Tanning Pill, Also a Wonder Drug?

For quite some time, pharmaceutical and medical researchers have been closely looking at the many potentials and usefulness of tanning pills. Many people are patiently anticipating for the market launch and massive use of such pills that would help people get a perfectly golden brown tan without much effort.

But because of lack of sufficient medical backings, the pills are still not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and other health regulating agencies worldwide.

Many experts assert that full approval and use of tanning pills is in the offing. However, there are some critics who oppose massive distribution and intake of the drug. That is because tanning pills are generally containing canthaxanthin as an active and main ingredient.

Canthaxanthin is a natural food additive that enhances color and appetizing appearance of some food products and dishes. As used for skin tanning, the concept of tanning pills is that such colorizing additives would be able to spur substances in the skin to speed up the tanning process.

As a wonder drug

Skin tanning is usually linked with the onset of skin cancer. That is  because exposure to ultraviolet radiation has been identified as a great way of subjecting the skin to the risks and pitfalls of several forms of skin cancer.

But because tanning pills are sunless tanning products, the need to expose the skin to ultraviolet light just to produce that great tan is significantly eliminated. But tanning pills are considered wonder drugs not because of that property. There is something more.

It has been initially found by researchers that tanning pills contain ingredients and elements that assist in protecting transplant patients from developing cancer, particularly, skin cancer. The immune system would not be directly boosted, but the ability of the skin to discern ultraviolet harms would be strengthened and ensured.

How does that work? Well, the idea behind tanning pills' usefulness against certain skin problems and cancer can easily be explained.

Protection against skin cancer

While normal tanning procedures raise the possibility of incurring and developing skin cancer, tanning pills do otherwise. The rice-sized pills when taken produce nutrients that raise and speed up the production of melanin, the pigmentation substance that gives the skin its distinct brownish color.

The melanin production produced under the influence of tanning pills is different. Such melanin production has sun-blocking properties that could last for as long as two months.

That means the melanin levels in the skin would be maintained at optimal levels. Melanin normally protects the skin from diseases that may arise from light exposure. That is the reason why colored people are naturally less susceptible to skin and immune diseases compared to white people. The logic behind that concept is making tanning pills truly a potential market hit.

Particularly, tanning pills would help fair-complexion organ transplant patients secure greater protection against skin cancer. Heart, liver and kidney transplant patients, specifically, are taking immune suppressing treatments that make them easily susceptible to sun and ultraviolet damage to the skin, increasing the risk of skin cancer.

By providing protection to the skin, tanning pills can be able to effectively help protect such patients from contracting skin cancer cells.

Ongoing clinical trials

With its promising properties, it is only unfortunate that tanning pills are still not yet officially distributed on a massive basis across all markets. Currently, clinical trials for the drug are still being conducted, especially in the United States, Europe and in major Australian cities, namely, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide.

With the rate of how such clinical researches are ongoing, it is estimated that tanning pills, if ever would be approved by health regulators, could start hitting the market by as early as 2010. By that time, it is expected that people would readily accept the advantage and usefulness of tanning pills.

For sure, other means of skin tanning, like sunbathing, indoor tanning and sunless tanning could still be popular and well preferred by some people. But tanning pills are expected to create a tanning industry tsunami especially when it possible health benefits would be further made public.

Years from now, tanning pills undoubtedly would be commonly sold at drugstores, giving people easier and more convenient access.