I'm copying this from Take a Break magazine (UK based), a little snippet from their health pages - there's no name given so I'll credit the magazine at the end of the paragraph.
The reason this 'jumped off the page' at me was this doctor works at the very hospital where I received my UVB treatment at the photobiology clinic, for eczema and other skin complaints a few years back. They never pinned down the exact cause of my reactions and scarring, but the treatment seemed to work.
I used to go up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the full-body treatment (I wore underwear though!!!) in one of their upright UVB cabinets. At first I was in for a few seconds, and gradually built up to a maximum of three and a half minutes. This was over a course of three months. Remember, it was a very, very slow build up.
They tried me for nearly four minutes once, but after a few hours, the skin on my shoulder near my bra strap went pink and started peeling. Only very slightly, but they were on it quickly and said I was to 'rest' my skin for the remainder of the week and on the Monday they would put me back a few stages, two and a half minutes or so, and build up very very slowly to no more than three and a half.
They said my skin had reached its natural limits. Just think - people stay out in the sun all day but thanks to the attention of medical professionals they were able to determine that as little as four and a half minutes 'direct sunlight', even after months of building up to it was enough to burn the skin. And I'm naturally dark-haired, with Italian blood, so even half-Mediterranean people can be affected.
Now what worries me is, I know women (it's mostly women) who book sessions on sunbeds, three a week, for ten minutes at a time, and it's not UVB, it's UVA, which I'm led to understand goes deeper into the skin? My scarring was mostly surface, hence the UVB treatment.
So anyway - what about all these orange people walking the streets of Dundee, risking cancer for a tan? It's not even a 'proper' tan - no healthy glow or pale, pale brown - it's orange.
A couple of friends even asked me if I'd been on holiday as I had a 'glow' about me - trouble is, it was pink, not tan! Even before this treatment I was put through a rigorous list of tests, even had to answer some questions on my general health and habits. Had I ever been burned in the past so many years, where on my body, did it scar, could I show them, was I on medication, addicted to any substance, ad nauseam.
I was even warned off taking any medication that could affect my blood for the duration of my treatment - even something as seemingly harmless as aspirin could affect the way my skin reacted to UVB light. Or vitamins!
So this was all to help treat and repair scar damage on my legs and chest (it also helped treat my facial acne too, of which more later) and yet people are dying to be tanned. Literally.
I had to wait a couple more months after all of this to get allergy tests - fresh skin growing through, you know the deal. You can't test for allergies on tanned skin apparently! Or at least, the results would be clearer on my 'normal' skin. Then after the allergy tests came the tests for going on roaccutane. I had to stay well out of sunlight - not a problem in Dundee, hence the profusion of tanning parlours I guess - and avoid all vitamin supplements. The UVB only helped my acne for as long as that treatment continued and it was dangerous to continue for longer than a few months. Luckily, the tablets knocked it all on the head, even after finishing the course of medication.
So there it is. I had years of pestering medical professionals to get my skin complaints taken seriously, and rather than people saying, "Oh you look well!" they told me I was lucky, getting a free tan on the NHS...*sigh*
The reason this 'jumped off the page' at me was this doctor works at the very hospital where I received my UVB treatment at the photobiology clinic, for eczema and other skin complaints a few years back. They never pinned down the exact cause of my reactions and scarring, but the treatment seemed to work.
I used to go up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the full-body treatment (I wore underwear though!!!) in one of their upright UVB cabinets. At first I was in for a few seconds, and gradually built up to a maximum of three and a half minutes. This was over a course of three months. Remember, it was a very, very slow build up.
They tried me for nearly four minutes once, but after a few hours, the skin on my shoulder near my bra strap went pink and started peeling. Only very slightly, but they were on it quickly and said I was to 'rest' my skin for the remainder of the week and on the Monday they would put me back a few stages, two and a half minutes or so, and build up very very slowly to no more than three and a half.
They said my skin had reached its natural limits. Just think - people stay out in the sun all day but thanks to the attention of medical professionals they were able to determine that as little as four and a half minutes 'direct sunlight', even after months of building up to it was enough to burn the skin. And I'm naturally dark-haired, with Italian blood, so even half-Mediterranean people can be affected.
Now what worries me is, I know women (it's mostly women) who book sessions on sunbeds, three a week, for ten minutes at a time, and it's not UVB, it's UVA, which I'm led to understand goes deeper into the skin? My scarring was mostly surface, hence the UVB treatment.
So anyway - what about all these orange people walking the streets of Dundee, risking cancer for a tan? It's not even a 'proper' tan - no healthy glow or pale, pale brown - it's orange.
A couple of friends even asked me if I'd been on holiday as I had a 'glow' about me - trouble is, it was pink, not tan! Even before this treatment I was put through a rigorous list of tests, even had to answer some questions on my general health and habits. Had I ever been burned in the past so many years, where on my body, did it scar, could I show them, was I on medication, addicted to any substance, ad nauseam.
I was even warned off taking any medication that could affect my blood for the duration of my treatment - even something as seemingly harmless as aspirin could affect the way my skin reacted to UVB light. Or vitamins!
So this was all to help treat and repair scar damage on my legs and chest (it also helped treat my facial acne too, of which more later) and yet people are dying to be tanned. Literally.
I had to wait a couple more months after all of this to get allergy tests - fresh skin growing through, you know the deal. You can't test for allergies on tanned skin apparently! Or at least, the results would be clearer on my 'normal' skin. Then after the allergy tests came the tests for going on roaccutane. I had to stay well out of sunlight - not a problem in Dundee, hence the profusion of tanning parlours I guess - and avoid all vitamin supplements. The UVB only helped my acne for as long as that treatment continued and it was dangerous to continue for longer than a few months. Luckily, the tablets knocked it all on the head, even after finishing the course of medication.
So there it is. I had years of pestering medical professionals to get my skin complaints taken seriously, and rather than people saying, "Oh you look well!" they told me I was lucky, getting a free tan on the NHS...*sigh*
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