When you set your clock forward an hour every spring for daylight

 

Diagnosis 

When you set your clock forward an hour every spring for daylight saving time (DST)— as we'll do on March 9 — it doesn’t just make you feel tired, experts say. A growing amount of research indicates that it also affects your body in other surprising and negative ways. ​

For most people, setting the clock ahead in the spring is the most dreaded change. The average person gets about 40 minutes less sleep on the Monday after “springing forward” for daylight saving time, according to the Sleep Foundation.

Effects of daylight saving on the body

Daylight saving time throws your body’s internal clock out of whack, which can negatively affect your health in ways you don’t realize, says Jocelyn Cheng, M.D., a neurologist and sleep medicine specialist who is the vice-chair of the Public Safety Committee for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. ​

 Impaired decision-making 

Scientists have long known that lack of sleep can affect your ability to think and make decisions. Studies also show that people who don’t get enough shut-eye are more likely to take risks and make mistakes. 

“Light is the most powerful regulator of our circadian rhythm. When we change the light exposure we get in the morning and at night, it throws that off,” Cheng says. “There are adverse health consequences and real-life consequences as a result of that.”​

Losing an hour may not seem like a big deal, but it “really can have a significant impact on our overall health and well-being,” says Melissa Lipford, M.D., a neurologist and sleep specialist at the Mayo Clinic. ​ 

Should we keep daylight saving?

Daylight saving time has been around in the United States since 1918 when it was thought to save energy during World War I. In recent years, increasing concerns about health effects have prompted at least 40 states to propose legislation to eliminate the twice-yearly time changes. ​

Here are six ways the disruptions from daylight saving time in the spring can affect your body.

1. Higher risk of heart attack and stroke

Daylight saving time takes a toll on your heart. One study found a 24 percent increase in heart attacks on the Monday after daylight saving time starts. Another found the risk of stroke is 8 percent higher on the two days following the time change. 

In addition, the number of people hospitalized with atrial fibrillation, or A-fib — the most common type of irregular heartbeat — surges in the days following the spring time change, according to a 2020 analysis of 6,089 patient admissions at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. One study found the risk of stroke is 8 percent higher on the two days following the spring and the fall time change.

3. Difficulty with memory and focus

Lack of sleep negatively affects memory, attention span and focus, research shows.

The 9 Worst Habits for Your Eyes

 Health

bouquets 9 Worst Habits for Your Eyes

Everyday actions that can 

The importance of an annual eye exam cannot be overstated. Not only does it help you keep tabs on any changes in your vision, but it’s a must for detecting the big vision thieves: glaucoma, cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), all of which can cause irreparable harm before you’ve even noticed any vision loss, says Michelle Andreoli, M.D., an ophthalmologist at Northwestern Medicine and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

What might not be so obvious when it comes to the health of your eyes are the everyday habits that affect them. Here are nine of the worst habits for eyes — and what you can do to break each of this

Bad habit 1: Smoking

Add this to the always-growing list of reasons to give up smoking for good: Cigarette smoke is more than just irritating to your eyes; research shows it also raises your risk of developing AMD, the eye disease that can blur your central vision. People over age 55 are already at risk for the condition, but a large review of studies published in Clinical Interventions in Aging shows that smokers are at a twofold to fourfold risk of AMD, as compared to never smokers. 

​​“Smoking reduces the effectiveness of antioxidants and may deplete these levels in the macula,” the small area at the center of the retina that’s necessary to see things in front of you, explains Ashley Brissette, M.D., an ophthalmologist and assistant professor of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. “Cigarette smoke also reduces the amount of oxygen reaching the tiny blood vessels that supply the eye, leading to vision damage.” That’s true for those who smoke only occasionally or are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke, Brissette adds. The good news? The same review of studies shows that kicking the habit not only reduces the risk of AMD, but after 20 years, the risk of developing the condition is the same as it is for nonsmokers.

Bad habit 2: Staring at your smartphone

Your eyes pay a price directly and indirectly when you stare at that tiny screen — or, for that matter, your computer screen or TV — without giving them a break. According to the American Optometric Association, using any of your digital devices continuously for two hours is enough to bring about digital eye strain.

“The two biggest concerns with onscreen habits boil down to chronic dry eye symptoms and disruption of natural sleep patterns,” Andreoli says. “We’re supposed to blink once every 4 seconds, and in front of the computer, we blink about once every 8 to 10 seconds. That [difference] may sound insignificant, but blinking is what keeps our eyes lubricated. [If] we aren’t lubricating our eyes sufficiently, we develop dry eye symptoms, and that leads to eye strain.” ​​Then there’s the toll too much screen time takes on our sleep patterns. “The brightness of the screen and the activity tells our brain it’s daytime, so we have a tendency not to get appropriately tired,” Andreoli says.

Her recommendation: Practice the 20-20-20 rule. Throughout the day, take a 20-second screen break every 20 minutes to look at something 20 feet away. And while you’re in the habit-changing mode, turn off your phone and put the laptop away in the hours leading up to bedtime. If you like to play, say, Wordle or return emails late at night, be sure to dim the screen’s brightness. You can schedule this to happen automatically using the Night Shift setting on an iPhone or Notification Shade on an Android. ​

Bad habit 3: Not wearing sunglasses

In the same way that ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun can do a number on your skin, it can also wreak havoc with your vision. Specifically, UV rays can damage the eye’s surface tissues, the cornea and lens. And over time, that damage can lead to cataracts, AMD and cancers of the eye.

“You can also develop a sunburn on the eyes called photokeratitis, which can be extremely painful,” Brissette says. To help prevent all of the above, wear sunglasses — and not just during the summer but every day of the year, even when it’s cloudy. ​​“Sunglasses protect the eyes in a few ways,” Brissette adds. “It’s hard to apply sunscreen close to the eyes, so sunglasses can act as a physical barrier, blocking UV rays from the eyelids and skin around the eyes. Also, the lenses of the sunglasses have UV protection.” To fully protect your eyes, check the tag or sticker to make sure the glasses provide 100 percent UV protection. “Some labels say, ‘UV absorption up to 400 nm,’ which is the same as 100 percent UV protection,” Brissette says. ​​

Worth noting: Even if you wear contact lenses with UV-blocking technology, you should still wear sunglasses outdoors. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, these contacts protect only the part of the eye they cover, leaving the outside of the eye exposed to harmful radiation. Your eyes get the most protection when you wear sunglasses, especially wraparound styles.

Bad habit 4: Sleeping in your contact lenses

Sure, contacts have gotten more user-friendly, but that doesn’t mean you can simply put them in and forget about them. “The biggest issue is the risk of infection, which can cause permanent scarring of the cornea and loss of vision,” Brissette says. “Bacteria and other debris get trapped between the contact lens and the surface of the cornea, so leaving them in too long or past their expiration [puts you at] high risk for developing an infection.”

About 1 in 3 contact lens wearers plead guilty to sleeping or napping in their lenses, according to research in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In doing so, they’re upping the risk for contact lens–related eye infections by six- to eightfold“They’ve come a long way in the last few decades, but the safety profile of contacts is dependent on not sleeping in them, swimming in them or showering in them — ever,” Andreoli says. “I suggest daily lenses for most of my patients — put them in in the morning and throw them away at night — because the risk for infection with those types of lenses is very low. With some of the longer-wear lenses, patients have a knack for losing track of how long they’ve worn them. That can cause trouble over time.” ​​

Bad habit 5: Rubbing your eyes

There’s no real harm in occasionally rubbing your eyes, but if you’re aggressive about it, you run the risk of damaging your cornea, the clear, dome-shaped front surface of your eye. “Some uncommon diseases of the cornea are associated with eye rubbing,” Andreoli says. Those include keratoconus, a condition that occurs when your cornea thins out and begins to bulge outward into a cone shape. As a result, your vision is blurry and distorted. 

A study published recently in the Journal of Clinical Medicine found that the severity of dry eye disease was higher in patients who are chronic eye rubbers.

If you’re looking for quick relief from redness, irritation, dryness and grittiness in the eye, it’s OK to rub your eyes. “The occasional rub will milk some tears out of the tear gland, but try not to be overly aggressive or frequent,” Andreoli adds. Better yet, reach for some lubricating eye drops or place a hot washcloth over your eyes. ​​

​​If you find that you’re habitually rubbing your eyes — and one way to get a handle on just how often you’re rubbing is to keep track for a week — try rubbing the outer edge of the eye socket instead of your eyes as a way to minimize the consequences. If that doesn’t work, then seeing a therapist

Bad habit 6: Sleeping with your makeup on

Researchers have known for a while that wearing eye makeup increases your risk of inflammation and affects the quality of your tears. It also plays a role in the development and/or exacerbation of dry eye disease, according to research published in 2022 in the journal Cureus. That’s especially true if you make a habit of falling asleep with your makeup on.

Every once in a great while, it’s OK if you don’t take your makeup off before you fall asleep. Make a habit of it, however, and you raise your risk of eye infection, most notably in the form of a sty, a painful lump that grows from the base of your eyelash or under the eyelid. Also important: how you take off your eye makeup.

“Oil-based remover can exacerbate some dry eye symptoms because they deposit a ton of oil in the tears,” Andreoli says. “If patients are starting to notice this, abandon eye makeup remover and use very mild face soap instead.”

Bad habit 7: Heavy drinking

The surprise isn’t that drinking more than the recommended amount of alcohol — up to one drink per day for women and no more than two per day for men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — is bad for your health. The surprise is how bad heavy drinking can be for your eyes. “Some of the most damaging effects on vision are from extremely high levels of alcohol or chronic alcohol abuse,” Brissette says. “Toxic blood alcohol levels can permanently damage the optic nerve and vision centers.” 

In fact, a review of studies published in 2021 in the Journal of Ophthalmic & Vision Research found that chronic alcohol consumption raises the risk for cataracts, AMD, diabetic retinopathy and various types of optic neuropathy, among other conditions.

Social drinkers, take note: None of the above applies to you. But that doesn’t mean you’re totally in the clear. Even occasional alcohol use contributes to dry eye disease, Brissette says. 

Bad habit 8: Skimping on nutrients

Somewhere along the way, carrots became the poster vegetable for good eye health. While it’s true that your eyes need vitamin A — it helps nourish the cornea and is critical for the retina to function — the vitamin A-rich carrot is far from the only eye-friendly veggie.

In the landmark Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) and the follow-up AREDS2, researchers tested whether taking nutritional supplements — specifically, lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamins C and E, copper and zinc — could prevent or slow the progression of AMD and cataracts. The researchers found that taking the vitamins had no effect on cataracts, but it did help AMD patients reduce their risk of progressing from intermediate to advanced AMD by about 25 percent. The formulation tested in the study is now commonly sold over the counter as the AREDS2 formula.

Brissette recommends taking the supplement if you’ve been diagnosed with AMD. Otherwise, she suggests following the Mediterranean diet for overall eye health. “That’s what we have the best evidence for in terms of being beneficial for eye health — specifically, foods rich in vitamins A, C and E, lutein, zeaxanthin and omegas,” she says. “It’s always better to get our nutrients from whole food sources rather than from supplements, if possible. If you’ve been diagnosed with macular degeneration, then taking a supplement, such as AREDS2, can help to slow progression and are additionally recommended.”

Bad habit 9: Skipping vaccines

The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends getting appropriate vaccines, including shingles and measles. Both diseases can cause serious vision problems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone over age 50 get a two-course dose of Shingrix, which is 97 percent successful at preventing shingles in people in their 50s and 60s, and 91 percent successful for those in their 70s and older. In addition to a painful rash, shingles can cause serious complications, including nerve damage and vision loss. 

Although most older Americans have either had measles or had the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, some recent outbreaks are causing concern. If you can’t remember if you’ve had the illness or vaccine, talk to your doctor. Measles can infect the cornea and cause blindness, although due to widespread vaccination, this is rare in the United State on Eye Health

25%-30% off flower 

7 CANCERS LINKED Alcohol

 Skip to content

 Health

7 Cancers Linked to Alcohol Consumption

Mounting research highlights the health dangers of drinking.

Alcohol-associated car crashes claim the lives of about 13,500 people annually in the U.S. Fittingly, billboards broadcast the dangers of getting behind the wheel impaired. But health officials say an even deadlier drinking-associated danger lurks in relative obscurity: An estimated 20,000 cancer deaths each year are attributed to alcohol consumption, according to the latest research and a recent Surgeon General’s advisory published in January.

“The direct link between alcohol use and cancer was first established in the late 1980s, and evidence for this link has strengthened over time,” the advisory states, with former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who authored the report, emphasizing that alcohol is a preventable cause of about 100,000 cases of cancer annually.

In fact, behind tobacco and obesity, alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of cancer. Yet more than half of Americans don’t know alcohol consumption is linked to higher cancer risk, according to survey research highlighted in the advisory.

The research to date shows alcohol use increases the risk of at least seven types of cancer, including:

1. Breast (in women)
2. Colorectum
3. Esophagus
4. Liver
5. Mouth (oral cavity)
6. Throat (pharynx)
7. Voice box (larynx)

The more a person drinks, the greater the danger, but any alcohol consumption can have an impact. From the perspective of cancer risk, “there is no safe amount of alcohol,” says Noelle LoConte, M.D., a medical oncologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Carbone Cancer Center, who studies the link between alcohol and cancer.

Yet while drinking socially is normalized, talking to a doctor about the health risks associated with drinking is not, LoConte says. Many people don’t know exactly how much alcohol they consume, she notes, or if they do, they may not disclose that amount to their physician.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT

Breast cancer: Even “a little” might be too much

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women, with roughly 270,000 cases diagnosed annually. Within that massive number is another: About 16 percent, or more than 44,000 cases of breast cancer, are attributed to alcohol consumption, according to a 2024 research review published in the American Cancer Society’s flagship journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Research consistently finds that alcohol can alter or raise hormone levels, including estrogen. Higher levels of the hormone can lead to mutations in breast tissue that cause cancer. “Even drinking within the guidelines, so one a day for women,” can increase the risk of developing breast cancer, LoConte says.

Put another way, research finds about 11 out of every 100 women who consume less than one alcoholic beverage will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, as noted in the Surgeon General’s advisory. Two more than that, or 13 in every 100 women, who have one drink a day, and 15 in 100 women who have two drinks per day, will develop breast cancer.

Of course, drinking is but one prominent risk factor that could raise a woman’s risk of developing cancer. Many others, starting with age, obesity, genetics/family history and environmental exposures (to radiation, for example), can also stack the deck against a person. Doctors encourage considering all risks.

“If you’re a postmenopausal woman and there is a reason why your risk is higher than normal for breast cancer,” it’s important to factor that in when choosing whether to drink — and how much to drink, says William Dahut, M.D., chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society.

Mouth, throat and esophageal cancers: The “dose-dependent” dangers of drinking

Although head and neck cancers aren’t as common as breast cancer, the alcohol-related risk of developing these cancers is more pronounced and increases more sharply the more a person drinks.

That risk is present even when a person stays within the recommended limit, which is two drinks per day for men (and, again, one drink per day for women), LoConte says. She recommends abiding by those guidelines at a minimum, “but really getting as low as comfortable” is ideal, she says.

LoConte was the lead author of a 2018 statement on alcohol and cancer by the American Society of Clinical Oncology that outlined those “dose-dependent” relationships between total alcohol consumption and rates for certain cancers.

Heavy drinkers — which the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines as men who consume five or more drinks on any day or 15 drinks or more per week, and women who have four or more drinks on any day or eight or more per week — developed oral cavity (mouth) and pharynx (throat) cancers and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma at around five times the rate of non-drinkers.

A predominant cause of these and other alcohol-related cancers (and a contributor to breast cancer) is a byproduct of the body’s breakdown of alcohol called acetaldehyde, which can damage DNA. Once damaged, cells can grow out of control and turn into tumo

A mix of risk factors – and a fluid approach to prevention

Other cancer-causing substances and risk factors also mix dangerously with alcohol. As noted in the Surgeon General’s advisory, “carcinogens [a term for cancer-causing substances] from other sources, especially particles of tobacco smoke, can dissolve in alcohol, making it easier for them to be absorbed into the body, increasing the risk for mouth and throat cancers.”

The challenge for public health experts and frustration for social drinkers alike is that there’s no one-size-fits-all recommendation for drinking.

But a general principle holds: “It seems the more you do drink, the greater the risk would be — and factoring that into your individual risk becomes really important,” Dahut says.

That’s true for those who have already been diagnosed with cancer who drink alcohol, too. “It pretty much complicates every step of cancer treatment,” LeConte says, pointing to research on cancer patients who imbibe. “Their surgery stays are longer, they have more surgical complications, they [don’t tolerate] chemotherapy as well, they have higher rates of cancer recurrence.” 

For some time, it’s been known that heavy drinkers have more infections — “evidence of a ‘deranged immune system’ we call it,” LeConte says. “But that may mean immunotherapy, which is potentially curative therapy for many people with cancer — even stage 4 cancer sometimes — will not work as well.”

LeConte understands people don’t make all their decisions based on cancer risk. “But we would like people to at least be aware that alcohol is a carcinogen so that they can incorporate that in their decision-making,” she say