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After having several kitesurfing vacations ruined by sunburns, I decided to just go to a tanning salon in the winter. It had a profound mood effect and respira

After having several kitesurfing vacations ruined by sunburns, I decided to just go to a tanning salon in the winter. It had a profound mood effect and respiratory effect almost immediately. Now I go a few times per month in winter regardless if I am going to the tropics. The UV does is completely metered. It may be a risky, but given that people that work outside have half the risk of melanoma as people who work indoors, I think regular low dose UV exposure may be a net positive even for cancer risk. Spending 5 minutes under UV lamps is a guaranteed way to get a huge dose reasonably safely, and you will know the effect almost immediately. The vitamin D seems to be maintained for 2-3 weeks after as well.

James_Henry 6y ago
One concern that I would have is that I've heard that the light from a tanning salon doesn't match the light output by the sun. Supposedly the sun has more UVB or something and there are reasons to believe it may be healthier. Do you, or anyone else, have any knowledge on this?
- jcampbell1 6y ago
  That is a concern, and the salons pitch expensive machines using high pressure bulbs with basically no UVA which will make your skin brown with little worry about sunburn and has little vitamin d effect. Since you wouldn’t be going for aesthetics, the best is to use one of the cheap beds that makes UVA and don’t go for very long. Your skin will take a month before it gets even subtly darker. The salons call the cheap machines “sun burning” machines to up sell the more expensive “browning beds”, but just use that cheap machine and only use it for say 5 minutes instead of the max 20. I also cover my face. I am in no way noticeably tan after years of doing this, and the low dose protocol I use makes my body similar to the color my forearms are from normal sun exposure. I hope that is helpful, and it was years ago that I was evaluating the risks and I don’t have the exact figures anymore, but you can lookup the UV profile of the bulbs that are in the machine. Just google search the numbers on the bulb.
- deleted 6y ago
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James_Henry 6y ago

One concern that I would have is that I've heard that the light from a tanning salon doesn't match the light output by the sun. Supposedly the sun has more UVB or something and there are reasons to believe it may be healthier. Do you, or anyone else, have any knowledge on this?

jcampbell1 6y ago
That is a concern, and the salons pitch expensive machines using high pressure bulbs with basically no UVA which will make your skin brown with little worry about sunburn and has little vitamin d effect. Since you wouldn’t be going for aesthetics, the best is to use one of the cheap beds that makes UVA and don’t go for very long. Your skin will take a month before it gets even subtly darker. The salons call the cheap machines “sun burning” machines to up sell the more expensive “browning beds”, but just use that cheap machine and only use it for say 5 minutes instead of the max 20. I also cover my face. I am in no way noticeably tan after years of doing this, and the low dose protocol I use makes my body similar to the color my forearms are from normal sun exposure. I hope that is helpful, and it was years ago that I was evaluating the risks and I don’t have the exact figures anymore, but you can lookup the UV profile of the bulbs that are in the machine. Just google search the numbers on the bulb.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]