I discovered that tanning helped my KP when I was 18. I tanned 20 minutes per day at least 5 days per week for 5 or 6 years and my KP cleared up - not completely, but a significant amount. It's my theory that the redness is less noticeable against a darker skin tone, but I can't explain why the bumps lessen. My arms are very smooth when tanning... I'm now 29 and my face is definitely starting to show early signs of aging - so much so that I swore off tanning beds for the past year. I'm thinking about returning once a week to get some of the effects, but every time I look in a mirror, I change my mind again. I now consider myself a reformed tanning junkie, after realizing that it just wasn't worth it - not in such huge amounts, anyway.

I tried tingle lotion and it felt like someone was burning my skin! The only thing worse was the tanning lotion that "heats up" when applied - painful!

What an intelligent last two posts, very helpful (being sarcastic here!!!) especially the last one - but it makes me think atleast we don't have STD's on top of our KP haha.
If we ignore them hopefully they will realise how absolutely useless & fruitless this style of marketing is...

Can anyone do something about these annoying advertisers???

has anyone got one of those small home tanning machines? u can get them just to tan ur face or something, i was wondering if UV light could be targeted to specific parts of the body.. such as the back of the arms.. it would reduce the risk of cancer and mite be able to be adapted specially to treat this condition. I remember reading something about UV light being very effective for coldsores and they made it into a pen shaped wond to treat the specific area... what do you think? i think The UV light helps my skin alot, and the browning covers the red dots, do you thing it has something to do with the light killing the cells... does the keratin not proliferate in cells when they die or something, do you think it has to do with cell turnover? any scientists out there who wanna explain any of this? add thoughts?

Just to let you know....
I have KP on my face and when i am tan it blends into my skin tone. Also, my upper arms are really red and have bumps all over, when i tan (usually in a tanning salon) this helps dramatically! But, i don't think it's a cure, unfortunatley.

I used to work as a lifeguard, and I did notice that, while working there, my KP really subsided dramatically. I wasn't sure if it was because of all the chlorine, all the swimming, or the constant application of sunscreen (with moisturizer), or the constant exposure to the sun 8 hours a day, but my skin was extremely smooth during that period of my life. Maybe it was a combination of all of the above?

Only problem is, my family is Scandinavian, so I pretty much burned every other day. And I hated that job. The kids were all annoying little punks that refused to listen to authority. And nobody knew how to swim. NOBODY! I don't know if knowing how to swim is a culturally-Scandinavian thing or what, but in my family everybody learned to swim quite well by at oldest age 4. Seriously I would rather deal with my KP than go back to work at that awful place. And, also, I'm not so huge on the skin cancer idea. But it certainly did reduce my KP!

(Sorry about the rant, it's just that the memories of that stupid job still haunt me!)

although i don't tan--too many people in my life have had malignant melanomas removed (!!)--i do find that when i'm out on the beach in the summer, my kp improves a lot. i DO apply super duper spf sunscreen, but i still tan with it on, and i think it helps.

Can we get the ads off of this website please?

I have fairly sensitive, pale skin and KP (red and sometimes almost purple and bumpy) on my arms, forearms, thigns and calves. I was at a friends house for dinner last summer and I sat in low, low sun for an hour or so - about enough time for the sun to set. The next day I had a tan/sunburn on one side of my upper arm. I noticed all throughout the rest of the summer that some of the redness had decreased, as well as the number of bumps. They weren't completely gone but there was a definite decrease.

I try hard to stay away from too much sun, because as you can see I tan/burn very easily. I wear sunscreen and try and stay in the shade. I haven't tried tanning my KP away since then because I want to find another way to get rid of it, but there you have it. Some of the bumps returned during the winter months but not all.

Hey Everyone,
I just joined the site and i was diagnosesd with kp around a year ago. It's odd because I got my kp when my parents divorced. I gained around 10 pounds (from stress and over eating to deal with the stress i'd imagine) and thats when it all showed up. Before this happened, I was kp free. I have sensative skin..and im pastey white. So,this week i plan on going tanning for the first time. I burn rather easily but im really nervous and I don't want to tan if i don't feel 100% comfortable with it. I would use acid creams,etc. to treat my kp but then again, i guess its summer and i could use a tan so it couldn't hurt, right? I think I will go tanning once a week, every other week? But i was wondering, did anyones kp come back when the tan faded?

I know during the summer my KP improves - usually only when I go away on holidays though since the Irish weather doesn't help it much!! My dermatologist recommended to me to go on sunbeds when I was older to improve it...I'm sure it works but is it worth the risks?

When I was younger (teens to early 30's), my KP would go away in the summer months when I was outdoors. It would always return when I spent more time indoors in the winter.

Now I'm in my early 40's and since I moved to Arizona a few years ago, I hardly spend any time outdoors in the summer, and the winter days are too cold for light shirts. I have KP constantly now. I use Curel lotion on my upper arms, which have it the worst, and it softens them nicely, but you can obviously still see it. I won't go into tanning beds anymore because I've spent too much time in the sun and in beds the last few decades of my life. I guess I can put up with it. My KP seems to have gotten worse as I get older, though.

Snert

Snert,

You may want to try being out in the sun for 5 minutes, 3 to 5 times a week. For many people, sun exposure helps lessen KP, though it doesn't get rid of it completely. You will also get adequate amounts of Vit. D.

kebod