Warmth and Competence

Holidays are good for your health - if they warm your heart and your home. 

Exactly one year ago, on Dec. 31 2020, China first alerted the WHO of "viral pneumonia". Next day authorities shut the infamous wet market in Wuhan, and the rest is history. 

Today many will enjoy parental warmth remotely. Those least lucky will do it only in their hearts, remembering the good times. We have a lot to be grateful for to our parents. Beautiful childhood memories is one of those things.  

Scientific research shows that childhood parental warmth improves health, reducing the risk of having a cardiovascular problem and mortality by age 63. via our resting heart rate.  High-frequency heart rate variability (HFHRV), measured during the longitudinal study of over 1K US participants titled “Midlife in the United States”, significantly correlated with parenting scores such that warmer parenting predicted higher HF-HRV. This measure relates to the strength of Autonomic Nervous System and cardiovascular health. 

Another large study (over 1K young individuals in China), part of an even larger project that included extensive measures of executive function, decision making, memory, personality, and wellbeing, explored the whole genome to identify genetics mediating the effect of parental warmth on professional competence. Thee genes responsible were components of electrical circuitry in the human brain fine tuned by parental warmth to improve our ability to make decisions. 

But enough of science and the art. Let today be a new beginning.

Be happy, be warm, be successful. 

REFERENCES 

Alen NV, Sloan RP, Seeman TE, Hostinar CE. Childhood parental warmth and heart rate variability in midlife: Implications for health. Personal Relationships. 2020 Sep;27(3):506-25.

Chen C, Chen C, Xue G, Dong Q, Zhao L, Zhang S. Parental warmth interacts with several genes to affect executive function components: a genome-wide environment interaction study. BMC genetics. 2020 Dec;21(1):1-1.

The Hazards of Working Nights: for breasts and beyond

The jury is still out whether Angelina's choice is brave or fearful, but the fact remains: having or not having the "bad" genes is not enough to develop or avoid developing breast cancer. As a matter of fact, only 5% to 10% of breast cancer cases result directly from inherited gene defects. Check it yourself, by using this decision tool developed in Stanford.  Even though for members of some families with BRCA mutations the risk may be as high as 80%, this could be because of environmental exposures and behavioral habits "running in the family". What are they?

Among the controllable risk factors are hormone therapy, birth control pills, drugs (like DES discontinued in the 70s), the use of alcohol (if 2 or more drinks per day), heavy smoking since early age, gaining weight after menopause, exercising less than 1-2 hours per week,  certain cosmetics and personal care products, pesticides (such as DDE), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and other environmental exposures.


One of such exposures is working at night. And Kristan Aronson's team from Queen's University showed that the risk is not limited to nurses, as in most previous studies.


The study examined over 1000 breast cancer cases vs about the same number of healthy cases, matched by age in Vancouver, British Columbia and Kingston, Ontario.  It found that breast cancer risk was twice higher with 30-plus years of night-shift work versus people that did not have night-shift jobs. The risk is more than three times higher for those working at nights in the health care field. But people working at nights or having rotating schedules for shorter duration of time seem to be unaffected.

Why would staying awake after dark for many years be hazardous to health? Perhaps because of the lack of Melatonin. This hormone is produced naturally by our brains when lights go out, to make us less alert and prepare us for sleep. The more daylight exposure versus night time darkness, the better. Melatonin might help the body in many different ways - for example, by downregulating some of the hormones influencing tumor growth or by exhibiting anti-oxidant and immuno-enhancing properties.
Night shifts are also associated with increased stress and a plethora of health conditions as seen from the number of sick leaves people take, periodontal index (measure of oral health), glucose tolerance, number of heart attacks and strokes, cases of IBS and internal cancers. Actually, night time work was shown to increase the risk of cancers even more than exposure to exhaust fumes.

But this is all statistics. Individual cases can certainly break the mold. Yet, it's summer, so let's make the most of natural light.

REFERENCES

Grundy A, Richardson H, Burstyn I, Lohrisch C, Sengupta SK, Lai AS, Lee D, Spinelli JJ, & Aronson KJ (2013). Increased risk of breast cancer associated with long-term shift work in Canada. Occupational and environmental medicine PMID: 23817841

Hansen J, Lassen CF Nested case-control study of night shift work and breast cancer risk among women in the Danish military Occup Environ Med 2012; DOI: 10.1136/oemed-2011-100240.

M S Wolff and A Weston. Breast cancer risk and environmental exposures. Environ Health Perspect. 1997 June; 105(Suppl 4): 891–896. PMCID: PMC1470027

Madigan MP, Ziegler RG, Benichou J, Byrne C, Hoover RN. Proportion of breast cancer cases in the United States explained by well-established risk factors. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1995 Nov 15;87(22):1681–1685.

Hello Summertime!.. Owls Beware

Environment can significantly affect human health. And the risks are not limited to air pollution, seasonal allergies, tainted water or chemicals in food. Our life dramas are set against the backdrop of world events that contribute to environmental health too, to a lesser or greater extent.

How does springing clocks forward affect our lives?

Hopefully, not much financially. Despite earlier predictions that average stock market returns are likely to be lower on Mondays following time changes (Kamstra et al, 2000), unbiased modeling techniques in later studies proposed that markets are not really influenced by this event (Berument et al., 2010). So we can all sleep sound tonight.

Daylight savings time (DST) will make some of us a little bit more active. By about 2%, as measured by scientists in  Indiana (Holmes et al., 2009). It will lead to a 3% drop in crime, as estimated by the Home Office in UK. So we have something to look forward to.

Still, as we are going to loose 1 hour of sleep, would it not affect our mood, our attention and the ability to work productively? Would it increase the probability of being involved in health-related catastrophes? What about traffic accidents? Some studies suggest they will increase (by 8-17% according to Stanley Coren), while others say there will be no impact or even less accidents during DST transition (if 1 day or week before is compared to 1 day/week after, see articles by Ferguson, Coate, Lahti). The results about occupational accidents and hospitalizations are also inconsistent (Janszky, Lahti).

But there was one result that scientific studies from all over the world had in common:  the impact of DST transition was different on larks and owls. And night owls were the ones that suffered the most, during spring transitions - in Finland, Germany, Korea, Russia and everywhere else.

So let's enjoy the extra hour of sunshine. And if you are a morning lark, bear with the sleepiness of night owls  - they'll need more time to adjust.

Aurametrix is an advanced analysis tool that correlates our symptoms, reactions and feelings with  environmental factors such as weather, air, pollen and time transitions.

REFERENCES

Janszky, I., Ahnve, S., Ljung, R., Mukamal, K., Gautam, S., Wallentin, L., & Stenestrand, U. (2012). Daylight saving time shifts and incidence of acute myocardial infarction – Swedish Register of Information and Knowledge About Swedish Heart Intensive Care Admissions (RIKS-HIA) Sleep Medicine, 13 (3), 237-242 DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2011.07.019

Lahti T, Sysi-Aho J, Haukka J, Partonen T.  Work-related accidents and daylight saving time in Finland.  Occup Med (Lond). 2011 Jan;61(1):26-8.

Morassaei S, Smith PM. Switching to Daylight Saving Time and work injuries in Ontario, Canada: 1993-2007.  Occup Environ Med. 2010 Dec;67(12):878-80. Epub 2010 Sep 30.

Lahti T, Sysi-Aho J, Haukka J, Partonen T.  Work-related accidents and daylight saving time in Finland. Occup Med (Lond). 2011 Jan;61(1):26-8. Epub 2010 Nov 15.

Lahti T, Nysten E, Haukka J, Sulander P, Partonen T. Daylight saving time transitions and road traffic accidents.  J Environ Public Health. 2010;2010:657167.

Lahti TA, Haukka J, Lönnqvist J, Partonen T. Daylight saving time transitions and hospital treatments due to accidents or manic episodes. BMC Public Health. 2008 Feb 26;8:74.

Lahti TA, Leppämäki S, Lönnqvist J, Partonen T. Transitions into and out of daylight saving time compromise sleep and the rest-activity cycles.  BMC Physiol. 2008 Feb 12;8:3.

Lahti TA, Haukka J, Lönnqvist J, Partonen T. Daylight saving time transitions and hospital treatments due to accidents or manic episodes. BMC Public Health. 2008 Feb 26;8:74.

Lim, S., Park, Y., Yang, K., & Kwon, H. (2010). Effects of Daylight Saving Time on Health Journal of Korean Medical Association, 53 (2) DOI: 10.5124/jkma.2010.53.2.155

Berument MH, Dogan N, Onar B. Effects of daylight savings time changes on stock market volatility. Psychol Rep. 2010 Apr;106(2):632-40.

Kamstra M.J., Lisa A. Kramer L.A., and Levi M.D.. The American Economic Review. Vol. 90, No. 4 (Sep., 2000), pp. 1005-1011

Holmes AM, Lindsey G, Qiu C. Ambient air conditions and variation in urban trail use.
J Urban Health. 2009 November; 86(6): 839–849.

Lofthouse N, Fristad M, Splaingard M, Kelleher K, Hayes J, Resko S. Web survey of sleep problems associated with early-onset bipolar spectrum disorders. J Pediatr Psychol. 2008 May;33(4):349-57. Epub 2008 Jan 11.

Varughese J, Allen RP. Fatal accidents following changes in daylight savings time: the American experience.
Sleep Med. 2001 Jan;2(1):31-36.

Lambe M, Cummings P. The shift to and from daylight savings time and motor vehicle crashes.
Accid Anal Prev. 2000 Jul;32(4):609-11.

Vincent A. Effects of daylight savings time on collision rates. N Engl J Med. 1998 Oct 15;339(16):1167-8.

Hicks GJ, Davis JW, Hicks RA. Fatal alcohol-related traffic crashes increase subsequent to changes to and from daylight savings time. Percept Mot Skills. 1998 Jun;86(3 Pt 1):879-82.

Coren S. Accidental death and the shift to daylight savings time. Percept Mot Skills. 1996 Dec;83(3 Pt 1):921-2.

Coren S. Daylight savings time and traffic accidents. N Engl J Med. 1996 Apr 4;334(14):924.

Ferguson SA, Preusser DF, Lund AK, Zador PL, Ulmer RG. Daylight saving time and motor vehicle crashes: the reduction in pedestrian and vehicle occupant fatalities. American Journal of Public Health. 1995;85(1):92–95.

Coren S. Daylight savings time and traffic accidents. New England Journal of Medicine. 1996;334(14):p. 924.

Coren S. Accidental death and the shift to daylight savings time. Perceptual and Motor Skills. 1996;85(3):921–922.

Coate D, Markowitz S. The effects of daylight and daylight saving time on US pedestrian fatalities and motor vehicle occupant fatalities. Accident Analysis and Prevention. 2004;36(3):351–357.

Kantermann T., Juda M., Merrow M. The human circadian clock's seasonal adjustment is disrupted by daylight saving time - Current Biology, 2007

Schneider, A., & Randler, C. (2009). Daytime sleepiness during transition into daylight saving time in adolescents: Are owls higher at risk? Sleep Medicine, 10 (9), 1047-1050 DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2008.08.009