Posts
Starved of sunshine over the winter and desperate for a healthy glow, Terri Sotherton, 21, sat at her computer screen four weeks ago looking for a cheap and easy way to get a perfect all-over tan.
She didn’t have to look far. Type the words ‘quick tanning’ into Google and the first three online companies to come up offer cheap deals on tanning accelerators in the form of creams, pills — and even injections.
Terri, from Bolton, bought three doses of a product called Melanotan for £25. On the website, it was claimed these one-milligram injections would make her browner faster than if she went on a sunbed or sunbathed.
But this online shopping trip ended in the local hospital A&E. ‘I didn’t think about the risks,’ says Terri, a full-time mother to her 18-month-old daughter, Megan. ‘What happened was terrifying.’
The kit she had bought included syringes and vials of Melanotan, but came without instructions. After recalling a friend had used something similar, Terri rang her.
‘She told me to inject myself with one milligram, which I did,’ she says. ‘Looking back, I can’t believe I was so stupid, but I did it without a second thought because at the time all I wanted was a tan without any hassle, just like she had.
‘I didn’t see any effects until two days after the injection. Then bizarre things started to happen. My face became luminous and swollen. It had the strangest green tinge and became hypersensitive. It was itchy, painful and I couldn’t bear to touch it.’
Extremely frightened, she went to A&E at Bolton Hospital and told the doctor what she had done.
‘He had never heard of Melanotan, but went off to research it with their poisons unit,’ she says. ‘When he came back, his face was grave. I started to panic.’
Melanotan contains hormones that increase the levels of the brown pigment melanin in the body.
In December 2008, the drugs watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), outlawed the product, which has earned the nickname ‘jabba-tan’, after finding it causes skin discoloration, stops the healing process and lowers the immune system so dramatically that patients have got meningitis.
Yet, as Terri proved, you can still obtain it easily on the internet. While its sale is banned in Britain, it is not illegal to buy or possess it.
He told me not to inject myself ever again, as my extreme reaction was so dangerous,’ says Terri.
‘I was kept in hospital for several hours, and then told to go home and rest, but to come back immediately if I felt faint or sick.’
After a few days, moles and freckles started to appear all over her chest.
‘They are still there and I am so worried they are a sign I might be developing skin cancer,’ she says.
‘What’s so upsetting is that this is all my fault. I feel so irresponsible because I have a baby to look after. I am still weak and shaken. I can only pray that I haven’t done any long-term damage to myself.’
Terri may have been naive, but she is far from alone. Tan-accelerating products have become increasingly popular with beauty-conscious web-surfers seeking an easy fix.
They differ from fake tans, which colour the skin by dyeing it or prompting the outer layers to change colour.
Tan accelerators meddle with our body chemistry on a far deeper level. They can be swallowed as pills, injected or applied directly to the skin as creams.
They make our skin react to sunlight in a stronger way than normal, turning us brown faster than is natural.
Often these products are marketed as a safe option, with makers claiming they reduce the time you need to spend roasting in the sunshine or under ultraviolet lights in order to achieve a deep, bronze tan.
Yet the truth is very different. Chemicals in the products make the skin more sensitive to ultraviolet light by making our cells much more reactive.
In response, we produce more brown pigment — melatonin — more quickly. The results can be dangerously disfiguring, as Terri and other women have found to their cost.
sourceShe didn’t have to look far. Type the words ‘quick tanning’ into Google and the first three online companies to come up offer cheap deals on tanning accelerators in the form of creams, pills — and even injections.
Terri, from Bolton, bought three doses of a product called Melanotan for £25. On the website, it was claimed these one-milligram injections would make her browner faster than if she went on a sunbed or sunbathed.
But this online shopping trip ended in the local hospital A&E. ‘I didn’t think about the risks,’ says Terri, a full-time mother to her 18-month-old daughter, Megan. ‘What happened was terrifying.’
The kit she had bought included syringes and vials of Melanotan, but came without instructions. After recalling a friend had used something similar, Terri rang her.
‘She told me to inject myself with one milligram, which I did,’ she says. ‘Looking back, I can’t believe I was so stupid, but I did it without a second thought because at the time all I wanted was a tan without any hassle, just like she had.
‘I didn’t see any effects until two days after the injection. Then bizarre things started to happen. My face became luminous and swollen. It had the strangest green tinge and became hypersensitive. It was itchy, painful and I couldn’t bear to touch it.’
Extremely frightened, she went to A&E at Bolton Hospital and told the doctor what she had done.
‘He had never heard of Melanotan, but went off to research it with their poisons unit,’ she says. ‘When he came back, his face was grave. I started to panic.’
Melanotan contains hormones that increase the levels of the brown pigment melanin in the body.
In December 2008, the drugs watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), outlawed the product, which has earned the nickname ‘jabba-tan’, after finding it causes skin discoloration, stops the healing process and lowers the immune system so dramatically that patients have got meningitis.
Yet, as Terri proved, you can still obtain it easily on the internet. While its sale is banned in Britain, it is not illegal to buy or possess it.
He told me not to inject myself ever again, as my extreme reaction was so dangerous,’ says Terri.
‘I was kept in hospital for several hours, and then told to go home and rest, but to come back immediately if I felt faint or sick.’
After a few days, moles and freckles started to appear all over her chest.
‘They are still there and I am so worried they are a sign I might be developing skin cancer,’ she says.
‘What’s so upsetting is that this is all my fault. I feel so irresponsible because I have a baby to look after. I am still weak and shaken. I can only pray that I haven’t done any long-term damage to myself.’
Terri may have been naive, but she is far from alone. Tan-accelerating products have become increasingly popular with beauty-conscious web-surfers seeking an easy fix.
They differ from fake tans, which colour the skin by dyeing it or prompting the outer layers to change colour.
Tan accelerators meddle with our body chemistry on a far deeper level. They can be swallowed as pills, injected or applied directly to the skin as creams.
They make our skin react to sunlight in a stronger way than normal, turning us brown faster than is natural.
Often these products are marketed as a safe option, with makers claiming they reduce the time you need to spend roasting in the sunshine or under ultraviolet lights in order to achieve a deep, bronze tan.
Yet the truth is very different. Chemicals in the products make the skin more sensitive to ultraviolet light by making our cells much more reactive.
In response, we produce more brown pigment — melatonin — more quickly. The results can be dangerously disfiguring, as Terri and other women have found to their cost.
0 comments:
Post a Comment