Like every summer for the last hundred years, millions of people around the world have already begun their annual obsession with tanned. There are those who simply lie in the sun, hoping that some cells of their skin, called melanocytes, produce melanin as a shield against the radiation of the star king. Other people, on the other hand, choose to lend a hand to their melanocytes with tricks such as self-tanners and tanning creams, oils and pills.
Self-tanners give a tan skin color without the need to expose it to the sun, while bronzers need the effect of solar radiation to give rise to a darker skin. The same goes for tanning pills. Now, to what extent do the latter work?
It should be noted that tanning pills they are not drugs, but food supplements. As such, they contain ingredients that could be found in food, but concentrated in a formula whose objective is, in this case, to obtain a tanned skin. And yes, it is true that those ingredients are related to the way the skin reacts to solar radiation. In a way, they can help enhance the tan. But they are not the panacea that we would like.
Tanning fashion over the years
A few centuries ago the fashion was to have the whitest skin possible. A tanned complexion was associated with the work of the peasants, so it was not well seen among people with a high social status. In fact, such was the obsession with having pale skin that many aristocrats powdered their skin daily to make it appear whiter. In some countries, such as Italy, women rubbed their skin on arsenic, also in search of paleness. They obviously were unaware of its detrimental effects. But maybe if they had known them they would have done it too, just look at how many people put themselves at risk today to have a good tanned.
But why are they looking for brown skin now? There are several reasons, but mainly it all started with the famous French designer Coco Chanel. 100 years ago now, Chanel returned from a vacation on the French Riviera with her skin tanned by the sun. Following her, without the slightest hint of embarrassment, she sported her tanned complexion of hers in a yacht ride in paris And with that, it was all done.
Tanning went from being seen as something negative to becoming a new style cue. The designer had transformed brown skin into a trend that led women to practice outdoor sports without fear of the sun. But not only that. Many directly began to deliberately sunbathe, on beaches and parks, to have no longer just the skin of Coco Chanel. Also that of the famous actress Josephine Baker, whose caramel-colored skin had become the envy of women around the world. Men also began to look for a darker skin and, little by little, bronzers, made from oils, became the basic product of any travel kit.
The dangers of the sun were not taken into account
Ultraviolet radiation from the sun causes mutations in the DNA of skin cells which, in the long run, can cause spots, wrinkles and, what is much worse, skin cancer. The DNA repair systems of our organism solve part of these alterations, but they do not reach all of them. For this reason, skin cells have another defense system, which consists of producing a dark pigment, called melanin, which absorbs these radiations, before they reach the DNA. Therefore, when we get tanned, it is actually the result of our skin dealing with radiation that can do a lot of damage.
The problem is that melanin production is not enough if we are exposed to the sun for too long. There comes a point where the melanocytes they can’t cope. That is where the burns begin to occur, showing that the damage has penetrated into the cells.
Therefore, when those people a century ago sought to get a tan by spending hours and hours in the sun, they were buying many tickets for a skin cancer. The same when they used oils to further attract such harmful radiation.
For this reason, you should always use sun protection, which is responsible for adding another barrier of protection to the skin, preventing the passage of ultraviolet radiation or absorbing it. We won’t get as brown, but we will do it with more health.
Fortunately, this is something that today is quite accepted by a large part of the population. That is why self-tanners and tanning pills have become fashionable, which allow combining sun creams with a tanning effect obtained orally.
How do tanning pills work?
There are many types of tanning pills. Generally, they all tend to contain ingredients such as lutein, lycopene or vitamins C, D and E. Now, the effects of these ingredients may not be exactly what we think.
has explained it to hypertextual the doctor Rose Tabernerdermatologist at Hospital Son Llátzer, in Palma de Mallorca, and member of the Spanish Association of Dermatology and Venereology.
“There are various substances that have been shown to exert a preventive effect of damage induced by ultraviolet radiation when ingested orally, with varied mechanisms of action, exerting its protective effect due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or immunomodulatory action”, says the dermatologist.
Some of these substances are vegetable originsuch as caffeine, the extract of Polypodium leucotomos, epigallocatechin 3-gallate, genistein and carotenoids (beta-carotene, lycopene), among others. There may also be some fats, such as fatty acids Omega 3. “In oral photoprotection, substances with an antioxidant effect are usually combined, thus enhancing the overall photoprotective effect”, continues Taberner.
This would be, for example, the case of the vitamins C and E. “Refering to vitamin D, actually does not have a protective effect, but is sometimes added to these compounds to supplement it in those patients who, because they need very strict photoprotection, would not synthesize it sufficiently on their own”. We must remember that vitamin D is essential for many functions of the organism, such as the proper development of bones, and that for the most part is synthesized by exposure to solar radiation. There is the balance. You have to expose yourself just long enough to get that vitamin, but protecting your skin afterwards.
But then, does not tan?
So far it is striking that these ingredients have a photoprotective effect rather than a tanning effect. And that is really what tanning pills are based on. They delay the time it takes for us to start burning, so we can tan without burning. Even so, these food supplements always come with the warning that sun protection must be used, so they have their backs. And they do well.
“So far, oral sunscreens have not been shown to significantly reduce skin cancer. But they do confer, by combining topical photoprotection, a increased resistance to ultraviolet radiation. They don’t really favor tanning either, but since they help to prevent burns in a way, maybe that’s the meaning of the message, I understand that advertising.”
Rosa Taberner, dermatologist
Therefore, tanning pills are not what we would like them to be. They might help us tan a bit, but we won’t get Beyoncé skin from taking them regularly. But the good part of all this is that it doesn’t matter. If before Coco Chanel went on vacation, what she wore was white skin, and then brown became fashionable, it is clear that the aesthetic of tanning It’s totally subjective. Perhaps the best thing is to learn to enjoy who we are, without letting ourselves be carried away by impositions. But, above all, without putting our health in danger to achieve it.