In the industrialized world, a conflict between two opposing forces — biology and the alarm clock — is helping to make people fat, new research suggests.
A discrepancy between the natural timing of sleep and work or school schedules leads to sleep deprivation, since people forced into schedules unnatural to them don’t get enough sleep. And survey data indicates people with larger discrepancies are more likely to carry extra weight, according to the researchers.
“We are biological beings, and we have a biological clock, and what society — and I don’t mean the bad guys, I mean all of us — is ignoring is the biological clock,” said study researcher Till Roenneberg of the University of Munich. “We think we can do whatever we want with the social clock.”
There is a well-established link between sleep and metabolism. Previous studies have linked shorter sleep to obesity, and some have even linked longer sleep to obesity, although this link is less well established, said Jamie Zeitzer, an assistant professor at Stanford University who studies circadian rhythms and sleep. Zeitzer was not involved with the current study.
Different people need different amounts of sleep; this is a separate phenomenon from discrepancy in sleep timing, or as Roenneberg calls it, social jetlag. He and colleagues measured the timing discrepancy by looking at changes in the timing of the midpoint of a person’s night sleep between work and free days.
Other research has pointed to health hazards, from accidents to diabetes and obesity, associated with shift-work schedules, which move work into the nighttime hours.
“If you are awake at night, there is a good reason from an evolutionary perspective, something has to be going on,” Zeitzer said.
As a result, the body behaves as if it is going to need more energy, and people who are awake at night crave higher-fat and sugary foods, and have a greater appetite, he said.
Roenneberg points out that a gene linked to the amount of sleep people need, ABCC9, also plays a role in energy metabolism, or how fast our body uses energy from the food eaten and, in turn, a person’s appetite.
Alarming results
Roenneberg and his colleagues drew on survey data from more than 65,000 people, primarily in central Europe, on their waking and sleep behavior during work and free days. The results were published online May 10 in the journal Current Biology.
Their analysis indicated that for each hour of sleep discrepancy someone experienced, they were 33 percent more likely to have a high body mass index (BMI, or an indicator of body fatness), Roenneberg said. (Someone with a BMI of 25 is considered overweight,greater than 30 is considered obese.)
However, the effect wasn’t uniform. Sleep discrepancy did not explain variations in body mass among those with a normal BMI; however, it was positively associated with increasing weight among those with a higher-than-normal body mass, in the overweight and above range.
This split doesn’t interfere with the overall conclusion that more discrepancy is associated with more weight, Zeitzer said.
An owl’s world
The survey showed that the weekly loss of sleep is worse for some people, namely, the “night owls” who wake up and go to sleep later. But while work times have stayed relatively constant, the modern world is shifting our natural body clocks later, Roenneberg said.
Our body clocks use light to set themselves; however, the indoor light under which many of us spend most of our days is much dimmer than natural light. As a result our body clocks are pushed later, causing us to wake up and go to sleep later in the day, he said.
To address the problem, Roenneberg, who is also the author of “Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You’re So Tired” (Harvard University Press, 2012), recommends making work times more flexible, a move he said could make employees happier and more productive, while reducing health-care costs.
Roenneberg said he coined the term “social jetlag” to compare the discrepancy between social and biological time. However, unlike travel jetlag, social jetlag doesn’t go away with time, he points out. Zeitzer takes issue with the term, because it implies a biological change not addressed in the research.
In the western world we are taught to think and psychically perceive Spirit with our brains. But it is through the Body Center, the Navel Chakra,that Spirit speaks most strongly to us while we are in physical form.
A friend recently asked me about the heart-centered world into which many believe we are moving. The comment that one of my guides made was to notice that people from the developed or Western world are moving down from their heads into their hearts. They have yet to reach anywhere near their navel or body center. For this reason the journey into the heart that many in the New Age movement anticipate will bring something to completion may actually be the final step. After the Heart, we Westerners will need to begin the journey into the Body.
Many people joke about the practice of sitting in meditation as being something akin to ‘navel gazing’. My own sense is that rather than looking down from our heads at our navels, we need to know how to go down into the navel center itself, and look out from there at our world.
I have come to this conclusion based on my own experience. After moving more and more into my own heart, I began to move further down, passing through my heart and into a space that I feel is my navel chakra or body center. It is a place of great stillness, where I can feel the slightest motions of my body’s natural functions as well as motions from all that is around me. Yet at the same time I feel an intense and utter stillness. From this place of deep stillness all else seems a bit silly – it’s like relaxing in the warm sunshine watching fruit flies swarm a piece of fruit. You can enjoy your relaxation while the incessant motions of the fruit flies remind you of how still you are. What they are doing is harmless to you. While it may be a lot of activity, they are simply doing what it is that is within their nature to do. And you are choosing to do something different.
That is not to imply that all you or I do outside of meditation is equivalent to being a buzzing fruit fly! Day to day life, represented by the fruit flies in my little metaphor, is necessary to my continued physical body being in form. I believe that when I access my body center or navel in meditation it gives my personality a perspective around the true balance of priorities that my soul has. I do find that I can better choose and organize my activities after a little navel meditation.
I realize for most people the idea that our soul or spirit would speak to us through our body rather than our brain is very odd. Our western culture has taught us to live in the uppermost region of our body, basically the upper three inches of our head, not in the remaining 60 or so inches that tend to carry our head around.
Our western culture has also taught us to fear what we do not know. And since few of us had parents who could set an example of being fully embodied, it is not surprising that we have an innate fear of delving into the unknown regions beneath the level of our eyes and brain. In order to identify where our navel is, most of us have to move our hands down and touch it. Few of us simply feel and know its location in our torso. This means that there is a great learning curve ahead of us around how to connect our soul or spirit into our own bodies.
Awareness of any body part by ‘feeling’ it from the inside is an indicator of how strongly connected we are to the consciousness that is related to that body part. Each and every toe, finger, muscle, bone, tendon, organ, etc. processes energetic patterns for us. Illness is merely a sign that the spiritual, mental and emotional levels of our aura were unsuccessful in processing a pattern. In order to bring it more fully to our attention the pattern naturally moved into the etheric level of our aura, which is the blue print for our physical body.
Healing the physical issue then becomes a matter of addressing the issue at all the levels through which the pattern has come. For this reason when issues have reached the physical level I often suggest that people consult physical doctors such as Naturopaths, Chiropractors and Acupuncturists. These modalities understand that health is a result of balance, and illness is a result of imbalance. Once balance is restored, the body’s own systems will restore the physical body.
In my own energetic healing work, I find that the information I get for people is usually right on the edge of what they already know or suspect. In some cases their guides simply point out to me certain moments in their lives that are inter-related and magnifying a current emotional or physical symptom of illness. Sometimes it is also about what I call “upgrading” a belief.
I find that we are all pretty good at healing ourselves. But it is hard to find that deep place of stillness where you can feel all that is in motion around you when you are overwhelmed by fatigue, anxiety, physical pain or chatter in the mind. It just helps to have someone outside of yourself point out what they are able to see, so you can see it more clearly.
There are certainly different styles of healing, and for me I prefer to help people see for themselves what it is that they are ready to change, and hold space for that change to occur. As I spend more and more time within the deep stillness of my own body, I feel the great potential each of us has to access this same space of spiritual connection inside of our own bodies.
Ultimately, I might say that I have less interest in trying to organize how the fruit flies buzz around the fruit and more curiosity about why I left the fruit out for them to buzz around. An odd metaphor, but the closest I can get to my experience of this moment.
And this brings me back to the motionless depth of spirit I find within my own body. This, to me, is a point of creation that each person will learn about in their own time.
My best to each of you.
Norma
About Norma Gentile
Norma Gentile, sound shaman, is a natural intuitive and channel for Mary, Archangel Michael and the Hathors. She maintains a private healing practice, offering sessions in English and Spanish, as well as singing healing concerts and teaching workshops. Her CD of live sound healings, Songs of Spirit, is available in the Maat Shop. To see and hear her sound healings, articles and podcasts at her website www.healingchants.com.
SOLAR ACTIVITY INTENSIFIES: Huge sunspot AR1476 is crackling with M-class solar flares and appears to be on the verge of producing something even stronger. The sunspot’s ‘beta-gamma-delta’ magnetic field harbors energy for X-class flares, the most powerful kind. Earth is entering the line of fire as the sunspot rotates across the face of the sun. Solar flare alerts:text, phone.
Earlier today, amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico detected strong shortwave radio bursts coming from the sunspot. Click to hear the “solar static” that roared out of his loudspeaker:
Dynamic spectrum courtesy of Wes Greenman, Alachua Radio Observatory
“The strongest burst so far occured around 1631 UT on May 9th,” reports Ashcraft. “I am observing at 28 MHz and 21.1 MHz. As I send this note I am hearing more bursting, indicating powerful magnetic dynamism within active region 1476.”
Solar radio bursts are caused by plasma instabilities that ripple through the sun’s atmosphere in the aftermath of powerful flares. With AR1476 poised for more eruptions, this ‘radio activity’ is likely to continue for days
Dark matter, the elusive stuff that makes up a substantial portion of all the mass in the universe, is largely a mystery to astronomers. They’ve tried finding it and creating it, but so far no conclusive proof as to what exactly it is though most theories state that we interact with it through gravity.
But Christoph Weniger, of the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich, has a different theory to explain new possible evidence for dark matter. By carrying out statistical analysis of three and a half years worth of publicly available data from NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope, he’s found a gamma ray line across the sky that he says is a clear signature of dark matter.
Astrophysicists generally think that supermassive black holes, like the one at the center of the Milky Way, release jets that interact with surrounding dark matter. This interaction is thought to be the source of high-energy gamma rays that satellites like Fermi can detect. What satellites can see are the photons produced when these jets interact with dark matter.
Weniger looked for signs of such an interaction in about three and a half years worth of gamma-ray observations carried out by the Fermi satellite’s Large Area Telescope (LAT).
To increase his chances of success he only considered data from those regions of the Milky Way that should generate the highest ratios of dark-matter photons to photons from background sources. He was looking specifically for a peak in energy, a sign that a photon was produced by the collision between and annihilation of two particles; the photon left over should have the same mass as one dark matter particle. This energy would theoretically appear as a very narrow peak, a line in gamma-ray spectra, distinct from the broad energy distribution seen across the visible universe.
That’s just what he found — a line in the gamma ray spectrum.
But he’s quick to admit it’s a provisional result. His data points come from about 50 photons and he’ll need a lot more to prove conclusively that his line is related to dark matter. It’s possible the line he observed is from a known, though no less mysterious, astronomical phenomenon: the pair of enormous gamma-ray-emitting bubbles extending outwards from the plane of the Milky Way.
In December 2010, scientists working with the Fermi Space Telescope found two giant lobes extending from the black hole at the center of our galaxy.
Twenty-five thousand light years high, each bubble spans more than half of the visible sky reaching from the constellation Virgo to the constellation Grus and may be relatively young at just a million or so years old.
The bubbles are a recent find, normally masked by the fog of gamma rays that appears throughout the sky that is a result of particles moving near the speed of light interacting with light and interstellar gas in the Milky Way. Scientists only found the bubbles by manipulating the data from the LAT to draw out the striking feature.
The manipulated images show the bubbles have well defined edges, suggesting they were formed as a result of a large and relatively rapid energy release — the source of which is still unknown. Interestingly, the energy cutoff of the bubbles corresponds to the gamma ray line Weniger found, the one he’s associating with a dark matter signature.
It’s possible the bubbles and the line have the same origin. Or, dark matter might be the cause of the bubbles’ defined endpoint.
Whether or not the two observations turn out to be linked — which of course hinges on conclusive proof of Weniger’s gamma ray line — both are very cool and part of the fascinating and mystery nature of our corner of the universe.
BIG SUNSPOT: One of the largest sunspot groups in years rotated over the sun’s northeastern limb on May 6th. With a least four dark cores larger than Earth, AR1476 sprawls more than 100,000 km from end to end, and makes an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Amateur astronomer Alan Friedman sends this picture of the behemoth from his backyard in Buffalo, NY:
“AR1476 is firecrackler,” says Friedman.
Indeed, the active region is crackling with impulsive M-class solar flares. Based on the sunspot’s complex ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field, NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of more M-flares during the next 24 hours. There is also a 10% chance of powerful X-flares.
“This one is going to be fun as it turns to face us!” predicts Friedman. He might be right
CORONAL HOLE: A dark hole in the sun’s atmosphere (a ‘coronal hole’) is spewing a stream of solar wind toward Earth. The impact of the stream, expected on May 9-11, could add to the effect of the incoming CMEs, boosting the chances of strong geomagnetic activity later this week. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture of the opening on May 8th:
Coronal holes are places where the sun’s global magnetic field opens up and allows some of the sun’s atmosphere to escape. The outflow of gas is the solar wind. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of geomagnetic activity on May 9-10 when the stream arrives (along with the CMEs of May 7th).
TWO INCOMING CMEs: A pair of solar eruptions on May 7th hurled coronal masss ejections (CMEs) toward Earth. Forecasttracks prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab suggests that clouds with arrive in succession on May 9th at 13:40 UT and May 10th at 07:54 UT (+/- 7 hours). The double impact could spark moderate geomagnetic storms. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
The plume from Popocatépetl in Mexico seen on May 6, 2012. Webcam capture by Eruptions reader Kirby.
Quick updates on current activity at a number of volcanoes while I am mired in grading jail:
Popocatépetl: The Mexican volcano is still churning away (see above). Thus far, most of the activity has been subplinian plumes from the crater area as the new magma rises and fragments, but Mexican officials are not taking any chances. They will be distributing almost half a million dust masks to people living near the volcano if/when a larger explosive eruption occurs that could drop significant ash across much of the area. You can see what is going on at Popocatépetl on the CENAPRED webcams for the volcano.
Iliamna: We haven’t heard much from Iliamna in the past month or so after the volcano was downgraded to Yellow Alert status by AVO after a period of increased seismicity and degassing. The seismicity was reported to be back on the upswing at the end of last week according to the Alaska Dispatch (who looks to be getting into the game of webicorder watching). However, this blip (if real) didn’t cause AVO to change the status of Iliamna as the latest update just mentions seismicity at the volcano is “slightly above background”. Iliamna has a webcam as well as a webicorder so you can follow along at home.
Lokon-Empung: Another volcano that has been quite active is Lokon-Empung in Indonesia. Thevolcano had an explosive eruption earlier last week, producing a 2.5 km / 8,200 foot plume. Although evacuations have not been called yet, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) has begun to set up evacuation centers in case the activity increases. Seismicity has been increasing at Lokon-Empung since last week’s eruption, but the alert status (Level III) is unchanged.
Slight discoloration of the sea at Fukutoku-Okanoba (bottom right) may suggest eruptive activity. Image taken April 19, 2012 by the Japanese Coast Guard.
Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : Mb 5.6
UTC Time : Monday, May 07, 2012 at 04:40:29 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Monday, May 07, 2012 at 09:40:29 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 23.3 km
Geo-location(s) :
14 km (8 miles) SE of Zaqatala (Zakataly), Azerbaijan
101 km (62 miles) NNE of Ganca (Kirovabad), Azerbaijan
114 km (70 miles) ESE of T’elavi, Georgia
291 km (180 miles) WNW of BAKU, Azerbaijan
Update 18:17 UTC : Video from a local TV station showing the damage and interviews with a military responsible inspecting the damaged area and earthquake victims (Language Azerbaijan)
Update 17:34 UTC : 35 minutes ago a new M4.9 moderate aftershock struck the area. This is the 3th strongest today.
Update 17:28 UTC : The authorities have decided to supply tents to the homeless in Zaqatala, probably too late as the night has almost fallen.
Update 17:13 UTC : The damage and destruction are looking to be bigger than previously reported. In Zaqatala, at least 60 houses are seriously damaged. Most of them have collapsed walls. People are too afraid to return to their houses and will probably spend the night in the streets or in the fields. We have heard no news of tents to give shelter to those living in the damaged houses or those wanting to stay away from their house. Most older buildings in the area are made of brick and are not earthquake resistant which increases the chance of damage or even destruction. For those who are not convinced that the damage is considerable, please take a look at the pictures of this Azerbaijan website.
Update 16:53 UTC : 2 people have been rescued by SAR teams from a seriously damaged house in Gulbarax, this after the latest strong aftershock. Some injured have been taken for treatment to hospitals, but none of them was seriously injured. The strong aftershock is responsible for damage to some buildings in Zaqatala (Zagatala).
Zagatala, Azerbaijan, very close to the epicenter – image Panoramio
Update 15:20 UTC : Aftershocks are continuing to strike the area. Most of these aftershocks are only felt in the direct area of the epicenter. The weather outlook in the area can be called mixed. Temperatures are 11 (min) to 222 (max), but rain has been forecast for today and tomorrow.
This morning earthquake damage : 3 villages were the hardest hit with many older houses seriously damaged. The 3 villages are all located in the Zagatala area. From earlier reports we know that they are : Azar, Zayam and Gymyr. Luckily no fatalities though.
Update 15:16 UTC : Azerbaijan media are talking about a M5.3 earthquake with an intensity of MMI 6 to 6.5 (local scale which is comparable with the MMI scale). Both USGS and EMSC are reporting a 5.5 or 5.6 earthquake at a depth of approx. 11 km. Both agencies are locating the epicenter at 10 km from Zagatalaversus 17 km this morning. Reports from our readers living in the greater earthquake area are somewhat conflicting. Some are talking about a short shaking which was considerably weaker than this morning, others are reporting higher “Felt it” values. We reiterate that Zagatala is an important regional city with 18,277 inhabitants. A gas pipeline is crossing the area.
Update 15:02 UTC : 68,000 people are reported to have experienced a very strong shaking. Earthquake-report.com does not think on many injured or fatalities because most people will have been staying on the streets as the area has been struck by tens of aftershocks since this morning. Potential damage is likely to have happened.
145,000 people will have felt a strong shaking. This mornings earthquake was reported as a max. MMI VI (strong shaking) versus MMI VII this afternoon. As older houses were already damaged this morning, some unstable walls may have succumbed under the shaking.
Important Update 14:57 UTC : Another powerful earthquake (aftershock) occurred at 14:15 UTC. We are currently collecting more information. This earthquake looks even more dangerous than the first one as the epicenter is closer to Zagatala (preliminary data from USGS).
Example of the destruction during this earthquake – image courtesy APA
Update 13:25 UTC : From the time of the mainshock until this update, the epicenter area has been shaken by at least 80 aftershocks, a lot of them only recorded by instruments and not felt by the population. The south side of the Caucasus ( including the Zagatala area) is known as a seismically active zone. The last massive earthquake in this area dates from 1936 when a Magnitude 7 earthquake struck the area
Update 10:55 UTC : Azerbaijan news agency APA reports that no problem was detected in the delivery of power, water, gas and communication in Zagatala. Roads in or near Zagatala were not disrupted. The International Bus Terminal told that buses move in direction of Zagatala in accordance with the schedule, no closures of any part of the motor way was recorded so far: ‘No problem is observed in arrival and departure of vehicles’.
Nearly 20 persons arrived at the hospital with different injuries, but none of them were operated or placed at the resuscitation ward. They were given first aid and sent home.
We remind our readers that this report focuses on Zagatala, very close to the epicenter, but not above the epicenter. We will need 4 to 8 hours more for a final update of the direct epicenter area.
More pictures of the damage can be found here.
Update 09:59 UTC : According to the Seismological Service of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, the Magnitude of the earthquake was 5.7 at a depth of 11 km. Following the same agency, the epicenter was located at 17 km from Zagatala (below also called Zaqatala). The gas pipeline linking Baku – Tbilisi and Ceyhan have not been affected by the earthquake
Update 09:15 UTC : From the Azerbaijani side of the border, there are reports of destroyed houses and at least 15 people have been treated for injuries so far, mainly due to panic while fleeing the houses. The hardest hit villages at the Azerbaijani side are Azar, Zayam and Gymyr
Update 09:06 UTC : Earthquake-Report.com also fears for damage and possibly injuries in the smaller mountain villages of the area, especially rockfall and landslides. These villages are only visited many hours after the earthquake. Nobody has reported yet on the conditions right at the epicenter, as this area is populated too! It looks like farming soil with a couple of hundred houses (prevailing the preliminary epicenter location is right)
Update 08:43 UTC : As we have feared, this earthquake tends to be more dangerous than the numbers would make out. Local Georgia and Azerbaijani press reports are reporting not only damage in houses and schools (merely cracks) but also injured people. In the meantime aftershocks are terrorizing the local Caucasus population with so far at least 3 aftershocks above M4.
Yellow area : strong shaking) – greenish area : moderate shaking
Update 07:43 UTC : Earthquake-Report.com fears that the damage as a result of this earthquake may be bigger than initially expected. In Georgia alone (EMSC and USGS are maintaining the epicenter in Azerbaijan) many houses have slight damage. We expect more detailed news within 2 to 4 hours.
We will start an in-depth article as the results of this earthquake will be probably beyond the scope of this page.
Update 06:41 UTC : Russian authorities are reporting a Magnitude of 5.8. The earthquake was also felt in Dagestan . People in the epicenter area have fled on the streets and remain there until further notice out of fear for aftershocks.
Update 05:41 UTC : Following other sources, the epicenter should be at the Georgian side of the border, 1 km from the village of Zemo Kedi and 22 kilometers from the city Dedoplistskaro (Kakheti region). 2 aftershocks are felt so far. The aftershocks are in the 4 to 5 range, enough to frighten the people from the epicenter area even more
Zaqatala epicenter area (Caucasus) – image courtesy Sabit Tagiyev
154,000 people may have experienced a strong shaking, enough to create a damaging earthquake. Similar magnitude earthquakes had few fatalities, but we would not be surprised that damage is inflicted.
Closest communities are Zaqatala (pop. 18,277) and Cinarly (pop. 6,508).
EMSC reports a Magnitude of 5.5 at a depth of 10 km.
296,000 people have experienced a moderate shaking and nearly 3 million people a light shaking.
Cities who have experienced a strong shaking are : Aliabad (9000 people), Zaqatala (18277 people) and Qax (12000 people).
The area where the earthquake happened was a 3-country area. The epicenter is close to Russia andGeorgia. Armenia is at a considerable distance
WAPMERR, an organization specialized in theoretical calculation of possible casualties reports, expects 5 to 40 people to be injured and 0 to 5 people to be killed. WAPMERR’s calculations are based on present and past data.
Scientists at Washington State University are now confirming once again what natural health experts have known for years — garlic fights one of the most common food-borne illnesses much more effectively than antibiotics. Garlic has built a strong reputation in fighting infections, a benefit that is but one of many.
Campylobacter bacterium, the name for the common bacteria that often results in intestinal illness, affects around 2.4 million Americans per year and is often treated with illness-linked antibiotics, but maybe not anymore.
According to the researchers, the information ‘opens the door’ to the many benefits of garlic when it comes to preventing and fighting infections. This means treating certain food items, cleaning, and use as a healing food substance. Once again, however, these mainstream scientists are simply re-discovering what many cultures have known (and have been utilizing) for centuries! It’s no secret that garlic is really a nutritional powerhouse, a superfood that can boost overall immunity and combat diseases — even superviruses that have the medical community in a frenzy.
Even Greek athletes used garlic to boost their physical performance in the arena due to the deep knowledge of the food’s empowering properties. Leading expert Dr. David Kraus explains:
“People have known garlic was important and has health benefits for centuries,” said Dr. David W. Kraus, associate professor of environmental science and biology at the University of Alabama. “Even the Greeks would feed garlic to their athletes before they competed in the Olympic games.”
Garlic even has a role in the prevention of cancer — the disease that is currently ravaging the population. In fact, it is a role that is quite notorious among cultures who have been using garlic in their dishes for countless years. Scientists believe that the role of garlic in cancer prevention quite possibly has to do with the way that garlic boosts the production of something known as hydrogen sulfide. It is this very substance that also protects the heart. Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that directly injecting hydrogen sulfide into mice almost completely stopped damage to heart muscles as a result of heart attack.
The benefits of garlic are many, and the mainstream scientific community is just catching on to how important of a role garlic plays in the diet
