Posted on 09/09/2004 11:43:41 PM PDT by ETERNAL WARMING
Sleeping with the light on 'raises child leukaemia' By Nic Fleming (Filed: 09/09/2004)
Children should not be allowed to sleep with the light on because it inhibits the production of a hormone that protects them from cancer, a scientist said yesterday.
Increased exposure to unnatural night-time light and the resultant reduced capacity to produce melatonin may be one of the reasons for the steady rise in childhood leukaemia over the past century.
Babies up to the age of four or five months are believed to be particularly vulnerable because their bodies do not produce enough melatonin.
Prof Russel Reiter, of the University of Texas, urged parents to use low-intensity lighting if their children have to get up during the night.
Previous research suggests that night workers are more at risk of developing breast and other cancers. Blind people and those who live in the Arctic Circle often have higher melatonin levels and have lower cancer rates.
Prof Reiter, who presented a paper to a childhood leukaemia conference in London, said: "Parents should be prudent about the use of light at night. Once children have gone to bed they should not be permitted to use a light without good reason."
The number of children under five diagnosed with leukaemia has increased by 50 per cent in the past 40 years, statistics published this week showed.
Researchers also suggested that there had been a seven-fold increase in the disease in the same age group during the 20th century, although these data are less reliable because of changes to diagnosis and counting methods.
About 500 children under the age of 15 are diagnosed with leukaemia - cancer of the blood - in Britain every year and around 100 die of it.
Prof Reiter said: "At present we have a lot of indirect evidence but we do not have the proof. Our task is to see if we can find that proof."
Russell Foster, a molecular neuroscientist at Imperial College London, said: "We do not know whether abnormal light exposure is generating this higher incidence of childhood leukaemia but in view of what we know about other forms of cancer this is not unreasonable."
The Children with Leukaemia charity, which organised the conference, has launched a £1 million appeal fund for research aimed at furthering the understanding of the causes of the disease.
6 September 2004: 'Fivefold increase' in child leukaemia 31 March 2004: Radiation rules made stricter 'as precaution'
Everything causes cancer in white mice.
Details at 11:00.
This just in......
LIVING IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH!!!!
Later, we will discuss why this is all Bush's fault.
I agree. I wonder if there are higher rates of leukemia in Alaska. I lived there as a child and I remember that there was a good month out of the year that I fought with my mother to let me stay up later. "But it's not dark yet!" The sun would go down (a nice sunset) then it would pop back up again. I hated it.
Not an expert, but it is my understanding that melatonin is a harmone that allows one to enter and to remain in a deep sleep state. Seems to me that, if one cannot enter this deep sleep state, then ones immune system might become impaired, which would explain the rise in incidences of leukemia and other forms of cancer. So, I can see how the researchers are arriving at this. However, don't be surprised if this study extends its findings to other things -- like listening to music while asleep. I know from personal experience that I cannot enter a state of deep sleep if I've left the radio on.
Very interesting.
And diet pepsi makes people fat. Just look at the people who drink it.
This is definitely not about "night lights" but about full-power lights, regular lamps 40, 60 watts.
Wonder what the cancer rate is in the "Land of the Midnight Sun?" Sheesh!
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