A few year ago, anti-steroid crusaders latched onto the idea that certain dietary supplements were a “gateway” to anabolic steroids. Parents were warned that if their kids were using popular supplements like creatine monohydrate, then their children were much more likely to start using steroids. The hysteria over creatine turned out to be much ado about nothing. But now, researchers have identified a brand new gateway for steroid use – indoor tanning salons!
Robert Dellavalle, MD, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, was point blank in his warning to parents. If your kids are going to indoor tanning salons, it is imperative that you monitor and check them for steroid use!
“Risky behaviors tend to go together,” Dellavalle said. “So someone who does indoor tanning may more easily move on to other risky behaviors like illicit drug use… If you are a parent and your child is tanning, you should also check for drug abuse.”
Dellavalle was the supervising researcher in the “indoor tanning is a gateway to steroid use” study. His team analyzed data collected as part of the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS). The HKCS is a comprehensive survey designed to measure risky behaviors in Colorado youth.
The HKCS was completed by over 40,000 students at over 220 public schools. Approximately 30% of the students also received a questionnaire about indoor tanning behaviors. These 12,144 surveys revealed a total of 332 steroid users. More than half of those steroid users (177) also admitted using “an indoor tanning device such as a sunlamp, sunbed or tanning booth”.
The analysis revealed that 20.8% of indoor tanners used steroids while only 1.5% of non-tanners used steroids. Not surprisingly, the correlation was much more pronounced in boys. However, the connection held true for girls as well.
Based on these results, some researchers and anti-steroid crusaders want to conclude that indoor tanning is a gateway to steroid use. In this case, the so-called “gateway hypothesis” would postulate that steroid use is directly caused by indoor tanning. The teenager must be initially introduced to indoor tanning which would in turn lead to an increased likelihood of steroid use in the future. This must occur in a chronological and causal sequence.
While most people will find the correlation between indoor tanning and steroid use interesting, it seems ridiculous to suggest that there is a causal connection between indoor tanning and steroid use. Nonetheless, it is a good way to demonize both steroids and indoor tanning at the same time.
If you are a parent and your teenager is using indoor tanning devices, perhaps you should focus on the REAL risks and not some steroid boogeyman. Dr. Eleni Linos, an assistant professor of dermatology with the School of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, points out the real and undisputed risks associated with indoor tanning by teenagers.
“Those who use tanning beds before age 25 have almost double the risk of malignant melanoma and a 70 percent higher risk of non-melanoma skin cancer,” according to Linos. “Every time you tan, you increase your risk of getting skin cancer, including melanoma,” Linos said. “Indoor tanning also causes premature skin aging, like wrinkles and age spots, and changes your skin texture.”
Is indoor tanning is a gateway to steroids?