What you don't know about lighting can hurt you.
Global warming may still be up for debate. But there's no question that the world's getting brighter—due to the proliferation of both indoor and outdoor lights.
"Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself," writes Verlyn Klinkenborg in a recent National Geographic article. Sleep scientists find that bathing our world in artificial light not only disrupts our body clocks but also disturbs hormone production.
One recent study links higher rates of breast cancer in women with night-time brightness… Continue reading Categories
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Posts Tagged ‘skin’
Shedding a Little Light on Pollution
August 11th, 2010What you don't know about lighting can hurt you.
Global warming may still be up for debate. But there's no question that the world's getting brighter—due to the proliferation of both indoor and outdoor lights.
"Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself," writes Verlyn Klinkenborg in a recent National Geographic article. Sleep scientists find that bathing our world in artificial light not only disrupts our body clocks but also disturbs hormone production.
One recent study links higher rates of breast cancer in women with night-time brightness… Continue reading Is Your Office Making You Sick?
July 14th, 2010
How to heal sick building syndrome.
Sick building syndrome (SBS) and the growing prevalence of WiFi and mobile phones are creating long-term health risks that are much more difficult to define—let alone diagnose. With symptoms ranging from dry cough and eye, nose, skin or throat irritation to dizziness, fatigue, headaches, and nausea caused by biological contaminants (like bacteria and molds), toxins from asbestos, carbon monoxide, cleaning agents, and radiation in the workplace, researchers conclude "more focus is needed on the indoor environment" to prevent SBS.
A study at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California… Continue reading The Truth About Sunscreen
July 9th, 2010
Growing evidence points to possible links between chemicals in these products and skin cancer.
With temperatures rising, it's beach—and sunscreen—season. But do you know what you're slavering on your skin?
In June, Senator Charles Schumer asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to look into recent reports linking retinyl palmitate—commonly used in sunscreen products—with skin cancer. "People are soaking up the sun, and the FDA needs to immediately provide guidance and reassurance to consumers," he says.
The FDA is, indeed, taking its time reviewing sunscreen products—the agency started looking into them 32 years ago, to… Continue reading No Worries, B Happy
July 2nd, 2010
The right vitamins relieve depression and diabetes.
B vitamins, those water-soluble nutrients, have been popping up in the news lately—for good reason. For starters, they're essential to metabolism and help relieve irritability and nervous tension.
New research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition following 3,500 Chicagoans over 65 years of age for 7 years finds that increasing vitamins B-6 and B-12 boost mood. Specifically, every 10 mg increase in B-6 (pyridoxine) and every added 10 mcg of B-12 (cobalamin) decreased depressive symptoms by 2% in this population. "Our results support the hypotheses… Continue reading Canaries in the Coal Mine
June 18th, 2010
Electro-sensitivity may be an early warning of how EMF exposure can harm us all.
"Several years ago, I started having difficulty concentrating in my apartment. But when I went across the street and stayed at a friend's, I felt fine," says Camilla Rees, the founder of ElectromagneticHealth.org. Since there were no mold and chemical problems in her apartment, she was baffled why she felt bad there but not elsewhere.
As her symptoms expanded to blurred vision, dizziness, eye fluttering, fatigue, heart palpitations, skin rashes, "and a deep urge to move my bed to the… Continue reading For Ageless Skin
May 31st, 2010
You're never too young to ensure a glowing complexion.
Even in your 20s, fine lines—the harbinger of wrinkles—may start to appear. But a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that what you eat can combat the photoaging that leads to wrinkles.
Using both food questionnaires and scientific analyses of ultraviolet damage in 2,000 people in Australia, Greece, and Sweden, researchers found that those eating healthy monounsaturated fats from olive oil—along with antioxidant vegetables, especially leafy greens—had the least wrinkling or photoaging. And flavonoids, found in apples and other fruits, were… Continue reading To Combat Skin Cancer, Eat Your Polyphenols
May 17th, 2010
The Mediterranean diet may be as sun protective as applying natural sunscreen.
Time to slather on sunscreen? Over 13 million fair-skinned Americans have had at least one basal or squamous cell skin cancer, finds one Harvard University researcher.
"We don't know exactly what we're dealing with in terms of skin cancers," says dermatologist Suraj Venna, MD, who directs the melanoma center at Washington Hospital Center. "What we do know, for sure, is that there has been a tremendous burst in skin cancer, period." He adds "that UV [ultraviolet] rays are the primary cause," of… Continue reading Top Antiaging Secret: Omega 3s
March 5th, 2010
The right fats can keep you happy and healthy at any age!
Want to live a long, productive life? You need to slow the destruction of telomeres (protective structures on the end of chromosomes) that experts say control the body's biological clock.
A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that increasing your dietary intake of omega 3-rich fats will do just that. In addition, Marine-based omega 3s can improve lung function during and after exercise, which (in itself) is a terrific way to fighting aging. And much… Continue reading
How a Hug Can Protect Your Heart
February 12th, 2010
What you really need for Valentine's Day.
Love does far more than make the world go around. It helps remove plaque from the arteries, boosts the body's immune response, relieves stress, and lengthens life.
Do you have high blood pressure? Close friends and family can lower hypertension. In fact, a new study at Brigham Young University shows that women who are "married with children" have the lowest ambulatory blood pressure of any group.
Family and close social networks are critical to mental health, an underlying factor in heart disease… Continue reading D Defends Against Colon Cancer
January 27th, 2010Detox is also important to remove disease-causing toxins.
Got enough vitamin D? Research increasingly points out that all age groups—77% of Americans—are low in this "sunshine" vitamin.
A new study at the University of Hawaii finds vitamin D lowers the risk for colorectal cancer in a variety of ethnic groups. "There is now quite a lot of evidence from studying populations that people who have low levels of vitamin D are more likely to develop bowel cancer," adds Dr. Panagiota Mitrou, science program manager for the World Cancer Research Fund.
In the biggest study yet… Continue reading 
Visionary, health guru, diet/detox expert, author, spokesperson, role model, and natural foods icon, Ann Louise Gittleman has always been a trendsetter. 
