Be Careful Sleeping with the Light On

Scientists find that human body needs dark atmosphere in order to produce chemical substance to fight cancer. Children who sleep with the light on has a risk of suffering leukemia cancer. Even when we turn on toilet light, or we are on traveling, the street lights can stop melatonin production.

Melatonin is a hormone produced by pineal gland. Pinela gland is is a tiny organ in the brain of human beings and most other vertebrates (animals with a backbone). Scientists believe it plays a role in a variety of important body functions, including certain reproductive processes. In most other vertebrates, the pineal gland helps regulate certain daily and seasonal body cycles.

The production of melatonin varies with periods of light and darkness in the environment. It responds directly to light that penetrates the skin. It obtains information about light in the environment by means of nerve pathways originating in the eyes. In general, light slows and darkness stimulates the pineal gland's production of melatonin. Therefore, the gland tends to secrete small amounts of melatonin during the day and large amounts at night. Researchers have long suggested a connection between melatonin levels and certain mental illnesses.

Our body needs a chemical substance to prevent DNA damage. The presence of melatonin will stop fatty acid alter to be a tumor and prevent its develpoment.

Professor Russle Reiter from Texas University who was on the lead at the research said, "When you forget to turn off the light in 1 minute, your brain will assume that the light is on all night and the production of melatonin automatically decreases."

At a conference about Children Suffered Leukemia held in London, there was a statement that people will suffer cancer because they are exposed too long to the light when they are sleeping, comparing with people who does not turn on their light in the night.

The number of children suffered leukemia increases two fold during the last 40 years. At least 500 young people below 15 years of age are diagnosed suffering the disease every year and at least 100 of them are died.

The light in the night between 21.00 pm to 08.00 am will suppress melatonin production below average. Previous research has showed that people who is vulnerable to breast cancer is the night-shift workers.

However, the fact shows that blind man has lower risk of suffering cancer. So it is suggested for parents to use gloomy red or green-light bulb for their children whenever they are afraid of darkness.

Vitamin D may help Curb Cancer

Breast cancer patients with low levels of vitamin D were much more likely to die of the disease or have it spread than patients getting enough of the nutrient, a study found — adding to evidence the "sunshine vitamin" has anti-cancer benefits. The results are sure to renew arguments about whether a little more sunshine is a good thing.

The skin makes vitamin D from ultraviolet light. Too much sunlight can raise the risk of skin cancer, but small amounts — 15 minutes or so a few times a week without sunscreen — may be beneficial, many doctors believe.

While the vitamin is found in certain foods and supplements, most don't contain the best form, D-3, and have only a modest effect on blood levels of the nutrient. That's what matters, the Canadian study found.

Only 24 percent of women in the study had sufficient blood levels of D at the time they were first diagnosed with breast cancer. Those who were deficient were nearly twice as likely to have their cancer recur or spread over the next 10 years, and 73 percent more likely to die of the disease.

"These are pretty big differences," said study leader Dr. Pamela Goodwin of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. "It's the first time that vitamin D has been linked to breast cancer progression."

But people shouldn't start downing supplements, she warned. Experts don't agree on how much vitamin D people need or the best way to get it, and too much can be harmful. They also don't know whether getting more vitamin D can help when someone already has cancer.

"We have no idea whether correcting a vitamin D deficiency will in any way alter these outcomes," said Dr. Julie Gralow, a cancer specialist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The study was released Thursday by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and will be presented at the group's annual meeting later this month.

Lots of earlier research suggests vitamin D may help prevent prostate, breast and especially colon cancer. In lab and animal tests, vitamin D stifles abnormal cell growth, curbs formation of blood vessels that feed tumors and has many other anti-cancer effects.

Other evidence: People who live in northern regions of the world have higher cancer rates than those living closer to the equator, possibly because of less sunshine and vitamin D.

The Canadian researchers wanted to see whether it made a difference in survival. They took blood from 512 women at three University of Toronto hospitals between 1989 and 1995, when the women were first diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.

A decade later, 83 percent of those who had had adequate vitamin D blood levels were alive without extensive spread of their cancer, versus 79 percent of those whose vitamin D levels were insufficient and 69 percent of those who were deficient, as defined by widely used medical standards for measuring intake.

One red flag: The few women with the very highest levels of vitamin D seemed to have worse survival.

Though the study was too small and those results were not conclusive, "there may be an optimal level of vitamin D in women with breast cancer and it may be possible to take too much," Goodwin said.

The federal government says up to 2,000 international units of vitamin D a day seems OK. Taking 800 units per day will, on average, raise blood levels to the middle of the range that seems best for bone and general health, Goodwin said.

Vitamin D is in salmon and other oily fish, and milk is routinely fortified with it, but dietary sources account for little of the amount of D circulating in the blood, experts say.

"It's very hard to make a recommendation" because how much difference a supplement makes depends on someone's baseline level, which also can be affected by sunlight, skin type and time of year, she explained.

Doctors do suggest breast cancer patients get their vitamin D levels checked to see whether they are deficient. The simple blood test is available in many hospitals and labs for about $25, Goodwin said.

Dr. Nancy Davidson, a Johns Hopkins University cancer specialist who is president of the oncology society, said those tests are growing in popularity, even in ordinary medical care.

"Rightly or wrongly, I'm increasingly seeing physicians who are measuring this," she said.

The Canadian study was paid for by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in New York, established by cosmetics magnate Evelyn Lauder.

"It's a very provocative paper. It's confirmatory of a tremendous amount of evidence that vitamin D is an important component of health," said Dr. Larry Norton, chief of breast cancer programs at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and a medical adviser to the foundation.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. About 184,450 cases and 40,930 deaths from the disease are expected in the United States this year.

Article was written by: MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer

Coliform Bacteria in Refill Fresh Water

In Indonesia, there are many companies producing and selling fresh water such as Aqua and VIP as foreign branded and many other local companies such as Aquaria, Adi, etc. They declare taking the water from natural uncontaminated springs in the country.

No one knows that the selling fresh water recently become very popular, due to the opinion that most of soil water and tap water especially in the cities are contaminated with dangerous things.

The popularity of manufactured fresh water or often called mineral water attracts the attention of small local enterpreneurs to run refill fresh water depots. It is because if we buy the refill water from the outlets of the big branded companies, we must pay 200% more expensive.

However, according to a study held by Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), at least there are 16% of Refill Fresh Water depots contaminated with Coliform bacteria.

The study is based from laboratory analysis involved 120 samples from Refill Fresh water depots selected randomly from 10 big cities in Indonesia (Jakarta, Tangerang, Bekasi, Bogor, Cikampek, Medan, Denpasar, Yogyakarta, Semarang and Surabaya).

"The depots which do not fulfill quality standards must improve their production proccess and sanitation quality," said Dr. Suprihatin, a researcher from ITB (Bandung Institue of Technology) in a seminar at Jakarta.

According to Dr. Suprihatin, based on 2 national standard regulations on drinking water quality, i.e Indonesian National Standard (SNI) 01 3553-1996 issued by Departemen Perindustrian dan Perdagangan and regulation no. 907/MENKES/SK/VII/2002 issued by Ministry of Health, drinking water must fulfill requirement of free coliform bacteria.

The Department of Health also hold a survey involving 1200 Drinking Water Depots from some big cities in Indonesia. The survey shows that only 62% of depots have register from Local Government. From 62% of depots, only 54% owns feasibility permit, and from 54% which has feasibility permit, only 37% passes the standard of hygiene and sanitation.

"Only 12% of the depots enters for Hygiene and Sanitation course," said dr. Hening Darpito, director of Water Health and Sanitation of Ministry of Health.

He said that 42% of water samples contains coliform bacteria and 26% of water samples contaminates with coli bacteria of feses. It is afraid that the quality of fresh water which contains bacterias will endanger people's health.

The result of the study is expected to be able to warn The Health Department to be more intense to clamp down on the fresh water depots in Indonesia.

Chocolate is more Powerful Than a Kiss

There is a good news for chocolate lovers. A research held in England mentioned that eating chocolate till melting in the mouth proved to be enable to enhance heart beat and arouse more enthusiasm than kissing.

The conclusion is derived at the end of a research involving 12 aged-20 volunteers. Their hearts were monitored by electronic device and their heads were installed by electrode to measure their heart beats and their brain activities. They were asked to eat a piece of black chocolates until melting away in their mouth without chewing them. After that, they were asked to kiss their spouses.

To tell the truth, the hottest kiss can not compete with stimulation aroused by chocolate when it melts in the mouth. The chocolate taste sends sensor to all part of the brain more intense than sensation brought by a kiss.