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Comment by pazimzadeh

3 days ago

Funny timing, I just went to a tanning salon for the first time yesterday. I asked for the weakest bed (level 1), which has the most UVB (for vitamin D production). They were shocked that I wanted to use level 1, apparently no one uses it. They also suggested starting at 5 mins instead of the 1-2 minutes I wanted to do. The machine itself has a notice saying not to go over 3 mins for the first week.

I was following the protocol from this paper, which started people at 2 mins and used low wattage UVB-heavy bulbs.

Sunbeds with UVB radiation can produce physiological levels of serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D in healthy volunteers

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5821157/

Unfortunately the Science Advances paper being discussed is epidemiological and doesn't distinguish between the type of bulb, length of time, and other parameters used while tanning. However it is safe to say that the average tanner cares more about getting dark than anything else.

I think there would actually be a market for vitamin D centered "healthy tanning" where only low wattage, high-UVB bulbs are used particularly in cloudy areas or where the winter is long. I'm that guessing the operating costs for that kind of business would be cheaper than your average tanning salon, too.

23 comments

pazimzadeh

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Liftyee  3 days ago

Interesting... What benefits does this have over vitamin D supplements?

I've seen this "optimising for some perceived negative effects" thing with toothbrushes/toothpaste, where "whitening" and stiff bristles actually just means removing more (irreplaceable) enamel from your teeth.

  • makeitdouble  3 days ago

    Vitamin D supplements are controversial on their own.

    There is ample results on better health correlated with higher levels of Vitamin D, but the reverse is far more teneous: shoving in Vitamin D isn't guaranteed to be properly absorbed, and even when it is we don't see conparable results to people producing the Vitamin D themselves.

    An example: https://academic.oup.com/jbmr/article/38/10/1391/7610360

    • nialv7  3 days ago

      The paper you linked is saying there is no benefit in Vitamin D supplementation in people who are not Vitamin D deficient. Which is not surprising.

      Do you have research showing sunlight Vitamin D has benefit for someone who is not deficient?

      4 replies →

  • UniverseHacker  3 days ago

    I have issues with low vitamin D and even really high supplement doses like 10,000iu/d do nothing at all- my level keeps dropping no matter how much I supplement. Sunlight brings it up quickly but not in the winter from Nov-Jan.

  • nostrebored  3 days ago

    Vitamin D supplements don’t work consistently across different populations. Very few (~10%) of people can absorb dietary vitamin D. If you aren’t some form of Northern European, you probably need to take at least 10 times the daily recommended dose of vitamin D to influence your levels significantly.

    Most people need sun!

    • notKilgoreTrout  3 days ago

      Don't most people who take supplements just take 10X the RDA? It is still a tiny amount of supplement that is safer and costs a fraction of the indoor tanning or traveling often to somewhere with adequate Sun.

      1 reply →

    • throwaway2037  2 days ago 

          > Very few (~10%) of people can absorb dietary vitamin D.

      If this is true, why do all rich countries (not just "The West") add Vit D to cow's milk?

  • MaKey  3 days ago

    Stiff bristles also damage your gum more easily and can lead to gum recessions. I needed gum transplants because of this and a wrong brushing technique. For me even medium stiffness is too hard.

cultofmetatron  3 days ago

as a man of south asian descent growing up in massachusetts, I would find myself getting very depressed around the middle of the winter. I actually found a huge amount of relief by going into a sunbed for 2 min a month. I'd feel much better and my cravings would change from fried food to salads.

  • throwaway2037  2 days ago 

        > 2 min a month

    That is incredibly short! Was it not possible to get a special lightbulb for your room to give you more UV light to produce Vit D?

Melatonic  3 days ago

I looked into this extensively during lockdowns. There is a specific wavelength that maximises Vitamin D. And there are medically approved devices that use special fluorescent bulbs that output this. It's mainly used in Nordic countries.

I tried to find an LED strip equivalent but couldn't not - there are strips that produce a lower wavelength than UV-A but from what I remember it was too low of a nm for good vitamin D.

Could be an interesting product however ! I wanted to hand two strips in my shower and turn them on for a few minutes while I washed up during the winter.

Unfortunately even the tanning beds you were using still produce a lot of UV-A which will age your skin. And funnily enough UV-B also produces a much longer lasting tan (though slower) which would mean less return trips for people who are just looking for aesthetics

sutterd  3 days ago

I do exactly what you are describing and it seems to work for me, from a vitamin D perspective. I started this because I read a paper stating the same health benefits were not seen from supplements as with people who got the vitamin D from sunlight. I believe that is true, but of course can not be certain.

hn_throwaway_99  3 days ago

I use the Sperti Vitamin D sunlamp at home during the winter months. It wasn't cheap but wasn't crazy expensive either and seems to be what you want (e.g. UVB).