Science & Technology: Tanning Reduces Inflammation, Increases Tolerance To UVR

In a nutshell, this article used the high-sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP) assay to prove that CRP levels did not increase in the individuals who were exposed to a suberythemal dose of UVR (i.e., a dose of 0.7 MED) for 10 consecutive days before being subjected to a 3.0 MED dose of UVR while individuals who had not been exposed and were subjected to the same UVR dose had a 42-percent increase in CRP. Therefore, 10 consecutive days of suberythemal exposure to UVR completely prevented inflammation—which confirms what everyone in the indoor tanning industry knows, and what the dermatology community knows or reasonably should know, i.e., that maintaining a year-round tan protects the skin from UVR damage.

In the same way that a sensible, moderate and graduated exercise program increases your physical fitness and prevents muscle damage, a sensible, moderate and graduated tanning program increases your tolerance to ultraviolet radiation and prevents damage to your skin. Therefore, just like we exercise to train our body to help attain and maintain physical fitness and increase our stamina, we tan to train our skin to help attain and maintain skin fitness and increase our ability to tolerate UVR without skin damage. Keep in mind that your level of TUVR increases in direct proportion to your level of natural skin color (constitutive pigmentation) and your level of acquired tan (facultative pigmentation).

The bottom line is that a year-round program of sensible, moderate and graduated tanning protects our skin from damage (including inflammation), makes us look better, feel more confident and has the “free bonus” of helping us to attain and maintain an optimal (i.e., greater than120 nmol/L) blood level of vitamin D.