THE GOOD AND EVIL OF TAN

Hokitika Guardian, 6 November 1930, Page 3

THE GOOD AND EVIL OF TAN

Brilliant sunlight may do harm as well as good, says Dr W. A. Evans, in Kilo Gli'ieag-o-' “ J ‘ribuiao>.'’ It is like any. other power! til .agent, ahdU'thp idea that exposure to it is hcaltliTyL' always and to any extent, is erroneous. He writes: “I have been g’ivmg this -matter some thought for i.veral years, as well ins watching the experimentation being done in laboratories and reading the literature • ,'ound in Libraries.'' The conclusion ; I have come to is that for a well man to expose himself to direct sunlight to an -extreme extent in summer 'oes him no good. Tn some respects it harms him or may do so. A thoroughly tanned skin will never get back to prize-winning condition. No woman ever tanned lier skin to a mahogany brown and later became noted for a peach blow complexion. The only way such, a woman ever gets a fine complexion is by purchase. Tanned skids : are somewhat prone to develop skin cancer.. Sunlight acts on Certain sterol bodies in and near the skin, producing new chemical compounds. : These compounds help’ to combat pneumonia, colds and consumption. So far their action is all to the good. But sunlight is a powerful mediine. and powerful arc the compounds »i/ forms with the sterol bodies—powerful for good and pow-. erfnl for harm. We need these compounds to prevent and cure rickets, to stabilise the nerves and to help resistance against colds, pneumonia: and consumption. But adults do not/ need help against rickets. Tn winter; they need more sunlight, than they get in order to protect themselves against colds and pneumonias. But ;we are talking about summer now,, and in that season sunlight is in ox-, cess. This story has to do only with well adults in the summer season. The senile process* —the process of growing old—is abet-tecl. by sunlight, at least in plants. Maybe tlmse. tanned men and women are inviting senility.”