Tanning Bed Side Effects
The Rise of Tanning Beds Who would have "thunk" it? The first tanning beds weren't actually made for tanning after all. Instead, the beds that have helped millions achieve the skin tone of champions were first developed in 1906 by a medical research firm called Heraeus. Heraeus opted to use tanning beds for patients suffering from conditions like rickets and calcium defiencies. Back then, the idea was that excess exposure to sunlight might just help build stronger bones and may even help the body produce calcium on it's own. The folks at Heraeus couldn't have known it then, but their new invention would become a big money maker in the decades to come. That time came with the entrance of the 1970's. The seventies commerated the tanning bed's crossover from medical community giant to cosmetic king. Fredrick Wolff was a German scientist who got the idea to use faux sunlight on athletes. Maybe, just maybe, artifical sunlight exposure would increase their ability out in the game. Regardless of what Wolff was hoping for, he ended up with a pack of tanned athletes who weren't anymore adept at throwing a ball than they had been back when they were as pale as ghosts. But Wolff was in luck; hotty totty Christian Dior types didn't know beans about sports, but the tanned look that the scientist had created with the athletes was becoming a phenomenon on the runway of the American fashion houses. Wolff cashed in and invented the first indoor tanning bed. The Attraction of the Tanning Bed Once on the market, tanning beds enjoyed almost instant appeal. One of the major attractions was the privacy. For the first time it was possible to secure that "Been Lounging on a Beach in Miami" look that was so prevalent in the seventies and eighties without having to prance around a crowded boardwalk on the sweltering days of July. And speaking of July, it didn't have to be a summer filled with bike rides and ice cream cones for folks to enjoy the pigmented skin of an even tan. Tanning beds opened up the opportunity to add a little "pop" in your cheeks all year round. The beds have even grown to offer accomodations not even available from Mr. Sun himself. Unlike the sun, many of the tanning beds on the market feature options for controlled dosage of ultraviolet rays. Your tans will be spread out over several sessions at your favorite tanning salon-which have swelled in number due to the surge in the tanning bed's popularity over the last twenty-five years. The commercial tanning industry in a more than two billion dollar a year business. Historically, questions have surrounded the sanitation of tanning beds, since users must lie down to reap the technicolor effects of the bed. However the idea that tanning beds spread disease is more fiction than fact. Tanning Bed Side Effects Tanning bed side effects? "Rubbish," shout the tanning industry big wigs whose fat pockets depend on consumers placing their trust in the commercial tanning industry. According to tanning professionals, not only are tanning beds not harmful, they are actually good for you. Since tanning in a darkening skin process it trumps up the melanin in the skin, which causes skin browning. Tanning experts believe that high melanin protects the skin from the sun's potentially toxic rays. Dermatologists flat out disagree with the tanning community and discourage consumers for using tanning beds. According to the derma sect, the melanin produced by the skin is actually sun damage. After intensive research on ultraviolet sun rays and their impact on the skin, dematologists feel confident that tanning bed side effects can include the development of three types of skin cancers including basil cell sarcoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma, the most deadly of all skin cancers. Cataracts, damage to DNA, and thick, wrinkled skin are all possible side effects of using tanning beds.
