According to experts, persons with seasonal affective disorder or winter depression can not get any relief from tanning beds or tanning booths.
Dr. Michael Terman who is the director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan says, “Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is most often treated with every day sessions of exposure to bright light.
However, few isolated reports related tanning to improve moods and also tanning beds for better relief from seasonal affective disorder.
But, the fact is real light therapy actually works through eyes, not through skin and it uses entirely different light. Even if artificial tanning fail to improve mood, there is an increased risk of skin cancer that would far outweigh the benefits of tanning beds”.
According to The Skin Cancer Foundation, the latest sunlamps produce much ultraviolet light, almost dozen times as real sunshine and hence tanning bed users are at increased risk of developing skin cancer.
UV light also causes potential harm to eyes and studies have shown that goggles used by persons in tanning beds and booths are not quite effective and can possibly allow significant amounts of harmful rays to eyes.
Read more at Reuters
