Are there any benefits to tanning?

When it comes to summer vacations, we often equate sunbathing with the desire to acquire a bronze tan. Moreover, many consider tanning to be a kind of indicator, an indicator of good health. To some extent, one can agree with this, although the essence of the matter is not at all in the very brown skin color.

All life on Earth owes its existence to the sun. The man was formed under his rays. And nature does not forgive when we "forcibly" deprive him of this good. Civilization forced a person to spend most of the time indoors, to protect the body from the cold with thick clothing impervious to sunlight. As a result, even a special term appeared in medicine, explaining the cause of many ailments - light starvation. Moreover, it refers not only to the visible part of the solar spectrum, but also to the invisible rays lying along its edges - infrared and especially ultraviolet.

The farther north a city or village is located, the less the flow of ultraviolet rays reaching the Earth's surface here. What follows from this? Although these rays are almost completely absorbed by the upper layers of the skin, they are responsible for many "deep" processes. In particular, under the action of ultraviolet rays, the formation of
vitamin D, the lack of which in the body of children can lead to rickets. For the same reason, in adults, the normal intake of calcium into the body may be disrupted, due to which the fragility of small blood vessels increases, and tissue permeability increases. People who live a long time without the sun's ultraviolet radiation catch colds easily and are hard to tolerate colds. Solar starvation often causes fatigue, irritability, insomnia, and other disorders of the nervous system.

Infrared rays, in contrast to ultraviolet rays, can penetrate much deeper - down to the subcutaneous fat layer and even further. They have a mainly thermal effect. But thanks to it, the blood flow in the vessels increases, metabolic processes are activated, and the washing out of metabolic products from the cells is facilitated. Dosed heating of the skin with infrared rays promotes wound healing and resorption of boils, relieves excessive tension and relaxes muscle tone, normalizes the activity of the autonomic nervous system and even has an analgesic effect.

As you can see, the benefits of the sun's rays are enormous. From this point of view, a bronze tan is a clear indicator that a person has avoided or countered the possible consequences of light starvation. Hence, the advice is clear: in the warm season, try not only during the vacation, but also on other days to open the skin surface as wide as possible to the life-giving flow of sunlight.

You may ask: why then do doctors often limit our stay on the beach? And some are even forbidden to travel south? The answer is simple: sunbathing can cause not only skin burns or heatstroke, but also activate a hidden process in the lungs, endocrine system diseases, and weaken a not very healthy heart. The sun's rays are capable of provoking skin ailments, known as. the name of photodermatosis. And even in people who have never been sick with them before. Here it is necessary to remember whether you have taken sulfa, sleeping pills or sedatives the day before - in some, they increase the light reactivity of the skin. In these cases, it is possible to sunbathe again only after two weeks, and better - even a month after the completion of the course of treatment.

Unfortunately, in the pursuit of tanning, our patients often “forget” these warnings.The most offensive thing is that they often doom themselves to the most unpleasant consequences just because they simply do not know the "mechanism" of tanning. Let's try to figure it out.

Imagine that on a clear, cloudless day, you are lying by the river. Under the caressing rays of the sun, muscles relax, the feeling of fatigue disappears. And exposed skin becomes pinkish and hot to the touch. This is erythema, or, in other words, a superficial burn, which manifests itself as a result of heating the skin and blood flow to it. Some tanning lovers are looking forward to this moment, believing that only now is the time to go into the shade. In fact, this erythema, called caloric or heat, has nothing to do with sunburn or the accompanying painful sensations. It is caused by visible and infrared rays and usually disappears as soon as you stop sunbathing. Moreover, if a cool breeze is blowing on the beach, a person can get tanned and even burned without waiting for redness of the skin.

In such cases, we leave the beach with the knowledge that a long stay in the sun, as they say, got away with it. But two to eight hours pass, and the redness of the skin reappears. And with it the burning sensation. The skin is hot to the touch again, sore, and feels swollen. This is also erythema. But it is already caused by ultraviolet rays and appears with a delay, after a latent stage. The duration of such erythema is from 10 hours to three to four days, after which a tan appears, and the skin begins to peel off. Moreover, if the dose of rays is too high, the edematous fluid accumulates under the skin, exfoliates its outer cover (epidermis) and forms bubbles. And in severe cases, necrosis of certain areas of the epidermis can also occur.

At first glance, it might seem that painful erythema is the inevitable price to pay for a beautiful tan. In fact, this is not the case. Of the ultraviolet rays of the solar spectrum, rays with a wavelength of the order of 3 thousand angstroms burn the skin most intensively. And tanning is best "promoted" by waves of 3400 angstroms. This difference is what cosmetologists strive to use when creating creams and lotions "for tanning": special substances are introduced into their composition, the task of which is not to let the rays that cause erythema pass through.

I foresee the question: what if there are no such drugs at hand? Very simple: sunbathe gradually, starting with sunbathing lasting 15-20 minutes and adding to them 5-10 minutes a day. These recommendations are by no means dictated by doctors' “reinsurance”. The fact is that nature has provided our body with protective agents from solar radiation, which appear under the influence of ... sunlight.

We owe a beautiful tan to melanin, a special substance formed in cells under the influence of ultraviolet rays. By the way, melanin is the main pigment in our body, which gives color not only to the skin, but also to hair, eyelashes, and the iris of the eyes.

In conclusion, I want to remind sunbathers: ultraviolet rays are strongly scattered by the atmosphere, reflected from pebbles, sand, water surfaces. Therefore, you can successfully tan on a cloudy day or in the shade. In the southern regions, the best time for sunbathing is from about 8 to 11 am and from 5 to 19 pm: during these periods, the proportion of scattered radiation is high. Finally, at the first sign of a burn or other ailment, you should immediately stop sun exposure until these signs disappear. Remember this - and then your tan will truly be an indicator of good health.

V. Yasnogorodsky

Similar publications

Sunbathing gently

Sunbathe wisely

Rays of life