New Zealand Listener - October 13, 2018

OCTOBER 13 2018 LISTENER 35

NUTRITION

Black-and-white

thinking is not the

way to reform your

eating habits

36

FOOD

A flowery and herby

makeover for the

classic meat and

three veg

38

SPORT

Tiger Woods

makes a brilliant

return to the

winner’s circle

44

how early you are,” says Vetter. “Light is the first

thing. It is the most powerful signal to our circa-

dian clock, so shifting your light exposure profile

will help you shift your bedtime.”

Her advice is to take opportunities to be in natu-

ral light during the day by, for example, walking

to work and going outside at lunchtime. Then, at

night, dim the lights.

Also, limit screen time before sleeping. The light

from electronic devices has been shown to delay

the body clock, particularly when people have had

little light exposure during the day.

Children are especially sensitive to light – their

eyes let in more of it. So even short exposure

to bright light at bedtime will suppress the

Become an earlier

riser by advancing

the alarm clock a

little over a period

of several weeks.

BONE OF CONTENTION

Breaking a bone causes loss of

bone density throughout the

body, not just close to the site of

fracture, according to two new

studies from the University of

California, Davis. Post-fracture

inflammation is thought to be

the cause and researchers believe

this systemic bone loss may be a

reason one fracture often leads to

another.

DEMENTIA DISCOVERY

An advance has been made in

the fight against Alzheimer’s

disease. Academics at the

University of Cambridge and at

Lund University in Sweden have

devised the first strategy to target

the pathogens (small clumps of

proteins known as oligomers)

that have been identified as the

cause of the disease, leading to

hope that new drugs could be

developed to treat it.

WORKOUTS HELP BRAIN

Even the lightest of workouts can

improve your memory, say US

scientists. They used functional

magnetic resonance imaging to

examine the brains of 36 healthy

young adults and found that

just 10 minutes of mild exer-

tion yielded cognitive benefits,

immediately increasing connec-

tivity in areas of the brain linked

to memory processing. The team

now plans to extend this research

by testing older adults.

HEALTH BRIEFS

GETTY IMAGES

sleep-promoting hormone melatonin

and turn kids into night owls, which

might have implications for their

health later on.

O

ur chronotype tends to alter as

we age – adolescents typically

become later, and then earlier

again as they mature. Gender also

plays a role; on average, women are

earlier than men.

US clinical psychologist Michael

Breus, author of The Power of When,

has identified four distinct chrono-

types. He says dolphins are naturally

light sleepers and tend to wake easily.

Lions wake early. Wolves stay up later.

Bears are in the middle of the spec-

trum. Breus advocates working with

your chronotype for better sleep at

night and more energy during the day.

Dramatically working against

your biological clock will affect your

health over time, altering glucose

metabolism and the immune system.

Shift workers are one of Vetter’s major

research areas and she is interested in

how we can design their schedules

with individual-level strategies to

help them stay well.

As for those shut indoors working

for hours every day, light designers are

becoming increasingly aware of the

effect on well-being and are develop-

ing ways to improve things, making

indoor light mimic the outdoors.

“Light changes through-

out the day and across

the seasons in colour and

intensity,” says Vetter.

“Now there are more and

more systems that bring us

closer to that.” l