Nosferatu says: don't fry yourself!

Being brought up on the west coast of Scotland, I have to say I didn't see a lot of sun. Days, maybe even weeks passed without a blue sky. My town seemed to specialise in a kind of inauspicious-looking luminous stormcloud grey weather, the sky in a constant bad mood punctuated by heavy downpoars.

As a result of which, I'd never much gotten a habit for sunbathing. When I was a kid we got taken to the South of France on holiday (central Mediterranmean coast) and I duly got sunstroke and spent the entire rest of the holiday flat on my back in a cold sweat or, ahem, 'in the restroom'.

So after the sunstroke episode, and having to peel onion-layers of dry-fried skin off my back, I vowed never to go under the sun again unless I was protected by sunblock (note: not suntan lotion, sunblock), a hat, a collar, whatever.

I think it was partly teenage obstinacy that started this, but it seems I was just ahead of my time. Doctors now recommend that we don't do the tanning thing. Ok, we still need our vitamin D, so it's still good not to completely live the vampire lifestyle, but pretending to be a piece of toast is yesterday's pastime.

Some very interesting thoughts on the tanning phenomenon and its toll on the UK's health here (via Guardian). Look away now if you're squeamish, but the report says that "Our love of tanning has led to the incidence of malignant melanoma quadrupling in Britain over the last 30 years; it is now the second most common cancer in young adults in the UK". I don't know about you, but that makes me as angry as it does scared.

So, for all of you who favour the Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu look, it could be that your sun-shyness has actually been a health benefit all these years - who'dve thunk it?

While it's good to feel smug now and again because of healthy habits and being a fit individual, I still think it always pays to be prepared though, so the money saved on Ambre Solaire can be spent on affordable health insurance

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