Can’t resist getting a tan despite the risks? It might be more than a habit. That’s the suggestion from a study in mice showing that exposure to ultraviolet radiation triggers similar effects to drug addiction.
Previous studies have found that many frequent tanners meet clinical criteria for a substance-related disorder, but David Fisher at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and his colleagues wanted to find out whether such sun-seeking behaviour is driven by vanity or a biological addiction.
To test this, the team exposed partially-shaved mice to UV light five times a week for six months. Each dose they received was comparable to a fair-skinned person spending between 20 and 30 minutes in the heat of Florida’s midday sun.
They found that the mice exhibited a response similar to addiction. (1)
But what is an “addiction”?
We are all addicted to everything we do every day.
We are addicted to life it self.
What?!?
Could THAT be an addiction?
Why not?
Try to get to your work through a different new path.
Try to tie your shoelaces in the wrong way.
Wear different pairs of socks.
Sing suddenly and without any reason!
Mock life.
Mock routine.
And a strange new world will appear in front of you…
