Los Angeles Times - 02.11.2019

8 Though it may be too late for this weekend, Avidan says

to ease into the time change — go to bed and wake up 15-30

minutes later in the days preceding, and move mealtimes

later so they’ll be in sync come Monday.

8 Later to bed and later to rise also means more light

exposure when people wake up, which — along with

social cues, like a later dinner — “can have a positive

effect on their circadian patterns,” Avidan said.

8 Avoid caffeine at least six hours before going to

bed, detach from computer, TV and phone screens,

and lay off alcohol, which, instead of knocking you out,

can act as a stimulant and make sleep less restful.

8 Reset all your clocks. True, our phones and other

smart devices will update to standard time auto-

matically, but search your house to make sure you haven’t

overlooked any more-primitive timepieces — the analog clock

hanging on the wall or the digital ones on the stove or cof-

feemaker. And double-check — that device you think is dumb

may have reset itself and outsmarted you into setting it two

hours back. Also, don’t forget the car’s dashboard clock; one

wrong display can throw off your entire schedule. Thankfully,

most people no longer have to contend with that blinking bête

noire, the VCR.

8 Finally, Avidan said to use this extra hour to fix sleep habits now

and establish better patterns that will help in the spring, when daylight

saving begins. “Oftentimes in April, when we lose an hour, of course the

circadian issues are a lot more profound,” he said. For example, single-car

crashes and heart attacks increase during that week. “That’s when people

are vulnerable. This is an opportunity for people to be mindful how easy it is

to transition,” Avidan said. “It’s easier to adapt when you get an extra hour.

Make the change right now.”

Sunday morning, daylight saving

time bestows its final gift, after all those sunlit sum-

mer evenings. We fall back, into an extra hour of

sleep.

“Isn’t that a luxury? But unfortunately, it’s not

lasting,” said Dr. Alon Y. Avidan, director of the

UCLA Sleep Disorders Center. Also, it can

throw off the subsequent sleep schedule of

anyone who already has trouble dozing

off or doesn’t get the necessary seven to

eight hours per night.

Someone already drowsy or irritable

during the day shouldn’t take this as a

license to sleep in or go to bed later, he

said, because they’re only shifting

their poor sleep habits.

Such an abrupt change — even

just an hour — can wreak havoc on

our circadian rhythms, the 24-hour

cycles of living beings that determine sleeping

and feeding patterns, and can be affected by

stimuli including sunlight and temperature.

Avidan and others suggest some tips to follow, so you’re

not tripped up when you fall back:

BYSTEVECARNEY>>>

Fall back — but not into bad sleep habits

Getty Images

GOOGLEsearches in the U.S. for “elderberry” have spiked during the last two cold and flu seasons because of claims that elderberries cut the risk of colds and flu.

Madeleine SteinbachTNS

“Absolutely not. No,” said Dr.
Michael Smit, the medical director
of infection prevention and control
at Children’s Hospital L.A. He said
colleagues have reported parents
asking about elderberry as an al-
ternative treatment for the flu. The
word “remedy” gets thrown
around a lot in conjunction with
“elderberry,” Smit said, but “we
don’t really use ‘remedy’ as a medi-
cal term.”
“As far as the medical establish-
ment goes, there is no acceptable
evidence to date that elderberry is
effective for prevention or treat-
ment of influenza,” Smit said.
But that’s not to say elderberry
products have no place in your
medicine cabinet: “I would say that
there might be some value with el-
derberry products as far as a
soothing aspect for it, just like you
would get from having a glass of
herbal tea.”
Dr. Malcolm Taw, director of the
UCLA Center for East-West Medi-
cine in Westlake Village, says
there’s a reason elderberry concoc-
tions have been cited as cold and
flu fighters in medical history.
“This will not replace the flu
vaccine,” he said. But elderberry
products “have, I’d say a comple-
mentary or adjunctive role.”
In some small-scale studies

conducted in Norway, Australia

and Israel, taking elderberry prod-

ucts has been shown to reduce the

severity and duration of symptoms

of colds and influenza. Of course,

getting a flu shot can also do that,

as can medications like Tamiflu.

Elderberry products and pharma-

ceutical medications have never

been scientifically tested directly

against one another to see which

works better in that regard.

The Center for East-West Medi-

cine, Taw said, integrates the “best

of both worlds,” marrying alterna-

tive and holistic medicine with

Western treatments. When it

comes to the flu, “our recom-

mendation at our center would be

to get the flu vaccine but to use el-

derberry to help manage or miti-

gate the symptoms,” he said.

The rise of home-brew elderber-

ry products is also cause for con-

cern, said Deborah Blum, director

of the Knight Science Journalism

Program at MIT and the author of

two books about poisons. On Twit-

ter, Blum responded to a now-de-

leted tweet from a user who shared

a photo of an email allegedly from a

Columbia professor who had acci-

dentally been poisoned by home-

made elderberry syrup.

“Believe it or not, I have poi-

soned myself,” the email began. “I

am a great believer in natural this

and that, and take tincture of el-

derberry instead of a flu shot.” The

professor relates having at-

tempted to make a syrup at home

out of unripened and uncooked

berries. “It turns out they have cya-

nide.”

Indeed they do, Blum said. Spe-

cifically, elderberries have glyco-

cyanide, which she described as a

kind of cyanide sugar. The seeds of

uncooked elderberries contain this

natural poison as a defense against

predators. Eating an uncooked el-

derberry can lead to nausea,

vomiting and other unpleasant di-

gestive side effects.

If you’re interested in adding el-

derberry to your cold-and-flu-sea-

son repertoire, Blum and Taw rec-

ommend buying commercial prod-

ucts over making it yourself.

But when it comes to prevent-

ing the flu, the best methods are

the ones any doctor will recom-

mend: Wash your hands fre-

quently, especially after coughing.

If you feel sick, stay home. And get

a flu shot.

Before you try elderberry ...

The leaves are changing. The wind comes with a faint chill. The back-to-school sale racks have been replaced by holiday

merchandise. ¶ This can mean only one thing: Another cold and flu season is upon us. ¶ And with it, an onslaught of dubious claims about

products that allegedly cut your risk of coming down with something. Lately, it seems like every single person with some combination of the

words “wellness,” “natural” or “herbal” in their Instagram bio has been touting elderberry products — various tinctures from juices and syrups

to gummies and teas — as a safe, natural way to ward off a cold or the flu. More than 150,000 Instagram posts have been tagged #elderberry or

#elderberrysyrup. Google searches in the U.S. for “elderberry” have spiked during the last two cold and flu seasons. Even some local news-

papers have bought in to the elderberry-as-flu-prevention craze. ¶ So: Is elderberry juice really something that can replace the flu shot?

BYJESSICAROY>>>

ELDERBERRIESgrown at Forcefield Farm in Santa Paula, left, and elderberry extract. If you

try elderberry for treating cold symptoms, experts recommend buying pre-made products.

David Karp, left, Karen Tapia AndersenLos Angeles Times

LATIMES.COM F5

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