 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
| Illustrations by Rod Clement |
|
|
SUNNY SURPRISES
By Dr. Stephen JuanDO SUNSPOTS AFFECT HUMAN BIOLOGY, HEALTH, AND BEHAVIOUR?
Evidence suggests that they very well might play a role.In 1926, Russian scientist A.L. Tchijevsky presented a paper to the American Meteorological Society in Philadelphia and an article entitled “Physical Factors of the Historical Process” where he presented the results of his investigation into the history of mass human movements compared to the 11-year solar cycle. After dividing sunspot activity into four levels (minimum, increasing, maximum, and decreasing) and constructing an “Index of Mass Human Excitability” covering each year from 500 B.C. to 1922 A.D., Tchijevsky applied the “Index” to the histories of 72 countries. He noted signs of major human “excitements” such as wars, revolutions, riots, expeditions, migrations, and other behaviours plus the number of humans involved in relationship to sunspot activity. Tchijevsky concluded that fully 80 per cent of “the most human significant events” occurred during the years of maximum sunspot activity. He theorised that such human behaviours during periods of maximum sunspot activity “may be explained by an acute change in the nervous and psychic character of humanity, which takes place at sunspot maxima”.
In 1993, two cancer scientists stumbled onto a startling finding: To some extent at least, a human’s life-span may depend on the number of sunspots that appeared in the year their mother was born.
The sun has an 11-year cycle during which time the number of sunspots rises and falls. Drs. Barnett Rosenberg and David Juckett, two biophysicists at Michigan State University in East Lansing, found that if the sun was at its maximum sunspot period of the cycle, children of mothers born at that time would die an average of two to three years sooner than if their mothers were born during the minimum sunspot period.
What the researchers discovered is merely a statistical association. As such, it does not necessarily imply a cause and effect relationship.
Nevertheless, the two researchers theorize in the March 1993 issue of Radiation Research that sunspots may give an added dose of gene-altering radiation to the foetus. So when there are more sunspots, there is more radiation. In a female foetus, this could affect her ova---all 400,000 of which are present when she is born. When she matures and bears children, so the theory goes, her ova are more likely to have subtle genetic damage. This would result in her children having more genetic-based problems, poorer health, and ultimately a lower life-span.
The study involved 7,552 individuals who were born between 1750 and 1900.
Earlier work by Dr. Rosenberg led to the development of two of the world's leading anti-cancer drugs, Carboplatin and Cisplatin. At the time he claimed that this serendipitous finding was “a surprise”.
In 2003, Dr. Neil Cherry of the Human Science Department of Lincoln University in Lincoln, New Zealand concluded: “There is sensible scientific evidence to establish a trail of connection from the sun activity to human biological and health effects”. Writing in the May 2003 issue of Natural Hazards, Dr. Cherry examined 19 years of mortality statistics data from Thailand. He theorized that sunspot activity has an effect upon Melatonin production in the human brain. He further concluded that “The Sunspot Number emerges as the strongest factor [in human Melatonin production variation] . . . . A wide range of mortalities that are associated with Melatonin reduction, are found to be significantly correlated with sunspot number, including cancer, cardiac and neurological mortality”.
In 2006, six researchers from Kyoto University in Japan concluded in their report in the April 2006 issue of Perceptual & Motor Skills that sunspot variation may affect the economy, the unemployment rate, and the male suicide rate. The team led by Dr. A. Otsu, from the Graduate School of Public Health, based this conclusion on an analysis of Japanese data on sunspot activity, the business cycle, suicides, and so on over a 30-year period from 1971 to 2001.
DOES SUNBAKING BURN THE IMMUNE SYSTEM AS WELL AS YOUR SKIN?
In 1993, research suggested that even a very low dose of the sun's ultraviolet B rays---the rays that cause sunburn---can also make you vulnerable to health problems ranging from bacterial infections to AIDS.
According to Dr. Kevin Cooper, the director of the Immunodermatology Unit at the School of Medicine of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, evidence is mounting that UVB exposure weakens the immune system. A report on Dr. Cooper’s research was reported in the June 1993 issue of American Health.
Dr. Cooper's research team explored the relationship of UVB rays to the immune system in an experiment which focused upon the possible effect of UVB rays on the body's immune system's ability to recognize a foreign substance in the body.
The team rubbed an allergy-triggering chemical on the sunburned skin of volunteers. Three weeks later they rubbed the chemical on a non-sunburned part of the body of the same subjects. A healthy immune system would respond by producing redness and swelling on the skin. However, it was found that subjects developed less redness and swelling after being sunburned.
According to the report, Dr. Cooper explains that “while a weaker allergic reaction may sound like a good thing, in this case it's an indication that the immune system is not up to snuff. UVB light seemed to weaken subjects' immunity to the extent that they tolerated the chemical instead of fighting it off.”
Dr. Cooper adds that “if a malaria-carrying mosquito bites you in a sunburned spot, for example, you might not develop effective immunity to the disease.”
Moreover, it was found that even at very low doses, the UVB rays compromised the body's immune system.
Dr. Cooper concludes that not only does UVB cause skin cancer, this study suggests that it might also cause the immune system to have difficulty recognizing and eliminating skin cancers that get started with sunburn.
There are the most amazing things under the sun these days---and many of them come from the world of human research.
Home | About Stephen | Odd Books | Odd News | Odd Quiz | Contact
Copyright HarperCollins Publishers 2002 | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use