This is to the lovely young woman who made a catty comment to me as I left the tanning salon Satuday morning:
I havent been living under a rock for the past decade. I KNOW that tanning causes skin cancer, and premature aging, and all kinds of other nasty things. I get it.
But you know what? I have a skin condition, and my DERMATOLOGIST recommends tanning beds to help treat it. I go once every couple weeks, for 7 minutes at a time. I dont do it to have a bronzed bod. I do it to alleviate some of the discomfort associated with this condition. My DERMATOLOGIST has decided that this minimal exposure will do me more good than harm, so I follow his advice.
So perhaps you should go to medical school and become an MD before you go dispensing unsolicited medical advice.
—Gal with Sensitive Skin…
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2009.
What kind of skin condition do you have that UV rays help it? Seriously, I want to know, as I really can’t imagine how tanning would help.
And you should’ve told the bitch to mind her own fucking business.
I have a friend who uses tanning beds to treat her severe psoriasis, also on the advice of a physician.
i doubt that a DERMATOLOGIST would recommend this they most likely informed you to get NATURAL uv rays!
ALSO these people were at a tanning salon? whats there business tot ell you?
Both UVB and UVA are immunosuppressant. This means that white cells especially lymphocytes are prevented from working in the skin by UV. There are a number of skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema where the immune system is overactive in the skin. Therefore UV is used with caution in severe cases to help control the disease. Dermatologists recommend using tanning beds in moderation to help. Especially in the winter mths.
I used a tanning bed for a medical condition for awhile. I discovered that they used the same rag over and over to clean the beds after each use effectively smearing sweat from each individual onto ALL the tanning beds! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Never went there again…
I just love when people feel the need to impart a tidbit of ‘knowledge’ on someone passively like this – something they heard on Dr. Phil or Oprah… Personally I like to pass on what the raving mad homeless people preach.
A: “So I tried that new conditioner I saw on the television”
B: “Hmm, doesn’t really matter because the end is nigh, anyway”
A: “Touch me”
I’m the original bitcher:
Thanks for your input Jane D’oh. Are you a doctor as well? I can assure you my doctor recommends tanning beds in my particular case. His office is on Cobourg Road. Feel free to call if you’d like him or one of his colleagues to explain how it can beneficial for people with certain conditions.
My dad actually had his tanning covered by health insurance because it was recommended by his doctor to treat his psoriosis. What the OP describes is just another ignorant retard sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong. I hope your tanning treatments are working OP!
Jane, sitting in a tanning bed provides a CONTROLLED dose of rays. The same cannot be said about Mother Nature’s sunshine.
You should have gotten right in her face and repeated exactly that. What a bitch.
I have pretty severe psoriasis and I’ve had a couple of different dermatologists suggest UV light treatment/tanning beds to treat it. The condition has calmed down for me recently but I can completely understand why some people would need to keep going in the beds to control that shit. It’s not fun to have itchy, red, patchy skin all the time.
Gotta love those who try to tell others how to live. For those people I have two words – FUCK OFF.
Oh… BURN!
Umm, you’re assuming that people know all this complicated stuff about you? That’s like chastising your next door neighbour for passing out on the front lawn every night, then learning that alcohol is simply just ”cathartic, and good for her high blood pressure”.
Maybe the OP was annoyed that the woman seemed to know enough to be a know-it-all, but not enough to actually be informed.
Maybe the bitches should fuck of and find something productive to do. Who cares WHY she is in the tanning bed? Unless it’s directly affecting someone else’s life then everyone should mind their own damn business……
Do whatever you want sweetie…. I sure hate it when people that I dont know seem to give a shit what I do!!
For Fuck sakes!! If I listened to everything that Doctors and others said was bad for me I would live in a fucking bubble and never come out!! (then again some Dr. would probably do a study on “Bubble Air” causing cancer). Now they are evn saying that hot dogs give you cancer. I say live your fucking life (within reason). Try to look after yourself, but do what you want to do because I am sick and tired of hearing that anything that is even semi-enjoyable in life may kill you.
Jane, were you by any chance walking by a tanning salon on saturday morning? sounds like it.
I also love how The Coast has actual doctors (Dr. D’oh) who post their diagnosis and wisdom online. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to do this, your dedication to society is unmatched. Maybe sometimes people just want to vent and get a little support as opposed to getting feedback made up of a mix of smart ass uninformed comments. I’m sure the time you people spend sitting in front of a computer screen all day waiting share your little turd of advice causes all kinds of cancer.
heardmeh, you are MOST welcome to repeatedly press Alt+F4.
Way to prove my point
I love tanning – but I also have psoriasis too so I understand completely the benefits eluded to by the OP, and their dermatologist.
But tanning DOESNT cause any cancer of any sort.
BURNING does.
FACT: Most melanomas occur on parts of the body that are NEVER or RARELY exposed to the sun.
I will continue to tan and love it, and if somebody said that kind of shit they’d be in a world of hurt… verbally of course!
Hmm…what color were you?
Dear Ocean Lady…have you ever heard of stand up tanning booths ?
Takes the EWWWWWWWWWWW, out of the tanning bed !
WoW, what a trashy thread! Why is everyone using such poor language,
Derms reccomend and actually offer UV treatments for non life threatening skin disorders, like acne, Psoriasis and dermatitis.
Ban the sun scare message and bring on the Sun awareness message, controlled moderate exposure for overall health.
dont loose sight of the fact that without SUN, we wouldnt be here.
Use Low pressure tanning lamps with a blend of UV A and B, and most important, use common sense.
Mat
No i am not a doctor
BUT after years upon years tanning beds have been KNOWN for being dangerous!
Thanks for clarifying that Jane D’oh.
I’ll stop following my doctor’s advice and starting listening to a random stranger on an internet message board who appears to know everything!
Good lord…
Sigh…
Will… not… flame…
*fingers twitching*
D’oh!
This post reminded me of the time I stopped to get a coffee and when I asked for one with cream and “whatever type of fake sugar they had..Twin, Equal, whatever would be fine”. The girl, probably not much over 16, said in a very knowitall tone, “oh, like the kind that causes cancer”. I then replied, “WELL, maybe you should just give me a little bit of that then”. I smiled and waited for my coffee while she tried to recover from my unexpected response…probably expecting me to disagree, make an excuse but not a joke. I never really figured out why strangers feel the need to tell us how to run our lives or maybe it’s just this assholish, wanna pick a fight over anything attitude. Regardless, it’s always better to submit a humourous response, since you don’t really care what they think, anyways. Might as well have a good laugh to yourself and create one for anyone within ear shot.
I like your technique Sammy Joe… sometimes I get a little too flustered and kind of go off the deep end with those types… but you are right, hopefully I’ll be within ear shot of the next one!
OP, at the end of the day, it’s your life and your business and no one has any right to tell you any different.
Well except for close friends and family that care about you and might think you’re harming yourself, which you’re not!
Jane, you should get your vit d levels checked! you are putting your entire body at risk with your sun abstinence mind set.
FACT. Melanoma rates on the decline since 1985 in women ages 22-44. The tanning industries key demo. see BC cancer agency website.
Jane, do some research!
I don’t fucking worry about what I eat, drink, smoke, sunbathe or whatever. In the end it’s going to be some ass that kills me with their vehicle.
15 minutes of sun exposure per day is more than sufficient to maintain healthy vitamin D levels. And while melanoma levels may be decreasing, basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas have not-these are the two most common forms of skin cancer. Tanning is the skin’s attempt to protect the skin from the harmful effects of UVA & UVB rays. Regardless of the source of the rays, ultraviolet radiation damages the dna that makes up and assists in the regeneration of skin. You mutate enough dna, you eventually end up with cancerous growth. This mutation can be caused by burning AND tanning.
Most doctors only reccomend tanning beds as a last resort as most beds emit only UVA and it is UVB that is thought to benefit sufferers of psoriasis-true light therapy is almost always considered a better choice.
And for all those tanning loving nay sayers-light therapy (delivered from the sun itself or from excimer or pulse dye lasers) is used because it kills the cells that make up psoriasis-what do you think it does to healthy skin?