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Sunless Tanners


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#1 Ghostrider

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Posted 10 June 2008 - 02:25 AM


I look pretty white. I am thinking of using a sunless tanner to darken my appearence slightly for the summer. Are sunless tanners safe / healthy to use? I would assume that they are safer than actually tanning via the sun, but I don't want to damage my skin, especially my face.

#2 Fredrik

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Posted 10 June 2008 - 03:53 AM

I look pretty white. I am thinking of using a sunless tanner to darken my appearence slightly for the summer. Are sunless tanners safe / healthy to use? I would assume that they are safer than actually tanning via the sun, but I don't want to damage my skin, especially my face.


This study from 2004 made me hesitant to recommend sunless tanners to friends and relatives when I first saw it but I don´t consider this cell culture study absolute proof that dihydroxyacetone (DHA) is damaging DNA in real life. DHA can also give some extra sun protection but my take on this, until we have more studies, is: your natural skin colour (which happens to be pale) is better than sunless tanning, and DHA is absolutely less risky than tanning. I wouldn´t touch DHA myself. But I like being pale, I strive to preserve the original skin colour my genes gave me.


Mutat Res. 2004 Jun 13;560(2):173-86.

Dihydroxyacetone, the active browning ingredient in sunless tanning lotions, induces DNA damage, cell-cycle block and apoptosis in cultured HaCaT keratinocytes.
Petersen AB, Wulf HC, Gniadecki R, Gajkowska B.

Department of Dermatology, Bispebjerg Hospital, Bispebjerg Bakke 23, DK-2400 Copenhagen, NV, Denmark.

Dihydroxyacetone (DHA), the active substance in sunless tanning lotions reacts with the amino groups of proteins to form a brown-colored complex. This non-enzymatic glycation, known as the Maillard reaction, can also occur with free amino groups in DNA, raising the possibility that DHA may be genotoxic. To address this issue we investigated the effects of DHA on cell survival and proliferation of a human keratinocyte cell line, HaCaT.

Dose- and time-dependent morphological changes, chromatin condensation, cytoplasmic budding and cell detachment were seen in cells treated with DHA. Several dead cells were observed after long-time (24 h) incubation with 25 mM DHA or more. Furthermore, an extensive decline in proliferation was observed 1 day after DHA exposure for 24 h. When applied in different concentrations (5-50 mM) and for different time periods (1, 3 or 24 h) DHA caused a G(2)/M block after the cyclin B(1) restriction point. Exit from this cell-cycle block was associated with massive apoptosis, as revealed by a clonogenic assay, TUNEL staining and electron microscopy.

Furthermore, DHA caused DNA damage as revealed by the alkaline comet assay. Preincubation with antioxidants prevented the formation of DNA strand breaks. The DHA toxicity may be caused by direct redox reactions, with formation of ROS as the crucial intermediates. The genotoxic capacity of DHA raises a question about the long-term clinical consequences of treatment of the skin with this commonly used compound.

PMID: 15157655

Edited by Fredrik, 10 June 2008 - 04:15 AM.


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#3 sdxl

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Posted 10 June 2008 - 04:17 AM

It would also make you more susceptible to damage when you are exposed to the sun.

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2008 May;69(5):1423-8. Epub 2007 Oct 10

UV-generated free radicals (FR) in skin: Their prevention by sunscreens and their induction by self-tanning agents.
Jung K, Seifert M, Herrling T, Fuchs J.

Gematria Test Lab, Berlin, Germany.

In the past few years, the cellular effects of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation induced in skin have become increasingly recognized. Indeed, it is now well known that UV irradiation induces structural and cellular changes in all the compartments of skin tissue. The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the first and immediate consequence of UV exposure and therefore the quantitative determination of free radical reactions in the skin during UV radiation is of primary importance for the understanding of dermatological photodamage. The RSF method (radical sun protection factor) herein presented, based on electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR), enables the measurement of free radical reactions in skin biopsies directly during UV radiation. The amount of free radicals varies with UV doses and can be standardized by varying UV irradiance or exposure time. The RSF method allows the determination of the protective effect of UV filters and sunscreens as well as the radical induction capacity of self-tanning agents as dihydroxyacetone (DHA). The reaction of the reducing sugars used in self-tanning products and amino acids in the skin layer (Maillard reaction) leads to the formation of Amadori products that generate free radicals during UV irradiation. Using the RSF method three different self-tanning agents were analyzed and it was found, that in DHA-treated skin more than 180% additional radicals were generated during sun exposure with respect to untreated skin. For this reason the exposure duration in the sun must be shortened when self-tanners are used and photoaging processes are accelerated.

PMID: 18024196 [PubMed - in process]



#4 Fredrik

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Posted 10 June 2008 - 04:26 AM

It would also make you more susceptible to damage when you are exposed to the sun.

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2008 May;69(5):1423-8. Epub 2007 Oct 10

UV-generated free radicals (FR) in skin: Their prevention by sunscreens and their induction by self-tanning agents.
Jung K, Seifert M, Herrling T, Fuchs J.

Gematria Test Lab, Berlin, Germany.

In the past few years, the cellular effects of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation induced in skin have become increasingly recognized. Indeed, it is now well known that UV irradiation induces structural and cellular changes in all the compartments of skin tissue. The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the first and immediate consequence of UV exposure and therefore the quantitative determination of free radical reactions in the skin during UV radiation is of primary importance for the understanding of dermatological photodamage. The RSF method (radical sun protection factor) herein presented, based on electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR), enables the measurement of free radical reactions in skin biopsies directly during UV radiation. The amount of free radicals varies with UV doses and can be standardized by varying UV irradiance or exposure time. The RSF method allows the determination of the protective effect of UV filters and sunscreens as well as the radical induction capacity of self-tanning agents as dihydroxyacetone (DHA). The reaction of the reducing sugars used in self-tanning products and amino acids in the skin layer (Maillard reaction) leads to the formation of Amadori products that generate free radicals during UV irradiation. Using the RSF method three different self-tanning agents were analyzed and it was found, that in DHA-treated skin more than 180% additional radicals were generated during sun exposure with respect to untreated skin. For this reason the exposure duration in the sun must be shortened when self-tanners are used and photoaging processes are accelerated.

PMID: 18024196 [PubMed - in process]


Nice find! Thanks. That must have been the recent study that Dr Leslie Baumann was referring to. So using DHA as an additional photoprotectant that they talked about a couple of years ago seems like a real bad idea.

#5 Ghostrider

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Posted 10 June 2008 - 04:34 AM

The DHA in fish oil is Docosahexaenoic acid, not to be confused with DHA mentioned above :-)

Edited by Ghostrider, 10 June 2008 - 04:35 AM.


#6 Fredrik

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Posted 10 June 2008 - 01:26 PM

The DHA in fish oil is Docosahexaenoic acid, not to be confused with DHA mentioned above :-)


Yes, I was talking about the photoprotective effect of the sunless tanning ingredient dihydroxyacetone by the maillard reaction, not the DHA in fish oil. They share the same acronym. Dihydroxyacetone was shown to give an spf of 3. But as a side note about fatty acids, oral and topical EPA from fish oil is also photoprotective =)

Durability of the sun protection factor provided by dihydroxyacetone.
Faurschou A, Wulf HC.

Department of Dermatology, Bispebjerg Hospital, Bispebjerg Bakke, University of Copenhagen, 23 DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark. Fie_Faurschou@hotmail.com

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The sunless tanning agent dihydroxyacetone (DHA) is known to protect against longwave ultraviolet radiation (UVA) and visible light. Recently, our laboratory has shown that DHA in addition offers a modest sun protection factor (SPF) in humans. We conducted this study in order to investigate the durability of the SPF provided by DHA. METHODS: Ten healthy volunteers were treated with 20% DHA cream twice in three areas on the volar forearm. One, 5 and 7 days after the second application the participants were phototested with simulated sunlight in each area. Blue reflectance was used to measure the skin coloration by DHA in the test sites. RESULTS: DHA generated a significant SPF of 3.0 at day 1, 2.0 at day 5 and 1.7 at day 7 (P<0.0001). The SPF was positively correlated to the change in blue reflectance (r=0.39, P=0.034). The loss of SPF unit/day was not significantly different between the subjects (P<0.122). However, the intercepts were significantly different (P<0.0001) indicating differences in the initial SPF obtained among the subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The SPF of DHA decreases with the same loss of SPF unit/day between humans and the durability of the SPF thus depends on the initial SPF provided.

PMID: 15379873


The maillard reaction for sunlight protection.
Fusaro RM, Rice EG.

Dept. of Internal Medicine, 984360 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198-4360, USA. rfusaro@unmc.edu

During seven months of a clinical trial in spring, summer, and fall, 30 UVA/B/Soret band-photosensitive patients used sequential topical applications of dihydroxyacetone (DHA) followed by naphthoquinone only at bedtime and received excellent photoprotection without a single therapeutic failure or loss of any patient to follow-up. Eighteen of the 30 patients extended the limits of their photoprotection repeatedly over a seven-month period to tolerate without sunburns six to eight hours of midday sunlight under all kinds of occupational and recreational environmental conditions. Previously, the use of 3% DHA topically in earlier studies gave only a sun protection factor (SPF) of 3. In this reanalysis of the original notes of a previous clinical study of the melanoidins produced by DHA followed by naphthoquinone in the keratin layers of the epidermis of minimally pigmented Caucasian photosensitive patients, it is determined that these patients received a minimal UVB photoprotection of SPF 18 or more. This represents at least a sixfold amplification of the UVB photoprotective effect over the use of only dihydroxyacetone in the Maillard reaction.

PMID: 16037237


Edited by Fredrik, 10 June 2008 - 01:29 PM.


#7 grizzles

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Posted 17 June 2008 - 08:41 AM

I use fakebake and jergens. Both are excellent IMO




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