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11-08-2007, 11:34 AM | #1 (permalink) |
Join Date: Feb 10 2005
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Rep Power: 35 | Opioids & Tanning Addition The last paragraph is the best in this article! SOURCE LINK TO STATS.ORG: http://www.stats.org/stories/2007/is...aug15_2007.htm Is Tanning Addictive? Maia Szalavitz, August 15, 2007 Do chronic tanners suffer withdrawal from the heroin-like effects of sunlight on skin? Today’s Slate has a curious article about tanning and addiction. Noting that exposure to UV light can cause the skin to release beta-endorphin – one of the body’s natural heroin-like compounds - it posits problems with the theory that this could make tanning addictive. According to the article, beta-endorphin released by the skin may not be able to pass through the blood brain barrier to create a tanning high. If it can’t do this, tanning wouldn’t be able to be addictive because you can’t get high if the brain doesn’t get the opioid. But Slate then cites a study in which patients were given naltrexone, a drug that blocks opioid receptors in both the brain and body, and half of chronic tanners suffered symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Those withdrawal symptoms cannot be due primarily to the actions of opioids in the periphery. Opioid withdrawal is a brain phenomenon: in fact, at least two drug companies are exploiting this fact to develop drugs to block opioid-related constipation in pain patients taking medications like OxyContin. These drugs will block opioid receptors only outside the brain, keeping pain relief intact and preventing withdrawal symptoms while blocking the actions of opioids in the gut that cause constipation. They couldn’t work if opioid-withdrawal was related primarily to opioids in the periphery: they would cause withdrawal. Tanning must therefore somehow cause opioid release in the brain, whether it comes from the skin or not, otherwise the chronic tanners wouldn’t show withdrawal symptoms when given an opioid-blocker. The problem of whether UV light-released opioids on the skin can reach the brain is irrelevant to the theory. Tanning feels good, feeling good often involves the release of brain opioids: they don’t need to come from the skin. Slate is misinterpreting the naltrexone finding with the red herring of the blood-brain barrier and the research showing release of opioids from the skin. Coverage of science should clarify what it means, not obscure it.
__________________ "under exposure to UV rays is as dangerous as overexposure....this is D life" eileen |
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