy.

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[strikethree]

At first, I laughed and thought your post was funny, witty, and a good reference. On second reading, it was disturbingly insightful. Good catch.

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[jeIlomizer]

Whenever someone questions whether an article is news for nerds, someone usually comes out and uses silly and trivial excuses to justify why the article is here.

Listen to the children

[Anonymous Coward]

Listen to the children, the stuff they draw has actually a meaning. They know sunlight makes addictive, this is the cause why they draw a smiley into the sun.

Get out from behind your computer.

[horm]

So going outside and getting some sunshine makes you feel good. Who would have guessed?

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re: "Nicely rounded coverage"...

[Trinn]

Actually a pure oxygen environment is survivable, it just tends to make normally innovuous materials quite explosive.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Actually a pure oxygen environment is survivable, it just tends to make normally innovuous materials quite explosive.

Actually... pure oxygen is toxic even at standard pressure. At standard pressure (1 atmosphere) it takes several days for it to become apparent. People being treated with pure oxygen need periodic breaks of normal air to avoid the toxic effects.

At higher pressures (like when scuba diving), the exposure limits are much less. Usually the nitrogen limits are hit first, so you don't have to worry about it. However, if you are using enriched air or decompression, oxygen toxicity becomes the limiting factor.

Obvious

[Virtucon]

So being in the nice sunshine makes you feel good. Wow, all those PE coaches and Rec Center Activity directors were all right. Not to mention my mom who always kept telling to go play outside. Or was that play on the freeway? I can't remember.

Obvious

[Princeofcups]

Another thing that's obvious made to sound groundbreaking.

Dr. Fischer

[DaMattster]

Dr. David Fisher, commented, "It sounds like a cruel joke to be addicted the most ubiquitous carcinogen in the world.' This doesn't seem like a really intelligent thing to say. Smoking is probably just as addictive due to nicotine and clearly, it's a carcinogen as well. I guess that would be a cruel joke too?

Zonker Harris, we salute you

[jpellino]

... for kicking the habit so publicly.

anecdotal

[Charliemopps]

I know a girl that tans so much she has to dye her brown hair black because it looks weird if her skins darker than her hair. But then her eyebrows didn't show up so she started dyeing those. But it was too hard to keep up with so she had them removed with a laser, and TATTOOED her eyebrows and eyeliner on black. Her friends jokingly call her an umpa lumpa to her face and she giggles and goes along with it. So yea, there's either something addictive about tanning or that chicks bat shit crazy.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Either way she's bat shit crazy...

Brought to you by the American Dairy Association

[zephvark]

...who would like to remind you that sunshine will kill you, so be sure to get your vitamin D by drinking four to eight glasses of milk every day.

Winter Blues

[Sir Holo]

When I've lived in northern climates, I've occasionally had a couple of tanning sessions to fight the winter blues. It works great.

addicted the most ubiquitous carcinogen in the wor

[manu0601]

Summary says

It sounds like a cruel joke to be addicted the most ubiquitous carcinogen in the world

But UV exposure let the body produce vitamin D, which enables the immune system to fight cancer more efficiently, hence things are not that simple

In fact, avoiding UV probably means swapping skin cancers with other cancers. The nice point with skin cancers is that you have a chance to spot them early, so personally, I would choose UV exposure.

Vitamin D

[Tenebrousedge]

The effectiveness of vitamin D as a cancer treatment is highly debatable [cancer.gov], and anyone claiming otherwise (for or against) is mistaken or selling something. Not all UV radiation has the same effect on your skin. Tanning beds are tuned to make you tan; they are not particularly effective for vitamin D production. [skincancer.org]

You should avoid tanning. I am sure no one who has had skin cancer would recommend the experience. You're presenting a false dichotomy. Even if vitamin D were effective as a cancer remedy, it does not

Example Vitamin D reduces cancer risk study:

[Paul Fernhout]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu... [nih.gov]
"This was a 4-y, population-based, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial. The primary outcome was fracture incidence, and the principal secondary outcome was cancer incidence."

Eating a lots of vegetables and fruits and mushrooms can also reduce cancer risk (see Dr. Joel Fuhrman's summary works like "Eat To Live" with many references). I've found by eating more fruits and vegetables that my skin tone has changed from pale to having more color (even in winter). Ad