Sun Tanning

Iron Man

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Apr 15, 2015
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380
This may very well be a stupid question, but sun tanning... Is it safe, is there a recommended way to do it, or is it best to not do it?

I am indoors about 85% of the time and am therefore quite white in appearance. I was considering picking a safe time of day and sunning for about 10 minutes max over the course of a couple of weeks. With all the media hype about melanoma and skin cancer etc, I am in two minds about whether it is safe to get a tan?

Thanks for any opinions and advice.
 

tara

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Mar 29, 2014
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10,368
Getting sunshine is good, getting burned is not. If you are very pale, 10 mins a couple of times a day might be a good way to start, on as much of you as you can acceptably bare. Then as you develop a tan you may be able to increase it.
Protective:
- minimising PUFA consumption
- topical caffeine (may also help recovery in case of burn)
- topical coconut oil
Topical aspirin may also help afterwards in case of burn.
See also Haidut's solban thread.

Some UV helps make vit-D; too much UV burns.
Red-near infrared helps restore cytochrome oxidase enzyme, which runs down in darkness. This is crucial for cellular energy production.

There are threads on time of day, but I can't remember the detail - I'm just pleased when I can get some sun.

There area also threads on sun protection for when we are going to be out for longer.
 
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Iron Man

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Apr 15, 2015
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Thanks again Tara!

I tried doing a search for sun tanning on the forum and could not find anything, so I figured it was a new question.

I think I will roll with the 10 minutes each day for a couple of weeks and see if that browns me up a little.

When I was younger, I used to be all about that bronzed look. Nowadays, I tend to avoid the sun like it is some bad thing that will give me cancer.
 

montmorency

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Jul 14, 2013
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Oxfordshire, UK
Renky said:
post 98941 Thanks again Tara!

I tried doing a search for sun tanning on the forum and could not find anything, so I figured it was a new question.

I think I will roll with the 10 minutes each day for a couple of weeks and see if that browns me up a little.

When I was younger, I used to be all about that bronzed look. Nowadays, I tend to avoid the sun like it is some bad thing that will give me cancer.


Although mainstream opinion is that you should avoid mid-day, that is actually probably the best time, so long as you only keep it to about 10 minutes. You will get more D3 bang for your buck at that time of day / height of sun. That's even more true for those of us in northern latitudes (although sadly even that is only effective for part of the year, for us).
 
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Sea

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Oct 5, 2014
Messages
164
No reason to be afraid of the sun. You will start to feel uncomfortable and want to go into shade when you have had enough sun. I try to sit out in the sun for at least an hour each day since I work indoors. Eventually I plan to move my desk outside to be in the sun for the whole day. I think the main risk is not enough sun. You can only get skin cancer with too many pufa in the tissues and even then the sun will start to feel uncomfortable before you do any damage.
 

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