It is snowing. March break is almost upon us. Spring is around the corner but far enough away that winter fatigue is setting in.

Those who can afford it book sunny southern escapes. Then there are those who hit the tanning beds. Again and again.

Kate de Gruchy, 21, has been using them since she was 15. She still uses them twice a week for about 15 minutes a session and works full time at The Tanning Escape in Toronto's Beaches area. De Gruchy maintains a base tan year round, but varies the shade according to the season, tanning darker in the summer.

"In our climate, there are stretches of months where I can't recall the last time I felt the sun on my face," she says. "When I'm tanning, even though it's for a short period of time, for those 10 to 15 minutes it's relaxing, I'm warm.

"When you get out, you do feel rejuvenated, you do feel better,"

Now researchers suspect some people get addicted to that feeling, a compulsion that has been dubbed "tanorexia."

"The biology of it really is very interesting," says Dr. Sam Feldman, who teaches dermatology, pathology and health sciences at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"When ultraviolet light hits skin, it somehow signals the brain to feel good, to feel relaxed. Some people have theorized, me among them, that it's an endorphin hit."

In one of Feldman's studies, frequent tanners had symptoms akin to narcotics withdrawal when endorphins were blocked, "as though they were addicted to light."

Tanners often claim a blissfully warm few moments of solitude as the draw, but that's not the case, says Feldman. "It's not the heat, it's not being alone," he says. "It's the ultraviolet light in combination with those things that really gives them the buzz."

Although de Gruchy laughs at the suggestion she may be addicted to indoor tanning – "on my list of priorities, it doesn't trump food" – she agrees she may be getting a hit of feel-good endorphins.

"But that, I don't think, is a negative thing. I do not believe that all tanners are addicted to this endorphin release. I don't crave to do it."

The Canadian Dermatology Association (CDA) wants the use of tanning beds banned for those under 18. This month it launched a campaign called Indoor Tanning is Out, targeted mainly at young women like de Gruchy.

But de Gruchy says she hasn't seen enough evidence linking tanning beds to skin cancer to make her stop. "It just says `studies have shown,' and it is not very specific," she says about the CDA's campaign material, which is available at www.dermatology.ca and includes a public service announcement on YouTube.

In it, five young women reveal their personal battles with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. One is Aimee Van Wynsberghe, from London, Ont., who now sorely regrets the tanning she did in younger years. From age 21, she started using tanning salons to get a base for winter holidays.

"After that, it was a really nice feeling," she says. "You felt healthier. You looked like you had a good workout."

She stopped using tanning beds two years ago, but has spent time outdoors using lotion with a sun protection factor of 10, rather than the minimum recommendation of 30.

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Last year she discovered a mole, which turned out to be cancerous.

"It's just not worth it," she says. "At 28, hopefully I've got a lot more years ahead of me. ... I have to be constantly worrying ... because for five years in my life I wanted to have a tan. A tan! It seems so meaningless now."

Every seven hours a Canadian dies of skin cancer, according to the CDA. The leading cause is too much exposure to UV radiation.

"There are younger women who are being diagnosed with melanoma who have been going to tanning beds," says Dr. Cheryl Rosen, national director of CDA's Sun Awareness Program. She notes that studies show the younger a person is when she starts, the higher the risk.

"Of course it's impossible to know for sure that it was the tanning bed, not the sunshine, but they both have risk factors," Rosen says.

Recently, sunbeds were moved up to the highest cancer risk category by the World Health Organization. Its research shows 70 per cent of those using tanning salons are female, primarily 16 to 29 years old. Indoor tanning before the age of 30 has been associated with a significant increase in melanoma risk.

Taking all cancers found in the 15 to 29 age group, melanoma now represents seven per cent of new cases in young men and 11 per cent in young women. Doctors believe this is attributable to social behaviours, specifically seeking a tan.

"There is a significant amount of value still attached to being tanned in certain cultures," Rosen says.

"It would be nice to de-normalize a tan, like they de-normalized smoking."

bturnbull@thestar.ca