![]() “You wouldn’t see people smoking in a gym, but at the same time you see people tanning because there’s a misconception that a tanned look is associated with better health,” says Larisa Geskin, MD, an associate professor of dermatology and the director of the Comprehensive Skin Cancer Center at Columbia University. Pagoto says, adding that people who exercise frequently may think, “I’ll go into the gym to get healthy and then hop in the tanning bed to get my healthy glow.” Body builders and those who participate in fitness competitions, for instance, often use tans to accentuate their muscles. Appearance is a likely motivation for this population, Dr. Gym tanners reported engaging in the practice 67% more frequently they also more closely fit the profile for addiction by asserting, for example, that their urges to tan indoors grew stronger if they skipped sessions. When the investigators surveyed 636 people who had used a tanning bed at least once, approximately a quarter said that they had done so at the gym. Pagoto and her team discovered that not only were large numbers of people climbing into those gym tanning beds, but they were also using them more often than people who signed up for the apparatuses elsewhere, such as a tanning salon. fte researchers are now attempting to quantify how many tanning beds are present in 3 major gym chains in 34 states to gain a better sense of prevalence. Pagoto and her colleagues published preliminary research in JAMA Dermatology showing that nearly half the gyms in the United States and Canada offer indoor tanning 1, including 2 of America’s largest health club chains, Planet Fitness and Anytime Fitness, which have a combined membership of more than 13 million. Unfortunately, many appear to be doing just that. “We don’t want people associating tanning beds with anything healthy,” she explains. ![]() ![]() ftat a potentially addictive carcinogen could be within a quick walk of the student recreation center or share space with treadmills and kettlebells is an odd juxtaposition, and one that makes public health messaging much more difficult, says Sherry Pagoto, PhD, a professor of allied health sciences at the University of Connecticut. Tanning beds may be a known risk factor for melanoma, but in recent years, they have found a home in locations that typically promote health and well-being, including gyms and college campuses. ![]()
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