There is one rule in the bedroom – no televisions, laptops or mobile phones. They are well known for interrupting your sleep patterns. Teenagers are especially sensitive to light. The glare from tablets and smartphones could be keeping them awake at night.
Boys and girls aged nine to 15, who are in the early stages of puberty, are more sensitive to light than older teens. This means that even just an hour of night-time exposure to screen glare can affect the levels of the hormone melatonin, which controls the wake/sleep cycle and the ability to get a proper night’s sleep. The brightness of the light suppresses the melatonin.
American and Australian researchers tested the effects of light in 38 adolescents in their early teens. They discovered that dim ‘mood’ lighting suppressed melatonin levels by nine per cent, normal room lighting suppressed it by 26 per cent and bright ‘supermarket’ lights brought levels down by 37 per cent.
Even a small amount of light, such as from a tablet or smartphone screen, was enough to affect sleep, say the researchers. The same can also be said about the glare of television and computer screens. (J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., 2015).
The advice to younger adolescents is to avoid being exposed to any screen glare for at least an hour before bedtime – that might be a bit much to ask.
Acupuncture can help our health in many ways, and not only for pain. It seems that it can help women overcome episodes of hot flushes, which usually happen during menopause. The ancient Chinese therapy reduces some of the worst symptoms, such as sudden flushing, sweating and a racing heartbeat, one study has found.
The therapy might even be the only way to help women with breast cancer cope with flushes following oestrogen targeted treatments, as these women cannot take HRT, which will interfere with their cancer treatments.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania tested acupuncture on 120 breast cancer survivors suffering from multiple episodes of hot flushes every day. They were broken up into four groups. For an eight-week period some were given either the epilepsy drug gabapentin, which has shown some success in treating hot flushes, a placebo drug or electro acupuncture twice a week for two weeks, then once a week, or ‘sham’ acupuncture, where no electrical pulse was delivered at non-acupoints.
Those who were given the true acupuncture experienced the greatest improvement in frequency and severity of their flushes, and both acupuncture groups reported fewer side effects than the drug group. Those given true acupuncture also reported a 25 per cent greater reduction in symptoms than the sham group.
Acupuncture can help our health in many ways, and not only for pain
Interestingly, both the fake electro acupuncture and the placebo pills were more effective than the drug. (J. Clin. Oncol., 2015).
In another test including acupuncture it seems that it is better than drugs at significantly lowering blood pressure in people who suffer from high blood pressure. It was also found that the effects last beyond the treatment sessions.
This suggests that ancient Chinese therapy can also lower the risk of stroke, peripheral artery disease, heart failure and heart attack.
According to researchers from the Susan Samueli Centre for Integrative Medicine in Irvine, California, acupuncture has been scientifically proven to reduce blood pressure levels in people with mild to moderate hypertension.
During the tests, 65 hypertensive patients who were not taking antihypertensive drugs were tested. They were all given electro acupuncture, 33 of whom were treated at points around four and six centimetres up from the inner wrists and about six and 12 centimetres below each knee. These areas are considered ‘right’ acupoints for treating high blood pressure. The other (control) group of 32 patients received electro acupuncture at the ‘wrong’ points on the body.
Following eight weeks of weekly sessions, around 70 per cent of those given the genuine acupuncture experienced significant decreases in blood pressure levels, with an average 6-8mmHg fall in systolic pressure and 4mmHg in diastolic pressure.
It also lowered blood levels of norepinephrine. This is a stress hormone that can constrict blood vessels and raise both blood pressure and glucose levels.
These improvements persisted for four weeks after the treatment ended. No improvement in blood pressure readings were found in the control group (Medical Acupuncture, 2015).
Finally, drinking 500 ml of water before your main meals can help you to lose weight. It can supercharge your diet and give you an added advantage in shedding the pounds. If you drink 500ml half an hour before every meal, every day, you could lose up to an extra 17 kilos over a year. That is assuming you rigidly follow the regime and that you are already obese with a lot of weight to lose. This has been tested on a group of 84 obese people, 41 of whom were told to drink water before sitting down to a meal. The rest were asked to imagine they had a full stomach before eating.
Not everyone in the group followed the guidance correctly. However, those who did lost an impressive 4.3kg over three months. The average loss was 1.3 kg (Obesity, 2015).
kathryn@maltanet.net