Curiously, the cancer rate is 10 percent higher in the left breast than in the right. This left-side bias holds true for both men and women and it also applies to the skin cancer melanoma. Researchers Orjan Hallberg of Hallberg Independent Research in Sweden and Ollie Johansson of The Karolinska Institute in Sweden, writing in the June issue of the journal Pathophysiology, suggest a surprising explanation that not only points to a common cause for both cancers, it may change your sleeping habits.
For unknown reasons the rates of breast cancer and melanoma have both increased steadily in the last 30 years. Exposure to the sun elevates the risk of melanoma, but the sun's intensity has not changed in the last three decades. Stranger still, melanoma most commonly affects the hip, thighs and trunk, which are areas of the body protected from the sun. What is responsible for the left-side dominance and increasing incidence of these cancers?
An intriguing clue comes from the Far East. In Japan there is no correlation between the rates of melanoma and breast cancer as there is in the West, and there is no left-side prevalence for either disease. Moreover, the rate of breast cancer in Japan is significantly lower than in the West; only 3 percent of what is seen in Sweden, for example. The rate of prostate cancer in Japan is only 10 percent of that in the U.K. and U.S.
The researchers suggest an explanation based on differences in sleeping habits in Japan and Western countries. Previous research has shown that both men and women prefer to sleep on their right sides. The reasons for this general preference are unclear, but sleeping on the right side may reduce the weight stress on the heart, and the heartbeat is not as loud as when sleeping on the left. Still, there is no reason to suspect that people in Japan sleep in positions that are any different from those in the West. The beds in Japan, however, are different. The futons used for sleeping in Japan are mattresses placed directly on the bedroom floor, in contrast to the elevated box springs and mattress of beds used in the West. A link between bedroom furniture and cancer seems absurd, but this, the researchers say, could the answer.
The first line of evidence they cite comes from a 2007 study in Sweden conducted between 1989 and 1993 that revealed a strong link between the incidence of melanoma and the number of FM and TV transmission towers covering the area where the individuals lived. Despite epidemiological correlations like this one suggesting the possibility that electromagnetic radiation from FM and TV broadcasts stations could suppress the immune system and promote cancer, the strength of these electromagnetic fields is so feeble it has been difficult to imagine any biological basis for the correlation.
Consider, however, that even a TV set cannot respond to broadcast transmissions unless the weak electromagnetic waves are captured and amplified by an appropriately designed antenna. Antennas are simply metal objects of appropriate length sized to match the wavelength of a specific frequency of electromagnetic radiation. Just as saxophones are made in different sizes to resonate with and amplify particular wavelengths of sound, electromagnetic waves are selectively amplified by metal objects that are the same, half or one quarter of the wavelength of an electromagnetic wave of a specific frequency. Electromagnetic waves resonate on a half-wavelength antenna to create a standing wave with a peak at the middle of the antenna and a node at each end, just as when a string stretched between two points is plucked at the center. In the U.S. bed frames and box springs are made of metal, and the length of a bed is half the wavelength of FM and TV transmissions that have been broadcasting since the late 1940s. In Japan most beds are not made of metal, and the TV broadcast system does not use the 87- to 108-megahertz frequency used in Western countries.
Thus, as we sleep on our coil-spring mattresses, we are in effect sleeping on an antenna that amplifies the intensity of the broadcast FM/TV radiation. Asleep on these antennas, our bodies are exposed to the amplified electromagnetic radiation for a third of our life spans. As we slumber on a metal coil-spring mattress, a wave of electromagnetic radiation envelops our bodies so that the maximum strength of the field develops 75 centimeters above the mattress in the middle of our bodies. When sleeping on the right side, the body's left side will thereby be exposed to field strength about twice as strong as what the right side absorbs.
If this study is correct, the solution is simple: Replace the metal in our beds with a nonmetallic mattress or orient your bed, like an antenna, away from the direction of the local FM/TV transmission tower. Call it high-tech feng shui if you like, but if this new study has not identified the cause of left-side cancer, it will, for some, be the cause of insomnia.
A final note: Epidemiological studies are by definition correlations. Just as an association between smoking cigarettes and coronary disease stimulated experimental studies, so too will the associations between electromagnetic radiation and cancer. The significance of this new study is in identifying a mechanism that increases the body's exposure to electromagnetic radiation for prolonged periods. For intriguing biological factors involved in left-side cancer see here.
do i pass?
Beds cause cancer! Sleep on the floor! *enter discussion about toxins in carpets, the cleaners, etc.*
So sleep outside! *pesticides on the grass are carcinogens*
The arguments could continue, if not for cancer, for some other ailment. It's all a trade off.
I don't sleep on a futon because it hurts my back; and I doubt it would guarantee I'll never get cancer.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12787139
as well as results indicating that melanoma risk is lower in people that have a tan, and that DNA damage is reduced by antioxidants.
But that minor effect can't explain why Japanese woman have 3% the rate of breast cancer of Swedes, nor their men have 10% the rate of prostate cancer as US and UK.
What does explain the reduced Japanese rates is DIET.
Researchers know why India has a much lower rate of prostate cancer: turmeric.
Aka "curcumin", the stuff that makes mustard and curry yellow.
Prevents prostrate cancer, also Alzheimer. It's an anti-inflammatory, help arthritis.
Researchers believe most differences in cancer rate are from diet, including the Japanese.
BTW before using a futon, stop using your cell phone; much more exposure to EMR from that.
Cell phone usage almost certainly causes brain cancer; much more evidence for that, than this.
In certain situations the springs can also distort and amplify the natural geomagnetic field, with similar effects. I would strongly recommend replacing your metal-sprung mattress with a non-sprung one or a futon.
It is funny looking back at what people have done over the centuries: from bleeding patients with leeches, to selling tonics in the Old West from a wagon, to giving radiation "treatment" to improve mood. Then we had cigarettes that were promoted by doctors for their health benefits.
Every generation has had the privledge of looking dumb in some way to the future generations. We are discovering a world vastly more complicated than we have imagined up to now--we will certainly be looked back on with a slight mocking attitude for some of the things we have done in ignorance.
I have two really big candidates in mind: drilling big holes in the ground for oil and expelling millions of tons of CO2 a year into the atmosphere.
There are issues though - the field intensity is going to greater in the center of the bed, the article quotes 75cm above the mattress, although I have doubts about that. That's not where most people sleep, unless they being exorcised theatrically.
Also, broadcast signals come in horizontally, whereas the mattress resonator picture hints at the energy being assumed to come in vertically.
People who sleep in their cars should have a lower cancer risk.
If you sleep on your right side, you have cosmic rays coming from your left, and your left side shields your right side from them a little. Cosmic ray exposure causes cancer, not might cause cancer, does cause cancer. I don't see why it wouldn't affect people in Japan, but this is an explanation that I find easier to swallow.
When I read your sentence about cosmic rays it seemed good - for a moment. But it does not take into account "what is different".
If your explanation does not account at all for the Japanese occurrence then I strongly urge you not to swallow anything.
Good science commonly goes against "conventional wisdom".
Body asymmetry probably can account for some of it too.
The mattress as RF griddle does seem a stretch.
But to answer your serious question: it depends on how many fillings you got and how man reruns are running during a 24-hour block....
I have been using one for years, and my Tonkinese cats have one in their bed. As I write this comment, I am connected to earth ground through my chair armrest. Anecdotal reports suggest a calming effect, and a decrease in inflammation.
Details and references can be found in "The Wellness Project," and "Earthing."
Roy Mankovitz, Director
http://www.MontecitoWellness.com
I do know of others who claim great benefit. There is no downside to trying it (other than cost), and it clearly mimics nature, so I am all for it.