Sun seeking students are tanorexic
More than 25 percent of students are addicted to tanning and experience the same symptoms as drug-addicts when away from the sun, research has found.
Researchers discovered that many students felt discomfort when not having tanned recently and were compelled to sun themselves whenever they could. But probably not while 'Cash in the Attic' is on.
The experts from Virginia Commonwealth University monitored the behavior of 400 students measuring their tolerance to tanning, effects of withdrawal from tanning, and difficulty controlling their behavior.
Despite knowing the negative impacts of tanning such as freckles, wrinkles and pre-cancerous lesions, 27 percent classified themselves as tanning dependent and claimed to have withdrawal symptoms if not getting enough sun.
"The media and lay public may know tanning dependence as 'tanorexia,' alluding to similarities to both substance addictions and body image disorders like anorexia," said researcher Carolyn Heckman.
"There is some evidence that UV tanning dependence may have biological underpinnings like other addictions such as the production of endorphins as in the 'runner's high.'
"We were surprised to find that 27 percent of those we surveyed were classified as tanning dependent. The finding that almost 40 percent of those surveyed had used tanning booths and that the mean age when tanning booths were first used was 17 is also alarming.
"Our ultimate goal is to find out more about the motivations for tanning so that we can develop interventions that would reduce tanning and hopefully skin cancer,"
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