Pills that claim to tan you from the inside out could lead to blindness and melanoma, doctors warn READ MORE: 'Barbie drug' Aussies are using to get a sunless tan By Maiya Focht Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 12:34 EDT, 26 June 2024 | Updated: 14:55 EDT, 26 June 2024 e-mail 32 View comments In a never-ending battle against pastiness, people roast themselves in the sun, coat their bodies in fake tan and now, they're taking tanning pills. Carter Gottlieb, a PhD candidate at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, who avoids the sun and 'lives like a vampire', said he takes two supplements - astaxanthin and lycopene - to make himself look tan.
After taking the pills for two months, Mr Gottlieb said he began noticing his skin looked sun-kissed. 'It's subtle but people never told me my skin was glowing before and now they do,' he said. But experts caution against these types of pills because the active ingredient in many of them, called canthaxanthin, can damage the liver and accumulate in your retinas, harming your vision, Dr Alexis Young, a dermatologist with Hackensack University Medical Center, said.
Mr Gottlieb, a PhD candidate at Saint Louis University, said he takes a combination of two pigment molecules - lastaxanthin and lycopene- each day in order to give himself a reddish tint, despite never going in the sun. Some of the popular brands being featured on social media include MyTan Bronze Tanning Pills, GlowSci's tanning gummies and GlowMe pop up - costin.
