Thinking about hitting the tanning beds this summer? Think again. A major report released this past August reclassified tanning beds as “carcinogenic to humans”, raising a person’s risk for melanoma by 75% if he or she started using the tanning bed before age 30, according to an article I read on Shine from Yahoo!.
Studies have also shown that exposure to UV rays can trigger changes to the DNA in skin cells that may lead to cancerous growths. The two most common types of skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, and are almost always linked to UV exposure. 90% of cases of the less common but more deadly form, melanoma, are also attributed to UV exposure, according to a professor of clinical dermatology at New York University, Darrell S. Rigel, MD.
According to the National Cancer Institute, melanoma is the second most frequently reported cancer in women in their 20’s, and is third only to breast and thyroid cancers for women in their 30’s. Dr. Rigel says that melanoma is one of the few forms of cancer that is on the rise, and that the tan look that is so desired by young women may explain why 20-30-somethings are diagnosed with the disease at alarming rates.
There’s a story in this article I read about a young woman by the name of Glenna Kohl who started tanning inside and outside at age 16. By the time she was 22, she was battling melanoma.
In April of 2005, Glenna was working out at her college gym and detected a hard, golf ball size lump near her groin. She just thought that she pulled a muscle working out. The next month, the lump was still there, so Glenn went to the doctor, who scheduled a biopsy. The diagnosis was stage III melanoma, which had spread beyond the skin and into the lymph nodes. Only about half the people diagnosed with stage III melanoma survive for 10 years.
In August of 2005, Glenna began treatment. MGH oncologists removed 13 lymph nodes from Glenna’s groin. She then began six weeks of radiation and six months of injections of Interferon Alfa-2b, a drug believed to help the immune system fight melanoma.
Sadly, Glenna passed away in 2008. She was only 26 years old.
To all you women, and men, out there who thrive for the tanning beds, please be very careful. I used to go to the tanning beds all the time when I was younger; not anymore.
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