Addicted to Tanning?

Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/evilerin/">Evil Erin</a>

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Not only can tanning beds up your cancer risk, they might also be addictive, a new study published in the Archives of Dermatology finds. Researchers polled college students about their tanning habits and found that about a third of respondents who had used tanning beds met the criteria for addiction.

Some key findings:

  • 17 percent of non-tanners said they had used two or more addictive substances in the previous month, compared with 42 percent of those those who met the criteria for addictive tanning.

Among addictive tanners:

  • 78 percent said they had tried to cut down on the time spent tanning but couldn’t.
  • 78 percent said they felt guilty about using tanning beds or booths too much.
  • 26 percent said that when they wake up in the morning they want to use a tanning bed.

I’ll get my vitamin D elsewhere, thanks.

Via LA Times.

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