Sun and Skin: 5 Myths on Tanning

Here is everything you need to know before getting a tan this summer in order to protect your skin.

Gentle sun exposure in low UV index times of the day is always great, especially for synthesising vitamin D and for getting a nice tan during the summer. However, it’s fundamental to take care of your skin both before, during and after sun exposure: use safe and professional products and tools in your skincare routine, never forget your sunscreen and moisturize your whole body after spending time in the sun.

There are a lot of myths around tanning you need to stop believing in:

1. A tan will not protect you from any further sun damage. Going to the tanning bed or laying out prior to summer won’t help you get your skin ready so it doesn’t burn. The only thing that can reduce your chances of a sunburn is practising smart, safe, sun protective behaviours like wearing sunscreen or sun protective clothing, seeking shade and not sunbathing too much. A tan is a form of skin injury, it actually leaves your skin more vulnerable to the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation: your skin is weak, the antioxidant reservoirs are down and the immune system is suppressed because of the UV rays.
2. Just because a tan looks and feels good it doesn’t mean that it is good for you. A tan feels good because it leads to the release of opioid-like chemicals in the skin that feed into reward pathways in the brain which support addictive behaviours: so, just like drugs, you can become addicted to tanning.
3. Laying out in the sun and getting a tan is not a safe, effective, smart, nor practical way of raising your vitamin D. Going out and exposing your skin to sunlight does help to produce more vitamin D (components from sunlight like UVB do that) but the reality is that the majority of what is hitting your skin from the sun is actually UVA: UVA penetrates the skin very deeply and even degrades vitamin D in the skin (that’s why nobody ever got hypervitaminosis D from being out in the sun). In addition, exposing your skin too much to the sun significantly thins the skin and incites premature skin aging.
4. Sun tanning is not good for immune function. Ultraviolet radiation damages the DNA in your skin cells and it also suppresses the immune system that circulates throughout your skin to clear out damage. This is the main reason why sun exposure contributes to skin cancer formation later on in life. Furthermore, tanning puts you at risk for skin problems and skin infections. In dermatology, ultraviolet radiation is used in a select way to treat many skin diseases during phototherapy, however it’s the dose that makes the difference: phototherapy to treat skin concerns like psoriasis and eczema involves a very controlled dose, specific wavelengths and the control of the patient.
5. Tanning is also bad for acne breakouts and it definitely won’t clear your skin. Acne might actually temporarily improve with sun exposure, however it is quite common for it to rebound and worsen. The reason that this might be happening is because UVA radiation, specifically UVA 1, as well as some types of visible light like red and blue, can have an anti-inflammatory effect on the skin. Visible light specifically activates porphyrins, which reduce acne and actually kill bacteria. In addition, endogenous chromophores, which refer to things in the skin like DNA, amino acids and melanin, also absorb broad spectrum light: this can damage blood vessels that supply the sebaceous glands, hence reducing the amount of sebum these glands produce. The reality is that the UVB rays actually cause inflammation in acne: they increase sebum production and proliferation of keratinocytes, so that’s why the breakouts come back or even worsen.