| |
Suntan benefits
July 1, 2007
Can a suntan protect you from harmful rays?
For years, the official word on tanning
has been … don’t. Health organizations
have driven home the message that the sun exposure
needed to get a tan increases your chances of getting skin
cancer. Recently researchers at the Harvard-affiliated
Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston have conducted
a series of experiments that put tanning in a different
light. A suntan, they say, is the body’s best
effort to fend off the known cancerous effects of
ultraviolet (UV) light, the invisible portion of
the light spectrum that penetrates the skin and mutates
DNA, reports the July 2007 issue of the Harvard
Health Letter.
So, if tans are protective, should we toss our SPF
45 and become sun worshippers? No. The researchers
are emphatically on the side of sunscreen and avoidance
of excessive sun or other UV exposure. But they’re
also looking for ways to harness the “tanning
pathway” that might give fair-skinned people
the protective benefits of having a tan without going
through the hazards of getting one. The safe tan would
be one produced by activating the skin’s tanning
process without running the risk of the DNA damage
that occurs with exposure to UV light, either naturally
from the sun or artificially at a tanning salon.
It’s unclear if truly safe UV exposure can ever
be achieved. The Harvard Health Letter suggests
that for now, your best bet is to avoid excessive UV
light exposure—especially if you’re blond
or redheaded and don’t tan well, but also if
you do. And use
sunscreen.
Also in this issue:
- Checking blood pressure at the barbershop
- Peppermint and irritable
bowel
- Hormone therapy update
- Duct tape for warts?
- Taming pneumonia
- Nicotinic acid for lowering
cholesterol
- By the way, doctor: Do I have to take aspirin?
Related
Information

Harvard Health Letter is available
from Harvard Health Publications, the publishing division
of the Harvard Medical School. You can subscribe at www.health.harvard.edu/health or
by calling 1-877-649-9457 toll-free.
About Harvard Health Publications
Harvard Health
Publications publishes five monthly newsletters—Harvard
Health Letter, Harvard
Women's Health Watch, Harvard
Men's Health Watch, Harvard
Mental Health Letter, and Harvard
Heart Letter—as well as more than 50 special
health reports and books drawing on the expertise of
the 8,000 faculty physicians at Harvard Medical School
and its world-famous affiliated hospitals. For more
information about Harvard Medical School publications,
please visit our Web site, www.health.harvard.edu.
Source: Harvard
Health Publications
Contact: hhpmedia@hms.harvard.edu
Web site: http://www.health.harvard.edu |
|