Ultraviolet addiction

[Editor-in-Chief]

Ultraviolet addiction

(http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/lifestyles/395164,6_5_NA22_TANNING_S1.article)


May 22, 2007

By KATIE FOUTZ Contact Katie Foutz at kfoutz@scn1.com or 630-416-5216. Staff Writer


Freckle-faced and bronze all over, 19-year-old Katie Cerney uses a tanning bed about once a week because she likes how she looks.

"I don't look good pale," she said. "And it's nice in winter to lie in a bed for 15 minutes."

Cerney, a tanning consultant and receptionist at Ultra Tan in Naperville, said the tanning salon's owner advises employees not to tan more often because he's concerned about their skin.

"We do have people who come here religiously, like every single day, no matter what. Even if it's a full work day. Even if their skin looks like it's going to fall off," she said. "It's like a pack a day of cigarettes to them."

Maybe an addiction is the reason they're not getting the message, researchers have concluded.

A group of college students in Seattle were given the same survey for tanning as alcoholics are given for alcohol abuse, and 12 percent of the students tested positive for a substance addiction to ultraviolet light. The portion significantly increased among women, indoor tanners, frequent tanners and students with tanning family and friends.

Researchers surveyed 385 male and female University of Washington students about their tanning habits. Those who reported tanning on purpose were given the following addiction assessment:

• Have you ever felt you ought to cut down on your tanning?
• Have people annoyed you by criticizing your tanning?
• Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your tanning?
• Have you ever thought about tanning first thing in the morning?

Stephanie Marschall, a Wheaton dermatologist who specializes in treating skin cancer and other sun damage, said researchers have long held the theory that tanning is addictive.

In one study she cited, when people were exposed to UV light and non-UV light without knowing which was which, they preferred the UV light. And when people who tanned frequently and those who tanned infrequently were given opiate blockers, the frequent tanners became ill - as if in withdrawal, she said.

"So they had almost an opiate addiction to tanning," Marschall said.

She can tell whether someone has sun damage as soon as they walk into her office at Plastic Surgery Consultants of DuPage. One darkly tanned 25-year-old patient has the skin texture of a senior citizen, she said.

"They think they look good now?" she said. "When they're 40 or 50, they're going to wish they didn't do that to themselves."
To convince them, sometimes she uses a special camera that detects sun-damaged skin. She keeps a photo album of "before" and "after" shots (in natural light and UV-detecting light). On the left, a young woman appears with a porcelain complexion; on the right, sun damage flares like hot pink freckles on the top of her forehead, on the bridge of her nose, over her eyelids and down her cheeks.

Licensed clinical social worker Shelly Isenberg, cofounder of Isenberg and Associates in Naperville, said he wasn't surprised by the college student study. There will always be "sun worshipers" who ignore the health risks of being tan, he said - like some people gamble or overeat despite the consequences.

"Even though I'm getting fat and my cholesterol is rising, I'm still going to eat the entire pizza," Isenberg said. "I really don't need it, do I? But I've gotten to enjoy it so much that it's hard to stop or to cut down. Part of addiction is not being able to stop."

He hasn't treated anyone for a tanning addiction. But if someone came to him for help, he said he would probe the body-image issues they have and find out what tanning does for them.

The best treatment is prevention, according to Marschall. She advises people to wear sunscreen all day, every day because sun exposure adds up through your car windshield, your office windows, your walk through the parking lot, your chat with a neighbor in the driveway. People who like to look tan should get a spray-on tan or buy a self-tanning lotion, especially if they're still young, she said. "What do you say to the person who wants to drink alcohol when he's only 14?" Marschall said. "I'm going to say no. A little is not OK. Ten minutes in a tanning bed is not OK."

There are safer options. At Ultra Tan, Cerney said teens whose parents won't allow them to use a tanning bed will let them get a spray-on "Mystic Tan."

She said tanning carries a stigma. Some friends tell her she's going to die of skin cancer, and they call a tanning bed a "cancer box." But she defends herself.

"Everybody's going to die someday," she said.
</STRONG>
Source