Time changes - more to it than the Clock Change Shuffle

Not everyone does the twice-a-year Clock Change Shuffle and according to the health experts, that may be a good thing. Besides the annoyance of having to change all the clocks in the house. car, purse, and pocket (and Lord knows, we have way more clocks these days than we ever did before), there seems to be a not-so-good effect on our health and well-being most of the time. But - it's not all bad.

Statistics show that there are more accidents in the few days following time changes and that many people suffer from sleep problems as they adjust to the one hour change either way. One would think that it's easy enough to make up for a lost hour of sleep in the spring and enjoy the one extra hour of sleep in the fall, but that doesn't seem to be so. And, pity the poor night-shift worker who has to work that extra hour in the middle of the night. I've done it and man, does that extra hour make a big, big difference in how you feel that night.

Anyway, back to health stuff. As weird as this sounds, falling back an hour in the fall slightly increases our chance of developing breast, prostate and colorectal cancers if you live in a northern country like Canada. The evidence isn't strong enough to warrant any action, but there is a link to the amount of vitamin D you get (from the sun) and certain types of cancer. So, organizations like the Canadian Cancer Society has issued a plea that we up our daily intake of vitamin D to balance out the lack of it from the sun during the winter months.

Now for the good news. Mondays are notorious high heart attack days in hospital emergency departments. Every Monday that is, except for the one following the change back from Daylight Savings Time. Swedish researchers published the results of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, that showed there were 5% fewer heart attacks the Monday after the time change. Of course, if there's this effect in the spring, we can assume - and we'd be right, say the researchers - that there's a rise in heart attacks the the full week, not just Monday, after we go back to Daylight Savings Time.

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