Author Archives: gareth lee

Lavender Essential Oil to Reduce Your Stress

Posted on November 6, 2017 | 3 comments

Are you feeling stressed? Consider trying lavender essential oil, the oil extracted from lavender which contains compounds that reduce stress!

 

 

 

 

 

                                                         Images from Wikipedia Commons 

 

Researchers from the Department of Health Science at Osaka Kyoiku University put subjects in a stressful condition by making them wait 20 minutes in an isolated soundproof room, a room where no sound can escape. Subjects introduced to the stressful condition with lavender essential oil diffused felt less stress compared to subjects introduced to the stressful condition alone!

The subjects were randomly assigned to either a stressful condition (waiting in a small soundproof room for 20 minutes), the same stressful condition but with lavender oil diffused into the room, or a non-stressful condition where subjects waited in non-soundproof rooms.

Before the 20 minutes of isolation, researchers measured the group in the stressful condition and found higher blood pressure, higher heart rate and a higher mean score on a checklist of stress symptoms than the group in the non-stressful condition, meaning staying in a small soundproof room alone was sufficiently stressful for the subjects.

The subjects were left isolated for 20 minutes, then researchers measured blood pressure, heart rate and scores for the checklist of stress symptoms again. The levels of stress between the group in the stressful condition with lavender oil diffused into the room and the group in the non-stressful condition were similar. Both were significantly lower than the group in the stressful condition alone where lavender oil was not diffused.

These results suggest lavender essential oil is able to reduce stress. The compounds in lavender oil go through your nose and enter your bloodstream to reduce stress! Next time you feel stressed, try diffusing a few drops of lavender oil using a diffuser or by dripping a few drops onto a piece of tissue or cottonball. You will definitely feel a lot calmer!

-Gareth Lee

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Consider Third Hand Smoke When Choosing a Home

Posted on October 16, 2017 | 4 comments

Are you planning to move into a new home? Most people have heard about second hand smoke being bad for your health, but have you ever heard about third hand smoke? Third hand smoke is residual tobacco smoke pollutants that can remain in an environment up to months after the last use of tobacco. These pollutants settle on dust and surfaces such as carpets and fabrics. They can be reemitted into the air and inhaled, ingested, and absorbed through the skin. When choosing a home, is third hand smoke important enough of a factor to affect your decision?

Smoke Lingering in an Indoor Environment Credit to Wikipedia Commons

Researchers at the San Diego State University found third hand smoke to be very persistent, with significant levels remaining in homes vacant for 2 months even after they were cleaned and prepared for new occupants.

Third hand smoke levels were measured in 100 homes of smokers and in 50 homes of non smokers before and after the occupants of the homes changed. With the original occupants of the homes still present, the homes of smokers were detected to have levels of third hand smoke around seven times higher on living room surfaces and on living room dust when compared to the homes of non smokers. Levels of third hand smoke were measured again two months after these original occupants moved out and new non-smokers moved in.  The levels of third hand smoke on dust and on surfaces still exceeded health thresholds in more than half of these homes.

Urine samples for the new occupants in former homes of smokers and in former homes of non-smokers were analyzed, and the new occupants in homes of former smokers had an astonishing 3 to 5 times higher levels of tobacco pollutants present in their urine.

They found that third hand smoke levels in the air in homes of former smokers decreased after the change of occupancy, since polluted air can easily be recycled through air circulation and ventilation, but levels of third hand smoke on dust and surfaces remained high. So if you are planning to move into a new home especially with a newborn child, you should take care in choosing a home since infants and young children exhibit behaviours such as crawling and hand to mouth contact which exposes them to the high levels of third hand smoke found on dust and surfaces.

When choosing a new home, definitely try to avoid homes with excess levels of third hand smoke by knowing the history of the recent previous occupants. Knowing about the presence of third hand smoke can protect you and your family from the negative health effects of third hand smoke!

-Gareth Lee

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Effects of hot and cold steeping methods on antioxidant activity in tea

Posted on September 18, 2017 | 1 comment

Antioxidants are molecules that protect your cells from damage, and tea is bursting full of them, but have you ever wondered whether steeping your tea in hot or cold water affects its antioxidant levels? Is the difference even significant enough to worry about? Researchers at Università Politecnica delle Marche tested the effects of steeping temperature on antioxidant levels in black, green, white, and oolong tea.

                             

Black Tea                     Green Tea                       White Tea                    Oolong Tea

All images from Wikipedia Commons

 

The results showed that antioxidant activity is generally higher in tea brewed with hot water, but using statistics, this difference was found to be significant only for green tea. White tea deviates from this trend, showing statistically higher levels of antioxidants when brewed with cold water.

Two different analyses were conducted to measure the antioxidant ability of the four teas. Each analysis independently yielded similar results.

Fig 1: Antioxidant level measured in units of (mM GAE), showing statistically higher antioxidant levels for white tea brewed with cold water and for green tea brewed with hot water. Black and Oolong tea brewed with hot water showed higher antioxidant levels, but was not statistically significant.

Venditti E, Bacchetti T, Tiano L, Carloni P, Greci L, Damiani E. Hot vs. cold water steeping of different teas: do they affect antioxidant activity?. Food Chemistry. 2010 Apr 15;119(4):1597-604.

 

The researcher’s findings suggest that different types of teas contain different types of antioxidants, which are sensitive to different steeping temperatures. The effect of steeping temperature on tea depends on which antioxidants are present. For example, white tea brewed using cold water yielded higher antioxidant levels because some antioxidants may be degraded at higher temperatures. Brewing at lower temperatures preserved those heat sensitive antioxidants. Another example is brewing green tea, where tea brewed with hot water yielded higher antioxidant levels because some antioxidants may be extracted from the leaves efficiently only at higher temperatures.

Whether you prefer black, green, white, or oolong tea, and whether you prefer hot or cold brewing methods, all of these types of teas contain many antioxidants and are a healthy drink choice. Therefore, it is more important to drink the type of tea you like best, brewing it with the method that you prefer, which will ensure that you continue to consume this healthy drink!

-Gareth Lee

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