Health & Fitness

The Truth About Sunbeds

It seems that whenever the word sunbed comes up in conversation, everyone instantly thinks or talks about cancer. Yes, using sunbeds incorrectly and too often over many years can lead to cancer, but so can lying on the beach for hours and many other things.


Like Russel Howard so eloquently shows, so many ridiculous things have been claimed to cause cancer. You can get cancer from anything or from nothing at all. You can develop skin cancer whether you use sunbeds or not.



When I had really bad eczema, I was told several times by doctors to use sunbeds to treat it. Thankfully, we got some good weather and being out in the sun would heal my eczema up very quickly. Doctors actually prescribe sunbed usage and there are sunbeds in hospitals for skin conditions.


If I go to the beach, I'll be out for hours in the sun and so will many others. The same people who would likely disagree with sunbed use. I'll probably burn on the beach and so will they and burning is what damages your skin, making it likely to develop skin cancer. However, when I go on a sun bed, I'm on it for 10 or less minutes, with no burning and get a nice natural tan the next day. Not only that but I would've treated my acne, psoriasis and eczema, as well as get a dose of Vitamin D.


The Truth About Sunbeds


Have you ever been to a proper tanning salon? They're incredibly knowledgeable of skin and sunbed use. You have to inform them of any moles you have, your skin type and they restrict how much time you can use them for. Very pale skinned people are turned away and you cannot return within 24 hours after your tanning session. They inform you of the warnings, which even they think is unecessary because it's something that the government forced in. Everyone knows the risks of going out in the sun for too long and burning, so people would inevitably understand the risk of using sunbeds but because the government forced them to basically plaster "you'll get skin cancer and die" everywhere in their salons, people mindlessly believe it. If they were that bad and eventually killed everyone who used them, they wouldn't allow tanning salons, let alone use them in hospitals for skin treatment! There is a lot of good in using sunbeds.


Cigarettes are legal yet they have no benefit to health at all and cause millions of people to develop cancer. Sunbeds are not as bad and they at least have some benefit, so why are people so against them and not cigarettes? People don't bat an eye lid when someone says they smoke, but when you say you use sunbeds, everyone immediately comes out with the cancer card and looks at you disgracefully. Where's the logic in that? People smoke several times a day. I may go to the salon once or twice a month. There are women who got to my salon who go from one salon to another in one day to avoid the 24 hour limit. They're not using sunbeds correctly and are much more likely to develop skin cancer than me. But then genetics comes into it too, but I won't go into all that. There's so many variants, causes and differences involved that you can't decide to dislike one thing. Sunbeds aren't all that bad. Don't let the media brainwash you.

The Truth About Sunbeds
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