How Tanning Changes the Brain

slimvictor

slimvictor

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"Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness.
People who frequently use tanning beds experience changes in brain activity during their tanning sessions that mimic the patterns of drug addiction, new research shows.

Scientists have suspected for some time that frequent exposure to ultraviolet radiation has the potential to become addictive, but the new research is the first to actually peer inside the brains of people as they lay in tanning beds.

What the researchers found was that several parts of the brain that play a role in addiction were activated when the subjects were exposed to UV rays. The findings, which appear in the coming issue of the journal Addiction Biology, may help explain why some people continue to tan often despite awareness about risks such as skin cancer, premature aging and wrinkles.

“What this shows is that the brain is in fact responding to UV light, and it responds in areas that are associated with reward,” said Dr. Bryon Adinoff, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and an author of the study. “These are areas, particularly the striatum, that we see activated when someone is administered a drug or a high-value food like sugar.”

(...)

A study in 2005 did show that a large proportion of sunbathers met the psychiatric definition of a substance abuse disorder, based on their answers to a variation of a test often used to help diagnose alcohol addiction.

But Dr. Adinoff and his colleagues decided to go a step further. They recruited a small group of people from tanning salons who said that they liked to tan at least three times a week and that maintaining a tan was important to them. The frequent tanners agreed to be injected with a radioisotope that allowed researchers to monitor how tanning affected their brain activity.

On one occasion, the study subjects experienced a normal tanning session. But on another occasion, the researchers used a special filter that blocked only the UV light, although the tanners weren’t told of the change.

Brain images later showed that during regular tanning sessions, when the study subjects were exposed to UV rays, several key areas of the brain lighted up. Among those areas were the dorsal striatum, the left anterior insula and part of the orbitofrontal cortex – all areas that have been implicated in addiction. But when the UV light was filtered out, those areas of the brain showed far less activity.

cont at
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/how-tanning-changes-the-brain/
 
Given the definition of "people from tanning salons who said that they liked to tan at least three times a week and that maintaining a tan was important to them", I think it was pretty much predictable that reward responses would be triggered by the act.
 
this is interesting, i also saw an article saying people can get addicted to fresh air. I can definitely see it, I believe I might be 'addicted' to fresh air (embarrassing, I know, haha) but anyways it's funny how people get addicted to things, addiction isn't only about drugs, I feel like everyone is addicted to something..
 
I've never tanned in my life, but I think I can understand it. I've lived in New England all of my life. The environment is very harsh, dark, and cold for roughly half the year. When summer hits and the sun shows up at last, the mood lift is almost palpable. I imagine tanning beds could artificially recreate a similar response.

Drugs are not just limited to psychoactive chemicals. Some people receive the same positive reinforcement from television, pornography, music, sex, food, exercise, or religion. They all lead to similar dopaminergic responses. Every one of these can lead to negative health effects. I don't find overly tanned people to be attractive at all but after all the shit I've done to my body I'm certainly not one to cast judgment on tanners.
 
I can believe this. I don't tan at all, but after a day of heavy sun exposure on my skin (with or without sunblock), such as when I'm hiking without a shirt or at the beach, I always feel 'drugged' in a very pleasant way. It's a 'glow', and I'd put it in the same category of altered states as marijuana and large amounts of chocolate. I've always attributed it to boosted levels of Vitamin D, though truth be told I have no idea what the pathway is. I just know that sunlight on skin is intrinsically pleasurable.
 
I contributed tanning bed use to someone needing to feel better about their physical appearance. I'm happy with how I look but there are definitely people that feel differently.
 
^ yes there could be a psychological aspect to it linked to difficulties with self-image

but i do think there is a chemistry effect, and i do find that under plenty of sunlight my mood is really good :)
 
Brain images later showed that during regular tanning sessions, when the study subjects were exposed to UV rays, several key areas of the brain lighted up.
Click to expand...

lit

lol @ Jersey shore comment.

I guess no word yet on the effects of tanning on IQ.
 
Saying activities or objects mimic drugs is bullshit, drugs mimic the body's natural processes, just a bit more extreme. It's not the other way around.
 
The Network...so you are saying drug addiction mimics the brain activity seen during tanning?
 
Not necessarily drug addiction, but the action of drugs. It's misinformation to say the body is mimicking drugs, it's correct, however, to say drugs are mimicking the body and its natural processes.
 
I tan because it makes me feel better about myself... I'm not one of those orange oompa loompas but I'll tan maybe twice a week in the fall/winter. I definitely think it's a psychological thing and that it's addicting. When I'm pale, I feel ugly. :\
 
The Network said:
Not necessarily drug addiction, but the action of drugs. It's misinformation to say the body is mimicking drugs, it's correct, however, to say drugs are mimicking the body and its natural processes.
Click to expand...

The first time I read your post, I agreed without thinking.
It certainly is "correct... to say drugs are mimicking the body and its natural processes."
But then I began to wonder if your definition of "natural" may be too narrow.
Many species of animals are documented drug-users, and it could be that humans have evolved in unison with various plant species. Widespread use of such plants - to the point that they were a salient part of some cultures - certainly dates back at least to the beginnings of recorded history, roughly around the time of the earliest extant samples of written language. It could be much older than that, however, as some people argue/claim.

Still, it is not likely that our bodies are anywhere near as used to taking any chemical (except for H2O) as they are to being exposed to the sun. So, in that sense, it may be more "natural".
 
slimvictor said:
The first time I read your post, I agreed without thinking.
It certainly is "correct... to say drugs are mimicking the body and its natural processes."
But then I began to wonder if your definition of "natural" may be too narrow.
Many species of animals are documented drug-users, and it could be that humans have evolved in unison with various plant species. Widespread use of such plants - to the point that they were a salient part of some cultures - certainly dates back at least to the beginnings of recorded history, roughly around the time of the earliest extant samples of written language. It could be much older than that, however, as some people argue/claim.

Still, it is not likely that our bodies are anywhere near as used to taking any chemical (except for H2O) as they are to being exposed to the sun. So, in that sense, it may be more "natural".
Click to expand...

I guess I should define natural. For pretty much any given "drug" there is a receptor in our brain that gets 'activated', these receptors exist because they're used for the body's natural response to certain stimuli such as pain, pleasure, fatigue. These receptors are active all the time, producing small amounts of various chemicals continuously almost indefinitely. Of course you already know that, but I meant to say drugs sort of put these receptors into overdrive so you get many different effects, few good, often many annoying or possibly dangerous side effects. It's, in my opinion, doing what the body already does, but putting it into overdrive and getting extreme on receptors.

There's my natural process definition.

But there are, of course, drugs that just mess you up because you have no damn oxygen in your brain and you're dying. Those are never safe and should never be used by anyone.
 
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