By LeAnna J. Carey | Dec 17, 2010
Thoreau said that the “world is but a canvas to the imagination.” When was the last time you used your imagination? When you think about it, using your imagination is free (and freeing), it just requires some spare time. There’s the magic word, time! I would wager that most people do not have sufficient time to reflect, be creative, and come up with breakthrough ideas. Right?
According to Steven Johnson who wrote ‘Where Do Good Ideas Come From’, ideas can linger in the back of our mind for a long time and emerge into view over a period of time. For a snap shot of his book, you can peruse one of his presentations on YouTube.
Let’s take one more step back and examine our time resources if we are planning on reacquainting ourselves with imagination and creativity. As we have mentioned before, our daily schedules and routines affect when, how much and what kind of light we get, food we eat and activities we do, and these same factors shape the peaks and valleys of our energy and capacity for imagination. Figuring out how your body clock works and flows will enhance your ability to take some time for yourself – imagine that!
By LeAnna J. Carey | Dec 03, 2010
Galen wrote 'the physician is only nature’s assistant'; I'm confident that your personal experience or last colonoscopy tells you something differently about the immeasurable value of physicians. But, let's consider the point he or she was actually trying to make. I suspect that Galen was driving home two points: one, consider the influence of nature on your daily health and two, the concept of mastery - that each of us can master most aspects of our own health and wellness. Sounds simple enough, right? Not so easy to execute.
Are you energized with what you have yet to master, or are you content to stay where you are? Consider Daniel Pink's comments in his book, Drive, when he states that researchers have found that the best predictor of success was 'grit' defined as "perseverance and passion for long-term goals." Pink goes on to say that "mastery hurts" and that if the path were lined with daisies more of us would make the trip.
Point taken, so where to begin? Mastering your health begins with understanding and getting in sync with your bodyclock - your daily rhythm, the basics of living in time with your nature. Learn when you need the biggest dose of sun, how to sleep better, and what you need to do to achieve the vitality and performance for optimal wellness...then make it a habit! Remember, habits are your friend or your heaviest burden - if you are committed to mastering your health, you'll need some expertise along the way and we are here for the long haul!
To paraphrase Socrates, “The truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them." That's a downer!
Angela L. Duckworth, Christopher Peterson, Michael D. Matthews, and Dennis R. Kelly, "Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals, 'Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92 (January 2007): 1087
Daniel Pink, Drive (New York:Penguin, 2009)
By Virginia Gurley | Aug 24, 2010
Dawn simulators are intriguing. In case you’re not familiar with them, dawn simulators are lamps that gradually increase in brightness over the course of 20-30 minutes to reach a maximum brightness at the user’s selected wake-up time. People use them alone, or together with an alarm, to help them wake up in the morning.
I’ve read antidotal reports from people who have to get up before sunrise and from people who’s sleeping area doesn’t get early morning light that dawn simulators help them wake up feeling more alert.
In several research studies comparing physiological circadian rhythm markers and self-reported alertness when simulators were and were not used, study participants awoke feeling significantly more alert when a dawn simulator was used. In addition, these studies found dawn simulator use was associated with greater peak cortisol upon awakening, and better synchrony between melatonin decline and wake up time. Both of these physiological effects are likely to contribute to the subjective effect of waking up feeling more alert.
In addition to increasing alertness, the effect of simulator use on melatonin timing strongly suggests exposure to dawn light, just prior to waking, helps keep circadian rhythms synchronized to current sunrise time. In the control condition, when dawn simulators were not used, melatonin tended to decline later each morning resulting in a rhythm delay and desynchronization.
These reports and studies of increased waking alertness are consistent with my personal experience of waking up earlier and more easily when camping and sleeping outside. So, when I first came across these studies, I looked into getting a dawn simulator. I didn’t get one, because at the time all the product reviews I read made them sound poorly designed, junky and/or over priced. Writing this article inspired me to look again at what products are available, and it looks like several new ones have come out since my first search.
Anyone willing to share your personal experience using a dawn simulator (no sales pitches from producers please)? Your thoughts and input are greatly appreciated.
L Thorn, et al., 2004. The effect of dawn simulation on the cortisol response to awakening in healthy participants. Psychoneuroendocrinology 29: 925-930
Danilenko KV, et al., 2000. The Human Circadian Pacemaker Can See by the Dawn's Early Light. Journal of Biological Rhythms 15:437-446
By Virginia Gurley | Aug 10, 2010
Here on the 41st parallel, it’s late August, and the days are noticeably shorter. The daily Ultraviolet Index forecasts I get from the Environmental Protection Agency also reflect the waning of summer as the peak UV levels are starting to decline.
What this means for maximizing the health benefits of sunlight is that I can spend more hours during the morning and late afternoon in direct sunlight without getting potentially damaging levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
Not to minimize the realities of sunlight induced skin damage, but getting some level of UV radiation, especially UVB (wavelengths 280-340 nm), is critical to the health of our bones, and possibly to the health of our immune system, through the production of vitamin D in the skin. Sunscreen blocks UVB and vitamin D production. Because people of color have more melanin in their skin, and melanin reflects UVB, up to 4 times more UVB is needed to produce health sustaining levels of vitamin D than for white people.
Given the growing number of research studies demonstrating vitamin D receptors in many different parts of the brain, we may soon learn that Vitamin D also affects mood and nervous system health.
One of the paradoxes, or yet to be untangled puzzles, of sunlight, UV radiation and health is that low to moderate intensity UV may actually protect against skin cancer if there is a slow, gradual increase in UV levels.
The mechanisms for this emerging potential protective effect of low-moderate intensity UV are several. First there is the simple UV reflective effect of melanin, which increases skin pigmentation, or tanning, in response to gradual increases in UVB. Second, human skin contains all the component parts needed for melatonin synthesis (yes, the same melatonin that helps regulate sleep and circadian rhythms), and laboratory studies have shown that melatonin can inhibit the development of cancerous tumors. The catch is, production of skin-based melatonin seems to require prior, gradual exposure to bioactive (ie low to moderate) levels of UVB radiation.
The pattern I see across these studies is that low to moderate levels of UV radiation from morning and late afternoon sunlight trigger built in mechanisms that help protect against the damaging effects of higher intensity UV radiation. Sunlight is much more damaging when we expose ourselves to sudden, dramatic increases in exposure - like going from being an office mole to a vacationing beach bum in one day, or like spending an entire weekend day in direct summer sun when all your weekdays are spent indoors.
So, here is my approach to maximizing the health benefits of sunlight:
During summer, I try to get as much early morning and late afternoon sunlight as I can.
I use EPA UV Alerts (sent daily to my email and calculated specifically for my geolocation) to be aware of days when UV intensity is going to be high and when UV starts to trend down. Because I think the balance of research shows that moderate intensity (ie bioactive) UVB is beneficial to health, I’m more liberal about my exposure to mid-range UV, but when the UV Index is forecast to be above 7 or 8, I heed their precautions.
When I’m outside during midday in the summer, I stay in the shade as much as possible.
I avoid prolonged direct midday summer sunlight, especially if I haven’t been able to get much morning or late afternoon sun during the prior few days.
If I’m going on a trip during which I’ll be getting a lot more sun exposure, like if I’m going to climb a 14er or going on a sun and sand vacation, I try to increase my sun exposure where I live for a few days before my departure and gradually increase over my sun exposure over several days when I reach at my destination. This is especially important when traveling to the tropics in winter or early spring (wish I could say I’d done that recently).
During winter I use different strategies to balance the hazards and benefits of UV radiation and sunlight, but I’ll save that list for a later post.
If you take medications or have medical conditions that can affect your sensitivity to sunlight, please talk with your personal healthcare professional before increasing your exposure to sunlight.