Press Coverage
Have your questions answered in this radio interview with Dr Craig Hudson. 26 January 2010.
Listen to Interview
The Globe and Mail
Saturday, January 14, 2006
'Link found between light & breast cancer'
The Irish Times, Tuesday, 3 May 2005
'Insomnia can be a vicious cycle'
Sunday Independent, 17 July 2005
'The BIG SLEEP'
Radio interview with Dr Craig Hudson
26 January 2010
The Globe and Mail
January 14, 2006
Link found between light, breast cancer
Nighttime exposure to electric lighting curbs production of vital melatonin,
researchers find.
By Martin Mittelstaedt
Environment Reporter
The high rate of breast cancer in industrialized countries has long puzzles medical researchers, but a team of U.S. scientists has discovered a possible explanation for why women in developed countries are at high risk of developing the disease.
The answer at first glace may seem unlikely: nighttime exposure to electric lighting. In a major breakthrough, researchers have linked exposure to light at night to the growth in breast-cancer tumors. The tumors grew because artificial light interfered with the ability of women to create melatonin, the hormone that regulates the body’s daytime and night rhythms.
The discovery holds major public-health implications because most women in industrial societies turn on lights at night in their homes and offices and may potentially be at risk from this exposure.“ Light, in terms of our experiments, stimulates breast-cancer growth activity, and obviously this is due to the ability of light to shut off melatonin production,” said David Blask, a scientist with the Bassett Research Institute in Cooperstown, N.Y., who led the team that made the discovery.
He said, “melatonin puts cancer cells, in particular breast-cancer cells, to sleep at night,” but if the levels of this hormone are diminished by exposure to light at night, cancers “become insomniacs” and grow all the time. In recent years, there has been a flurry of research suggesting light at night may be a health hazard, causing illnesses ranging from chronic fatigue to depression.
But until now, there has only been circumstantial evidence linking it to breast cancer. For instance, women who regularly work overnight “graveyard” shifts have been found to have an elevated incidence of the disease, in some cases up to 60 per cent higher than those who work regular day shifts. This new research, outlines last month in the journal Cancer Research, is the first experimental evidence to show that light at night can have an effect similar to a cancer-promoting chemical.
“ Electric lighting as a driver for the breast-cancer epidemic worldwide – that’s a dramatic big thing, and new,” said Richard Stevens, an epidemiologist at the University of Connecticut who has studied the health risks of light pollution. The U.S. National Institutes of Health, which financed the study, hailed the results and said they offer “a promising new explanation for the epidemic rise in breast-cancer incidence in industrialized countries like the United States.”
Les Reinlib, a program administrator for the agency, said the discovery may hold promising avenues for preventing breast cancer with simple steps, such as changing women’s exposure to light at night. He also said that melatonin, an inexpensive and widely available hormone supplement, should be studied to see whether it holds promise as an anti-cancer therapy.
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among Canadian women, with about 21,600 new case diagnosed annually. About 5,300 women die each year of the disease. Dr. Stevens said the high breast-cancer incidence in industrialized countries, at about five times that of poor countries, has long intrigued researchers. “We have what I would call an epidemic of breast cancer and we don’t know why,” he said.
Studies into possible explanations, such as the high-fat Western diet, pesticides, or industrial pollutants, have generally been inconclusive, suggesting that there is something else that is ubiquitous in affluent countries that is causing the disease. Breast cancer is linked to genetics, early menstruation, and reproductive history, among other things, but about 60 per cent of those with the disease have no currently known risk factor.
The researchers found that melatonin plays a key role in inhibiting the growth of breast-cancer tumors. Melatonin is produced in the brain’s pineal gland, guided by cues from the retinas in the eyes, and circulates in the blood. The hormone is produced only when it is dark, beginning at nightfall, with production peaking in the middle of the night, and then shutting off during the day. When people are exposed to light at night, the body thinks it is daytime and melatonin formation stops.
To track melatonin’s impact, Dr. Blask’s team implanted human breast-cancer tumors in rat, then isolated the tumors so they were fed blood from a single artery and drained by only one vein. They then pumped blood from premenopausal female volunteers through the cancer cells.
Melatonin-rich blood drawn from women who were in darkness markedly suppressed the growth of the tumors. But when the women were exposed to fluorescent light at night, causing their melatonin levels to drop, tumor growth took off. Tumor growth also increased when the breast-cancer cells were exposed to melatonin-deficient blood collected during daytime.
What you can do
Researchers who study the health effects of artificial light at night say there
is one commonsense way to minimize exposure: Spend a reasonable amount of
time at night in continuous darkness.
This allows your body to generate high levels of melatonin, the hormone secreted
by humans at night that limits the growth of breast cancer and may help slow
other tumors.
Russell Reiter, a professor of neuroendocrinology at the University of Texas
in San Antonio and an authority of melatonin, said almost everyone in industrialized
countries lives too much of their time at night under electric light bulbs
and is consequently melatonin-deprived, in contrast to people living in a more
natural environment.
“ It’s alarming in the sense that this may be a major …(contributing) factor for the incidence of breast cancer and maybe other cancers,” he said.
Dr. Reiter recommends that after you go to bed, avoid turning on light if you wake up. If you go to the washroom at night and turn on a light, this tricks your body into thinking it’s daytime, causing melatonin production to cease.
“ One second of light in the middle of the night is too much,” he said.
He said the general glow of lights over cities at night is probably not a health hazard. But as an additional safety precaution, some researchers recommend that you make sure your bedroom is as dark as possible. Melatonin is produced by the brain’s pineal gland when you are in darkness at night, and has nothing to do with how long you sleep. The crucial factor is to remain in darkness for as long as possible, whether you are asleep or awake, according to Richard Stevens, an epidemiologist at the University of Connecticut.
Dr. Stevens has conducted research showing that the amount of time a woman spends in darkness causes a change in breast-cancer risk. Those in darkness for nine of more hours at night have a lower risk that those in darkness for only seven or eight hours. It is only the blue part of the light spectrum that stops people from producing melatonin. Dr. Reiter said light bulbs could be redesigned to eliminate the frequency causing blue light, allowing lights to be used at night without harming melatonin production. Melatonin is available in supplements, but experts are divided on its use as anti-cancer therapy. Dr. Reiter predicts it will become more widely used for this purpose.
But Dr. Stevens recommends that because the human body produces melatonin, you should do things to maximize the amount your body makes. “It melatonin is important, live a melatonin-friendly lifestyle.”
Martin Mittelstaedt
The Irish Times Health Supplement
Tuesday, 3 May 2005
There is no doubt about the negative effects of poor or disrupted sleep over time Insomnia can be a vicious cycle. Small changes can make a big difference to sleep, Dr Craig Hudson tells Elaine Edwards
In these hectic, stressful times, is there anyone who doesn't complain of trouble sleeping? The knock-on effect of insomnia, often the result of anxieties about work, health, overloaded schedules, kids and family, is a vicious cycle of even more stress caused by that very lack of sleep.
Although the reasons we need it are still poorly understood, there's no doubt about the effects of poor or disrupted sleep over time.
Canadian psychiatrist Dr Craig Hudson in his book Feel Great Day and Night focuses on the reasons for poor sleep, including unhealthy patterns and habits that can ultimately impact negatively on all aspects of our wellbeing, including sex drive.
"The most common problems are heightened anxiety, depression, poor relationships, irritability, poor intimate relationships, a whole slew of things. If it goes on long enough, you can run into health concerns arising from insomnia," he says.
A prolific academic, Hudson's research interests include schizophrenia and work on how the amino acid tryptophan, which aids sleep, works on the central nervous system.
He believes his programme of small but effective lifestyle changes can make a power of difference to what he terms "sleep efficiency".
These include minor changes to diet and even to how people think about sleep, but they work, he says.
"Up to three-quarters of the population in North America, and I’m sure it's the same here, have problems falling asleep on an occasional basis. But almost one is six can have difficulties with sleep on a consistent basis."
"We call it lifestyle insomnia. People are trying to pack more and more into the course of a day. Our brains are hard-wired to work in a 25-hour day cycle and we're always trying to compress it into a 24-hour day, so it's a constant drive towards insomnia because of the way our brains are configured."
Dr Hudson's firm Biosential Incorporated has developed a natural product called Zenbev derived from Pumpkin seeds, which stimulates the production of tryptophan. To be fair, he doesn't oversell the product.
He researched the use of natural products in medicine during a fellowship following his psychiatric training in Canada.
"I became more interested in the natural health aspect of research, which I think is largely ignored by rigorous psychiatry, to our discredit. Some of it is quite helpful and some of it is not, but when you do rigorous research you are able to pull out the things that actually work from the things that don't do anything. That's important."
Among Dr Hudson's suggestions for a restful night are a "pre-sleep" ritual or routine and perhaps half an hour spent reading or just doing nothing before bedtime.
"The other thing is to only go to bed when you feel sleepy. Don’t go to bed when you're feeling frustrated or generally just hoping to get away from something - only go to bed when you feel tired."
He also urges people to avoid "clock-watching" in bed, which only serves to increase frustration.
"If you can't sleep after 15 or 20 minutes, then get out of bed until you feel sleepy."
"You should also remember that a bed is for sleeping and for sex, it's not for listening to the radio or watching television or for working."
A high-protein meal before bed will also reduce the amount of serotonin and melatonin available to the body: better to have small snack consisting of some sweet carbohydrate with a tiny amount of protein.
Dr Hudson brings good news for those simply concerned about odd rest patterns. Some of us are indeed natural early birds and some are wide-eyed late nighters who confound sleepy patterns with their ability to stay up past 11.
"Some people are just genetically programmed to be up late at night or up early in the morning and it that's the way you've always been, don't try to change that."
"Some people just need a lot less sleep. People shout be respectful of their body chemistry. Also, people should not try to fool themselves into thinking they're short sleepers when in fact they're not. People think they can be up late when they feel sleepy at 9 o'clock at night."
"If they feel sleepy, that's the time they should be heading off to bed."
Sunday Independent LIFE
17 July 2005
Case Study
Counting Sheep is for the birds. Julia Molony talks to a sleep guru who has
come up with a natural nightcap that not only lulls you to sleep but reduces
anxiety and increases sex drive
THE BIG SLEEP
Dr Craig Hudson is an ambassador of calm. He and his wife Susan have dedicated their careers to helping to alleviate common maladies of contemporary living: insomnia, anxiety and the many varied health problems which come in tow - especially loss of libido, since a healthy sex life is known to be directly related to peace of mind. As parents of four sons, with very busy professional lives, the Hudsons certainly have plenty to cram into the average day, but when Dr Craig glides into the lobby of Jury's Hotel, he seems completely Zen.
Dr Hudson is a psychiatrist and expert in biochemistry, while his wife is a social worker and psychologist. Together they have come up with a multi-pronged approach to remedy anxiety, sex and sleep problems. It's much-needed help: recent research carried out by the MRBI for the National Maternity Hospital shows that a third of Irish people aged 40-64 suffer from broken sleep - and from the serious consequences which ensue.
As the couple has different areas of expertise, it's no surprise that their prescription to remedy these problems is a hybrid method combining changes in behaviour, environment and diet.
Dr Craig, who has, with his wife, published the self-help manual, Feel Great Day and Night - Overcome Anxiety, Sex and Sleep Problems, believes insomnia is often associated with a particular personality type, most commonly affecting the kind of person who is trying to cram too much into a busy day.
Diets like Atkins that rule out carbs can exacerbate insomnia. 'You may be slim, but you won't sleep quite as well,' says Dr Craig
Many highly pressured people develop very bad habits which interfere with the importance of the bedtime routine. "People turn their bedrooms into offices," he says, thereby making it more difficult to slip into sleep mode. Instead, we should allow a time to relax and unwind from daily stresses before hitting the sack. He suggests developing a pre-sleep ritual.
"Only go to bed when you feel tired, make your room as dark as possible," he advises.
Other factors are important too, according to Dr Craig. The ideal temperature for restful sleep is 21C. Simple changes in behaviour such as avoiding naps during the day, and turning the bedside clock to the wall - so that you are not lying in the dark watching the minutes tick away - can make a difference. And if, after 15 to 20 minutes, you still can't sleep, lying in bed and tossing and turning will make things worse, so you should get up and do something relaxing for a while.
"If you take a small child, you don't run them around the room before bedtime - you calm them down," he explains. "People who are time-pressured never live in the moment. In our busy world, we push too much into the day. You have to think, 'What can I do to modify that - to tone it down one notch?'" he says.
Not only do we have to adapt our lifestyles, we should also eliminate lifestyles that could potentially interrupt us during the night. For this reason, Dr Craig advises parents to discourage their children from sharing their bed. "It is important to set boundaries around beds as young children get older. Children must learn to fall asleep on their own and develop coping skills to deal with the fears that cause them not to want to be alone". Another no-no is sleeping in on the weekends. "Going to bed late and waking up late contributes to sleep problems," he says.
Instead, you should try and develop a regular sleep routine. Exercising helps too, but only if it is carried out early in the day, as the adrenalin released during physical exertion is a stimulant which prompts rapid thought and excitement. Dr Craig also warns about getting into the trap of using alcohol to try and knock yourself out. "Alcohol has the effect of disrupting normal sleep architecture and contributing to sleep interruption," he says.
As a specialist in biochemistry, Dr Craig has done a great deal of research into brain chemistry and how it affects sleep patterns. Many people rely on sleep medication in order to alleviate what Dr Hudson refers to as "lifestyle insomnia", but this, he argues, "is not addressing the underlying issues". Instead of replacing the body's natural hormones and chemicals with synthetic versions, he has investigated the way certain foods stimulate the brain's own production of tryptophan - an amino acid found in most protein foods. Tryptophan is responsible for the synthesis of serotonin- the chemical in the brain which elevates your mood, reduces anxiety, and also, crucially, facilitates the production of melatonin, the hormone that prompts the onset of sleep.
Paradoxically, although tryptophan is found in protein foods such as milk (hence the old wives' tale about a glass of milk before bedtime aiding sleep), turkey and pumpkin seeds rather than carbohydrates, it is the process of breaking down carbs that facilitates the transportation of tryptophan to the brain. "Many people who suffer insomnia are aware that they suddenly feel irresistibly sleepy mid-afternoon which, of course, is the likely peak in brain tryptophan levels after the ingestion of a carbohydrate lunch," says Dr Hudson. But this is bad news for insomniac dieters. According to Dr Hudson, diets that rule out carbohydrates like Atkins can exacerbate insomnia. "You may be more likely to be slim, but you won't sleep quite as well," he explains.
The solution he offers comes in the form of a dietary supplement beverage, his own invention, known as ZenBev. It's a drink that incorporates all the tryptophan found in a large turkey dinner, with the necessary high-glycaemic carbs needed to carry all the god stuff straight to the brain. But, of course, without all the calories. Eating all this just before bedtime would, at the very least, be a chore, and could actually exacerbate the problem. "With the dietary supplement you are still getting the amino acids, but you are minimizing the intake of carbohydrates," says Dr Hudson.
Originally, he and his wife simply aimed to help people address their sleep problems, but as an extra bonus they revealed that many people reported a reduction in anxiety and an improvement of sex problems.
"When people started trying the product, the trend seemed to be that their sex drive went up a little bit," he says. Which can't be a bad thing - though surely that would keep you awake a little longer.
