Tanning on beds can mimic drug addiction effects on the brain! So the Journal of Addiction Biology states in a forthcoming issue which could be a reason why folk continue to tan with all of the acknowledged risks of cancer and skin wrinkling.
The sections of the brain that appears to respond in addiction situations are also activated by UV light in a similar way.”
“What this shows is that the brain is in fact responding to UV light, and it responds in areas that are associated with reward,” said Dr. Bryon Adinoff, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and an author of the study. “These are areas, particularly the striatum, that we see activated when someone is administered a drug or a high-value food like sugar.”
A study in 2005 did show that a large proportion of sunbathers met the psychiatric definition of a substance abuse disorder, based on their answers to a variation of a test often used to help diagnose alcohol addiction.
But Dr. Adinoff and his colleagues decided to take this a step further. A small group of people from tanning salons who said that they liked to tan at least three times a week and that maintaining a tan was important to them were recruited for the study. These frequent tanners agreed to be injected with a radioisotope-this allowed researchers to monitor how tanning affected their brain activity.
The study had participants experience either a normal tanning session or a session where researchers had inserted a filter that blocked only the UV light. To ensure study validity the tanners weren’t told of the change.
Results of the brain images showed that during standard tanning sessions where study participants had been exposed to UV rays, several key areas of the brain lighted up. Among those areas were the dorsal striatum, the left anterior insula and part of the orbitofrontal cortex – these are areas that have been implicated in addiction. But when the UV light was filtered out, those areas of the brain showed far less activity.
Addicted to UV? Something to consider when looking to prep for that late summer sun break or on the regular trips to the tanning salon perhaps?
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