Pros and Cons of Getting a Tan 1930
The Good and Evil of Getting Tanned
BRILLIANT sunlight may do harm as well as good, says Dr. W. A. Evans in the Chicago Tribune. It is like any other powerful agent, and the idea that exposure to it is healthful, always and to any extent, is erroneous. He writes:
“I have been giving this matter some thought for several years, as well as watching the experimentation being done in laboratories and reading the literature found in libraries. The conclusion I have come to is that for a well man to expose himself to direct sunlight to an extreme extent in summer, does him no good. In some respects it harms him or may do so. A thoroughly tanned skin will never get back to prize-winning condition. No woman ever tanned her skin to a mahogany brown, and later became noted for a peachblow complexion. The only way such a woman ever gets a fine complexion is by purchase. Tanned skins are somewhat prone to develop skin cancer. Sunlight acts on certain sterol bodies in and near the skin, producing new chemical compounds. These compounds help to combat pneumonia, colds, and consumption. So far, their action is all to the good. But sunlight is a powerful medicine, and powerful are the compounds it forms with the sterol bodies—powerful for good and powerful for harm. We need these compounds to prevent and cure rickets, to stabilize the nerves, and to help resistance against colds, pneumonia, and consumption. But adults do not need help against rickets. In winter they need more sunlight than they can get in order to protect themselves against colds and pneumonias. But we are talking about summer now, and in that season sunlight is in excess. This story has to do only with well adults in the summer season. The senile process—the process of growing old—is abetted by sunlight, at least in plants. Maybe these tanned men and women are inviting premature senility.”
Source: The Literary Digest for August 23, 1930
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