Tanning beds

The sun stimulates your body to produce vitamin D. This helps you absorb calcium to keep teeth and bones healthy. So sunlight is good for you right? Yes, sunlight is good for you in moderate amounts. Tanning beds do not provide moderate amounts. Even if you only go for a few minutes it is damaging to your skin. Just one tanning bed session is 5 times more intense than spending the same time in natural light. This is partly because the bulbs which give off UVB and UVA rays are so close to your body.

Tanning beds give off only about 3 percent UVB rays. The other 97 percent are UVA rays. Both of these are ultraviolet rays that can cause cancer, but they are slightly different. UVA rays penetrate the skin's surface and cause wrinkles, creases, and sagging skin. UVB rays, on the other hand, hit the surface of your skin and cause sunburn and sunspots. This is why you do not burn much in tanning beds, there are few UVB rays. You are getting mostly UVA rays which cause wrinkles (and cancer). 90 percent of all skin cancer and wrinkles are from the sun. Only 10 percent are genetic. This means that a lot of wrinkles can be prevented if we are smart about sun exposure and stay out of tanning beds. It is good for you to get a little sun every day, but tanning beds are not a safe way to go about getting it.