How To Get A Healthy Tan

IT IS POSSIBLE TO GET A HEALTHY TAN, BUT YOU MAY BE SURPRISED BY THE SECRET TO GETTING ONE!

It is generally accepted that looking tanned is looking good, but how do you get a tan without increasing your risk of skin cancer and melanoma? In this video, I will discuss five different methods of getting a skin tan, touching on the benefits and dangers of each one.

1: Sun Tan, this is a natural way to make your skin darker and brown in colour, but the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight burns our skin, leading to sun burn and increasing our risk of melanoma and skin cancer.

2: Tanning beds, these also emit ultraviolet radiation to cook the melanin in your skin, making it turn brown, but again, increasing your risk of skin cancer and melanoma...and they look stupid and they cost money.

3: Fake Tan, this method is essentially painting your skin darker. Most fake tans contain a chemical called dihydroxyacetone which reacts with the amino acids in the proteins of your skin, making them turn brown. It is called the Maillard Reaction, and it is healthy compared to cooking your melanin with ultra violet radiation, but it looks ridiculous.

4: Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. They contain high levels of beta-carotenes which give them their brown, red and orange colours. By eating enough of these foods, the pigments colouring them actually get incorporated into our skin, making us look brown! You have to eat ALOT of fruits and vegetables for a LONG time, but it will make you look and feel super healthy!

5: Tanning pills, Scientists have created a drug that actually contains high levels of beta carotenes. If you take this regularly, it would make your skin turn darker and brown. The long term effects of these drugs are not well understood, but if it worked it would save you from dangerous tanning methods that involve radiation, and it would save you from eating nothing but fruits and vegetables.

Ultimately, the healthiest way to get a tan would be to get a little bit of sunlight and eat alot of fruits and vegetables to give your skin a healthy glow without putting yourself at any serious risk.

Or don't bother getting a tan, it's silly :D

For more information on this topic, use the links below.

Review of Tanning Methods
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4345932/#B44

Tanning Beds
unitypoint.org/livewell/article.aspx?id=93cb5a6…

Tanning Pills and increased cancer risks
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18689373

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