Healthy Tan

RicFRicF ✭✭✭

Now that we at last have some pleasant temperatures to train in. I've noticed a few guys (who else?) running around stripped to the waist.

Now it's been a while since I was informed by one particular jerk that he always set off his 'healthy tan' by getting sunburnt first, but do people still think like this?

In New Zealand, if anyone had this idea they'd be sectioned.

On my first visit to that country, an advert on the telly for sun-block came with the narrative, "Show me a guy who thinks he has a healthy tan and I'll show you a bloody idiot!".

They have a way of getting to the point over there.

🙂

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Comments

  • Well yes but isnt there some serious issue going on with lack of vitamin D in a high majority of adults in this country. All caused by peoples terror of actually letting sunlight touch their skin? I accept that sunburn and over exposure is dangerous but are we not in danger of going slightly too far the other way?

  • Ian MIan M ✭✭✭

    What rosie says. There's a balance to be struck.
    Also, if you're out running in the sun, not a lot of your body is exposed to it in the same way as say lying down.

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    Given how rarely we see the sun, I really am not going to worry about it.  I sit in an office most week-days, and don't lie out in the sun on holidays.

    The pleasure of feeling the sun on my skin for a few days out of the year out-weighs the small risk of skin cancer.

     

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    after running In the miserable  conditions most of the year, I get that top off at a whisper of heat.

    Huge difference in running for 30mins with no top, and lying in the full force of the sun for 8hours sunbathing.

  • The benefits of sunshine outweigh the risk.

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    30 minutes at around mid-day is considered medically appropriate.

    Lying in the sun like a staked out Red Indian torture victim, something else.

     

    🙂

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭
    Intermanaut wrote (see)

    The benefits of sunshine outweigh the risk.

    Which are?

    🙂

  • Dr Richard Weller, a senior lecturer in dermatology at Edinburgh University presented a paper recently in which he suggested the benefits of exposure to sun outweighed the risks. He reckoned UV reacted in the skin to produce nitric oxide which reduced blood pressure. So his reasoning was that sun exposure could reduce the risks of hearts attacks and strokes which are bigger killers than skin cancer. I'm not a scientist so can't judge how sound his research is. 

  • Sounds marvellous to me, I'm with Dr Weller on that one then.

    Anyway flabby brown bits look so much more acceptable than flabby white bits.

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    Aside from the vitamin D you get from sunlight, and possible blood pressure benefit mentioned above, there's the feeling of pleasure, enjoyment and well-being you get from feeling the sun on your skin after months of being cold!

  • one of the advantages of being in shape is being able to flaunt it!

    perhaps the OP is jealous!

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    I doubt it old son, Riccy boy is more in shape at 55 (ish?) then everyone on this thread was at 25 image

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭
    velloo wrote (see)

    Dr Richard Weller, a senior lecturer in dermatology at Edinburgh University presented a paper recently in which he suggested the benefits of exposure to sun outweighed the risks. He reckoned UV reacted in the skin to produce nitric oxide which reduced blood pressure. So his reasoning was that sun exposure could reduce the risks of hearts attacks and strokes which are bigger killers than skin cancer. I'm not a scientist so can't judge how sound his research is. 

    Tops marks Velloo.

    I find it refreshing to see that someone has taken the trouble to check some facts and report on them. 

    "Too Much Water"

    Your's has to be the most ironic post yet. Considering that according to some on the forum, I drink too much water when running.

    As for being in shape. SG (a mere nipper of 32) knows I'm only 52 and a half. I'm also running 12 miles per day. And here's a picture from 8 days ago.

    /members/images/493151/Gallery/eal_0.png

     That's me on the right. Covered in sun-block.

    Oh and averaging sub 6 minute miling in 26C.image

    🙂

  • Nowadays, the term healthy tan makes as much sense as the term healthy cigarette.

  • CindersCinders ✭✭✭

    Which one is you Ric?

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭
    Cinders wrote (see)

    Which one is you Ric?

    I'm the one on the right-hand side of the picture. Let me check. Yes, that's me alright.

    🙂

  • CindersCinders ✭✭✭

    More sun cream on your knees would have given you a healthy tan!

  • XX1XX1 ✭✭✭

    The phrase "healthy tan" is a bit meaningless but there are extremes...  Sitting in a darkened room vs "lying in the sun llike a staked out Red Indian torture victim"...  But spending some time in the sun and getting a tan wasn't a problem when I was three so I doubt it's a problem now...  I'm prepared to take the risk anyway.

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭
    Cinders wrote (see)

    More sun cream on your knees would have given you a healthy tan!

    That's just the colour of my knees and quads under race conditions. Usual colour is the same as my shins. The last extensive tan I had was in 1983.

    🙂

  • If running like you do and wearing sun cream makes one look like you, i'll take the skin cancer thanks. You look terrible. Still, i've got 15 years to turn into an emaciated, pasty mess.

    BTW, not everyone burns in our meagre sun, saturday for instance, I was outside, full sun for 7 hrs, no cream, the trick is to keep your tan all year...you don't see many sun burnt black Africans!

  • Lå®Ð䮧€ wrote (see)

    If running like you do and wearing sun cream makes one look like you, i'll take the skin cancer thanks. You look terrible. Still, i've got 15 years to turn into an emaciated, pasty mess.

     

    Go on then Adonis, post a picture of yourself and let's all comment on how gorgeous you are.

    Anyway, in 15 years time those UVA rays will have taken their toll on your skin and you'll look like Michael Parkinson's grandad.

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    I'm aware of the conventional benefits of sunlight. Alas; due to surgery, in my case exposure to UV light has no effect on my vitamin D levels at all.

    A neighbour of mine had skin cancer. I can say that having half your nose missing is not a good look. 

    🙂

  • Hog-mouseHog-mouse ✭✭✭

    There was some research on the risks of skin cancer in outdoor workers compared to office workers. It came up with the result that if you are exposed to the sun year out your risk is greatly reduced than if you have a sudden more intense exposure to the sun.

    I don't burn either, I normally don't tan but this year I have, what is for me, quite a deep tan. I don't sun bathe, it's just from being out of doors and because I did tan when on holiday last year in Thailand and France. Only slightly you'd never known I'd been away from these grey shores. That's how long it takes me to not be white.

    One thing that has not been mentioned is the risk of skin cancer posed by some skin products including sun tan lotions. I heard something about this briefly in the news recently. I have also heard bits and bobs along those lines over the years.

    Oh yeah, I'm prety fit too.image ha ha.

  • BarklesBarkles ✭✭✭

    As an office-johnny, I am only aware that it is summer from the clothes others are wearing outside! I do enjoy the sun, but don;t sun-bathe. I prefer not to be a pasty-white all year round  !image

  • so is the sun just as harmful to all sun types then.............surely nature designed us knowing that there is a sun up in the sky......and to be out for a few hours in it should be fine....

    If you burn badly then that shows that you had too much for your skin type...

    If you just bronze nicely then you were designed correctly and should enjoy the sun.,....

     

    The great feeling of being out in the sun lying down with a drink at your side is amazing.....and yes i feel much happier with my body with a healthy natural tan on it........

     

    but no i did not feel happy in the sun the last two weeksnds when i had to race 14 and 9 hours respectively in the sun.......those were the only 2 occasions in 5 years that i have used sun lotion......I know my limits

  • Nose NowtNose Nowt ✭✭✭

    What happened to the ozone hole?  A thinner ozone was one of the main reasons given for us needing to be more careful now than 30-40 years ago.

    I googled this a while ago and, if memory serves, the ozone is still thinned, and a hole still appears over the poll every year...  but not quite as bad.  And I think it implied that the changes we've made to chemical polution (aerosols and fridges etc) mean that they expect the hole to be gone within about 50 years.

  • I don't really enjoy the heat, and burn exceptionally easily (my sister claims I can get sunburned from standing too close to a light bulb.....), so for me, it's exposure only at the earliest part of the day or after 3pm, and use a good quality factor 25. 

    Seriously, in this country I have had heat stroke in April.  I never tan and remain pasty white all year round.  Still, I console myself that I won't get wrinkly Judith Charmers skin.......

  • Being out in the sun does wonders for my mood (although lately it has been a tad too hot and I have been a right grumpy cow), and I have no intention of hiding away from it. Being a pale blue Scottish person, I never use lower than factor 30 and I gradually get a nice golden colour through that. 

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