~Meniscus Archives~
Summer/Fall 2005
Issue #8
Science

Issue #8 Home

 

Fuel Cell Technology Will Change Our World
Paul Matthews and Jon Heinrich
Quite simply, hydrogen fuel cells are like batteries, except they never run dry as long if constantly supplied with fuel and air. The fossil fuel shortage is about to catapult this technology to the forefront of industry to facilitate off-the-grid living.

A Short History of Nearly Everything
A review by Chrystie Hopkins
This 2003 best seller from author Bill Bryson takes the reader from the birth of the universe all the way through the lucky breaks we have experienced as a species to allow us to be standing here now. Truly a miracle!

Supplemental Thinking
Meniscus Magazine is here to support mind expansion. Take a moment to focus on chemical science! Find out what nutrients from the health food store can revitalize your precious grey area.

Sunshine is a State of Mind
Seasonal depression is real. Getting enough Vitamin D means nothing but fun in the sun! How much do I need? Glad you asked!
 
$300 Billion Dollars for WAR!
Compiled by Chrystie Hopkins
It is difficult to understand what $300 billion dollars is equivalent to, it is beyond comprehension. Here are some facts to put it in perspective.
Cindy Sheehan, WMD and Bush's Pretext
for Waging War on Iraq

Jason Leopold
Still trying to figure out what’s eating Cindy Sheehan? Perhaps its that none of the intelligence that president Bush used to rationalize the war has ever panned out. WMDs, ballistic missiles, unmanned drones... Whatever Cindy, get over it!

 


Published 9/18/05

As another Nor’easter sweeps through Boston, clouding the sky and spraying down an unrelenting barrage of horizontal mist, I can’t help but daydream of warm sunshine.

The body requires sunshine to create vitamins naturally. One such vitamin is Vitamin D. Vitamin D is essential for your body to absorb Calcium and Phosphorus. The tricky thing about Vitamin D, is that it rarely occurs naturally, so the sun is key to healthy bones and a healthy body. Vitamin D is equivalent in us to plants green chlorophyll. It is essential to our existence. Without Vitamin D our body cannot synthesize Calcium and our bones can become brittle or deformed and our teeth weak. The lack of Vitamin D has been linked to osteoporosis, prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, depression, schizophrenia, “rickets”, diabetes and seasonal affective disorder. Those that suffer from obesity, or that have dark skin pigmentation require even more sun exposure for the body to create Vitamin D.

What about milk, you ask? Well, that big glass of milk your mama made you choke down when you were little is not naturally full of Vitamin D. Most dairy products today are “fortified” with Vitamin D. As are many breakfast cereals and juices. While eating fortified foods is a nice option in the winter, it is not necessary in the spring, summer and fall. The amount of sunlight needed to create Vitamin D, is 10-15 minutes a day, two times a week on some part of the skin, including the face, without sunscreen. Your body naturally stores the Vitamin D for winter months in the liver and kidneys.

Vitamin D is also found naturally in several animal based foods such as salmon, cod liver oil, mackerel, beef liver, tuna and eggs.

That seasonal depression the residents of Boston suffer from between November and February is real and in part, it is due to the lack of sunlight. People who live above 52 degrees latitude should be aware in the winter months to eat enough Vitamin D. This includes the United Kingdom, Poland, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and many, many other countries. Even people live 10 degrees south still suffer from the effects of sunlight deficiency.

As health trends go, being afraid of the sun is as trendy as it gets. But the facts are simple. It is nearly impossible to get the Vitamin D that your body needs from diet alone, according to Dr. Michael Holick, you would have to drink ten tall glasses of milk a day just to get the minimum amount of Vitamin D. So, exposure to sunshine is the only consistent way for your body to create Vitamin D, which it does, free of charge. There are a few catches though. The sunshine that you need is natural sunlight, which cannot penetrate glass. This means that the sun you get while you drive to work does not count. Also, according to Holick, even sunscreen with SPF 8 can inhibit your body’s ability to generate Vitamin D by 95%. So, while sunscreens help prevent disease during long exposures to the sun, they can inadvertently cause disease when used during your 10-15 minutes of essential exposure. Skin disease is still a growing problem in our country. However, we still must understand that our bodies depend on that sun, so we must achieve balance. As the saying goes, everything in moderation.

Sources:
Office of Dietary Supplements: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp
News Target: www.newstarget.com/003069.html

 


Meniscus Magazine © 2005. All material is property of respective artists.