This paper (published in 2006) was one of the early articles that started to explore the relationship between industrialisation – specifically our ability to have light after sundown – and our health.

In summary this paper finds (in its typically science-rich language):  “maintenance of a solar day-aligned circadian rhythm in endogenous melatonin and in clock gene expression by exposure to a bright day and a dark night, may be a worthy goal.”

In short, get up when the sun gets up – stay in light during the day.  Then dim the lights after sundown.

If you don’t have access to good quality daylight during the day, we recommend using a full-spectrum light. We, or any of our partners worldwide, would happy to help you choose the right bulb for you. Shop now or ask a question

Related posts:

1. What is the relationship between sunlight and breast cancer?
2. Why is circadian disruption relevant?
3. Sun helps to battle skin cancer?

Around the world different people are talking about how they use full-spectrum lighting in their day-to-day lives.  We feature some of the best here.

WORK BETTER
Lampara UVSetting Up Your Office For “Health”
By simply replacing your antiquated fluorescent tubes with full-spectrum tubes, you can instantly enhance your environment and your well-being! Full spectrum lighting emits a natural, balanced spectrum of light that is the closest you …

HEALTH
Five natural ways to beat the winter blues | Green Earth Awareness
Full-spectrum lights have a color temperature greater than 5000K and a CRI of over 90 — whether or not they’re labeled as “full-spectrum” depends on the manufacturer. Read all about full-spectrum lights and other green lighting options …

Treat Winter Blues With Feng Shui | Human Condition
·Full spectrum lighting for your indoor environment: Research has shown that native Alaskans suffer less from SAD than people in the lower 48 states – even though they have less light in winter – because they spend more time outdoors. …

Nighttime Light and Cancer | Personal Care Truth or Scare
Get enough sleep to wake fully refreshed; Increase your exposure to natural sunlight or use a full-spectrum light box. (Morning exposure is best); Decrease exposure to bright light at night (Use red or yellow light, which appear to …

“Lights, Camera, Action” 3 Keys To Busting The Winter Blues | real …
Use full-spectrum lighting in your home and your office. I often recommend that clients replace the fluorescent lights at work with full-spectrum bulbs whenever possible. I used to get migraines almost every year starting in early …

Effexor – Feeling Good-What Emotional Intelligence Is All About
However full-spectrum light used in the poultry industry causes chickens to live twice as long, be calmer and less aggressive, and produce eggs 25% lower in cholesterol. Apparently, even human cholesterol levels drop when people are …

HEALTH -EYECARE
Intense Humours: 5 Tips for Healthy Vision..
While dim lighting may not harm eyes, it can cause temporary eyestrain. When you do use artificial illumination, use full-spectrum light bulbs, which mimic natural light. 2.Keep your computer screen clean, at or below eye level, …

PLANT CARE
The 4 Vital Ingredients For Thriving Corals « Saltwater Aquarium …
Mimicking the tropical suns rays is a must for healthy photosynthesizing corals, having a regular 10-12 hour rhythm with a dawn and dust period (actinic light only) are ideal. Also using full spectrum bulbs with the right colour …

Adam Weekley » Caring for your household Bonsai Tree correctly is …
Household bonsai trees must have 2 to four hours of natural or artificial sun light. For bonsai, full spectrum flourescents could offer the essential light levels but the tree wants to be located in close proximity to the light. …

Home And Family » Seven Tips For Your Windowsill Herb Garden
If you still feel that the sunlight is inadequate, you can either use a fluorescent light or a full-spectrum grow light. Containers Herbs can be grown in plastic, clay or terracotta containers or even in herb wheels. …

Related posts:

1. Full-Spectrum Light (issue 12)
2. Full-spectrum lighting (issue 9)
3. Full-spectrum Light (issue 14)

University of Geneva scientists, working with others from England and Belgium, participated in a study that shows how the brain affects emotions in response to different kinds of light. Sophie Schwartz, from the university’s centre for neuroscience, tells Swisster about the significance of the research, which further explains seasonal affective disorder and why bright days can lift our spirits.

With winter drawing on and days getting shorter, many people who usually have normal mental health suffer from depression due to lack of sunlight, particularly in places where grey skies predominate at this time of year.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a well-known phenomenon, one that disappears on bright days when the sunshine returns, thanks to changes in the brain that have not been well understood – until now.

Researchers at the University of Geneva have concluded a study that shows how the brain responds to blue light, a part of the light spectrum that is often in short supply in the winter, particularly in northern Europe.

The research found that “blue light found in daylight has an immediate effect on the way our brain affects our emotions,” Sophie Shwartz, a neuroscientist from the university, told Swisster.

Such ambient blue light “activates a visual pathway in the brain that is not actually used for vision but for synchronizing all sorts of biological functions such as hormonal secretions and sleep-wake cycles”, Schwartz said.

“This is like a first step in the neural basis for understanding the effect of light on the brain,” she said.

The article covering this research can be found here and an abstract of the scientific article can be found here.

Related posts:

1. Snippet: UVB Radiation Affects …
2. Full-Spectrum Light (issue 12)
3. Is where you live making you SAD?

But have you ever wondered why plants respond so well to full-spectrum light?

The answer lies in a plants anatomy – a part of the plant, called the “stoma” controls the inflow of carbon dioxide and the outflow of oxygen.  This allows photosynthesis to take place.

Scientists studied plants that were given full-spectrum light and others that were given only a portion of the light spectrum.  Those that were given the full-spectrum had greater levels of transpiration (carbon dioxide/oxygen flow) and so great ability to photosynthesize.

The full article can be found here.

The conclusions seem to be allow your plants to be in natural daylight or if you can’t (eg indoor seedlings or pot-plants) then full-spectrum light bulbs will allow for more vigorous growth.

Previously referenced plantcare links

• Indoor Greenhouse Gardening for Beginners – Home Garden Magazine …
• Do fluorescent light bulbs help plant grow? | Lights For Plants
• Everything On Cheap Greenhouses For Sale | Best Home Improvement Ideas
• Flower Meaning and Care » Blog Archive » The Best Options in …
• Children Grants » Tending to an indoor Bonsai Tree correctly is …
• Common Mistakes Of The New Gardener | Top LED Grow Lights

Related posts:

1. Full-Spectrum Light (issue 11)
2. Full-spectrum lighting (issue 8)
3. Full-Spectrum Light (issue 22)

“Just when we thought we had sun-smart behaviour sussed – moles diligently monitored, shade sails in the playgrounds, beach kit consisting of wide-brimmed hats, oversized sunnies, rash vest for thekids, sunscreen with a multi-digit SPF and  portable sun shade fit for a sheikh – the pendulum appears to be swinging the other way.”

“Reports of emerging research linking vitamin D with a host of potential health benefits have also highlighted its deficiency in a large proportion of our population – including children.  Around 90 per cent of the body’s supply of vitamin D is generated in our skin by direct exposure to sunlight.  ergo, should we ditch the sunscreen and revert to our wayward sun-worshipping ways?

It’s not that simple – of course.

Experts from various disciplines – including atmospheric physicists, dermatologists, epidemiologists, bone-health scientists and nutritionists – all have their own keen interests in the controversial vitamin.  There’s currently no agreement between them about the best approach to treat deficiency.”

The article is a must-read for anyone interested in the emerging research into the value of Vitamin D and how we as human beings should be absorbing it.  This magazine is available at newstands now or online.

More articles on Vitamin D deficiency

• What Do You Lack? Probably Vitamin D (nytimes.com)
• New Study Finds Link Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Dementia (shoppingblog.com)
• Vitamin D Deficiency and Diabetes (diabetes-treatment.suite101.com)
• Does Vitamin D Prevent Breast Cancer? (lifescript.com)

Related posts:

1. Vitamin D Deficiencies At Epidemic Levels
2. Vitamin D and Pneumonia
3. The Sun. What it really does to you.

A New Zealand engineer has invented a “cutting-edge” device to calculate just how much sunshine we need to stay healthy.

It’s exciting to see such research take place as it opens up the possibilities for full-scale research into the manner in which Vitamin D is absorbed by humans.  The article states:

Around half of New Zealand adults have insufficient vitamin D and 4 per cent of women and 2 per cent of men are vitamin D-deficient.

With figures like that it’s more and more important that such investigation takes place.  The full article is available here:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10637754

Related posts:

1. Why are we Vitamin D deficient?
2. Vitamin D and Pneumonia
3. Vitamin D Deficiencies At Epidemic Levels

“This study was designed and executed by an advocate, not a neutral party, and the advocate failed to properly disclose that she is not a neutral party,” said Joseph Levy, vice president of International Smart Tan Network, the educational institute for the North American indoor tanning community. “That conflict of interest clouds some of the irregularities reported in the paper.”

Dr. DeAnn Lazovich, lead author of “Indoor Tanning and Risk of Melanoma: A Case-Control Study in a Highly Exposed Population,” set for publication in the June issue of American Association for Cancer Research, failed to disclose in the paper that she is part of a University of Minnesota group that initiated programs to discourage indoor tanning use three years before designing and engaging in data collection for this study. Those interactions may themselves have tainted subjects and controls used in the study. (http://www.cancer.umn.edu/research/profiles/lazovich.html)

The International Smart Tan Network has revealed that The University of Minnesota group engaged in deceptive practices in 2001 when, using a National Cancer Institute grant, it developed a bogus indoor tanning training program in order to obtain data from indoor tanning facilities for future studies. According to reports, the Minnesota group told salons they were attempting to help operators lower their risks, but the University of Minnesota refers to the same grant on its web site as an effort to reduce indoor tanning usage.
http://www.cancer.umn.edu/research/profiles/lazovich.html

Tanning advocates in New Zealand also see serious flaws in the study. Tiffany Brown of local sunbed business Get Brown Tanning said today, “There is a clear failure here to disclose a major conflict of interest. This really is quite deceptive research. Once again relative risk factors are used instead of absolute risk- a typical scare-mongering technique of the anti-tanning brigade.

‘In suggesting tanners double their risk of melanoma, the authors ignore the more telling figure that the absolute risk of melanoma is quite low for both tanners and non-tanners. The largest study to date shows that both indoor tanners and non-tanners have less than a 0.3 percent risk of contracting melanoma and most studies show no statistically significant difference between the two groups.”

The nature of “relative risk” figures in melanoma data was the topic of an article published by The Association of Health Care Journalists May 7 by Dr. Ivan Oransky, a Reuters Health editor.
http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/05/tanning-beds-what-do-the-numbers-really-mean/

Oransky quotes Dr. Lisa Schwartz, a general internist at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., and co-author of “Know Your Chances,” a book that explains health statistics to consumers.

“Melanoma is pretty rare and almost all the time, the way to make it look scarier is to present the relative change, the 75 percent increase, rather than to point out that it is still really rare,” Schwartz told The Wilmington News Journal’s Hiran Ratnayake, who interviewed Schwartz in a recent story on melanoma and indoor tanning.

On reading the study through, Brown found intriguing the authors’ continual mention of previous evidence of the relationship between melanoma skin cancer and sunbed use as being “weak” and inconsistent. “Why then did reputable scientists and researchers previously report there were strong associations in the research? Particularly, this new study does not confirm the often-commented conclusion made by the IARC report that risk of melanoma sky-rockets when tanning beds are first used under the age of 35.” The authors of the study state “With at least 29 reports to date, past history of indoor tanning has been only weakly associated with melanoma.”

“In fact,” says Brown, “18 of 22 previous studies show no statistically significant association. This new study simply adds to inconsistencies in the total dataset available about any relationship between sunbed use and melanoma skin cancer.”

The International Smart Tan Network point out the study showed individuals who had the most outdoor sun exposure in their lives had a 15 percent lower risk of melanoma when compared to those who had less sun. The paper is actually the latest in a line of studies showing that people who get the most UV exposure outdoors are less likely to contract the disease.

“Despite what the authors in this paper set out to prove, the fact remains that whatever relationship UV exposure has with melanoma is still not understood because paper after paper, including this one, continue to show that people who get more sun exposure have fewer melanomas,” said Dr. William Grant, founder of the independent Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center (SUNARC). Grant, an independent advocate for UV exposure as the natural and intended source of vitamin D, published a peer-reviewed meta-analysis this year showing that indoor tanning is not a risk factor for melanoma in individuals with skin that can tan, with UV-related risk isolated only in the fairest-skinned “Skin Type I” subjects.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/New-Study-by-SUNARC-Shows-Tanning-and-Melanoma-Link-Scientifically-Flawed-1131725.htm

Brown believes tanning operators with excellent standards of care are uniquely positioned to educate the public about all aspects of ultraviolet light exposure as it relates to skin in a practical way. “We teach the basics of how the skin tans and burns to help our sun-loving clients understand why a ‘less is more’ approach is best. We’ve proven that education with regard to possible benefits of moderate UV exposure within the limits of risk-minimizing tanning behaviour actually serves to reduce the incidence of over-exposure and/or erythema (sunburn). And as this new study proves, that is a positive step in improving public health outcomes.”

Speaking for International Smart Tan Network Joe Levy said, “We think the promotion of this study has more to do with justifying a dinosaur mentality about UV light in an era when vitamin D research is proving that decades of overzealous sun avoidance may have skyrocketed SPF sales, but has caused epidemic-level vitamin D deficiency and great confusion in the world’s population.”

Related posts:

1. Sun helps to battle skin cancer?
2. The Sun. What it really does to you.
3. Circadian disruption and breast cancer.

Many interesting topics were exchanged and it was also decided which new full spectrum lighting models and products shall become part of the future Viva-Lite product range. Have a look at the following photo impressions:

For more photo impressions and other pictures, please follow our flickr photo feed…

Related posts:

1. Photo Impressions from the First International Viva Fullspectrum Lighting Conference in Copenhagen
2. Impressions From The Northern Light Fair
3. 4th International Full-Spectrum Light conference

Recent studies reveal that natural light not only brightens your home, but actually boosts your spirits and keeps you healthier.

An Indoor Society

Lifestyles today have changed to the extent that as much as 90 percent of our time is spent indoors, away from natural light. Daniel F. Kripke, a researcher with the University of California San Diego, surveyed adults in San Diego, who wore wrist meters to register the amount of sunlight they received during the day.

The study found that the majority was only exposed to sunlight for less than one hour per day and some did not go outdoors at all during a 48-hour period.

Of course, most of us do not have the luxury of being outdoors as much as we would like. That is why daylighting – techniques which optimize the use of natural light to illuminate interiors – is becoming increasingly popular not only for its ability to dramatically transform a room, but also for its natural healing powers.

Lighten Up: Moods and Light Go Hand in Hand

The power of light to rejuvenate the body and mind – treating everything from lethargy to “winter blahs” to clinical depression – has been suspected for thousands of years, but only recently have scientific studies revealed evidence of the correlation.

One of the largest studies on the use of light to treat clinical depression was published in 1992 in the journal Biological Psychiatry. Dr. Kripke administered light treatment to 25 depressed hospitalized patients at a VA hospital.

Patients who were exposed to natural white light were significantly less depressed than those in artificial light.

An estimated 90 percent of humans suffer from seasonal mood changes during the winter months and up to 10 percent of those suffer from the condition known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, characterized by fatigue, gloom, change in appetite, fitful sleep and despair.

The most effective treatment for these symptoms is, quite naturally, exposure to more light. Studies indicate that the time between sunrise and sundown is the key factor in SAD, rather than the lack of sunny days or cold temperatures.

Natural Lighting Solutions

Bringing natural light indoors is easy and there are a number of options, including

• installing full spectrum lights
• adding windows
• installing skylights

Thanks to beamsuperstore.com for posting this great article!

Related posts:

1. What is the relationship between sunlight and breast cancer?
2. Sun helps to battle skin cancer?
3. More uses for sunlight