At Viva-Lite we are passionate about the role of light in peoples lives, to the extent that we created a range of light-bulbs that allow full-spectrum lighting indoors.

This recent discussion we came across looks at the role of sunlight and cancer and illustrates the importance of light in our lives.

“If one is to believe Esther John, an epidemiologist of Northern California Cancer Center, a daily dose of sunlight can decrease the chances of breast cancer by an amazing 40%. A short walk in the sun can also relieve stress and increase blood circulation in addition to reducing the risk of breast cancer. It is a well known and researched fact that the instance of breast cancer is more in cloudy and colder regions. An exposure to the full spectrum light is inversely correlated to colon, rectal and breast cancers.”

The full article can be found here.

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2. Vitamin D Deficiencies At Epidemic Levels
3. Why are we Vitamin D deficient?

One of the most common signs of aging is eyesight deterioration but in a recent published paper we see that there are ways to keep healthy and strong eye function as age.

• “More than six million Americans over age 65 already have serious visual impairment.
• The National Eye Institute says the risk of low vision and even blindness increases significantly with age, starting when we’re in our 40s.
• A National Health Interview Survey indicates that while just five in one hundred Americans under 44 years of age reported vision loss, that number grew to 12 in a hundred for those 45-64 and climbed to almost fourteen out of one hundred for those 65-74. By the time we’re over 75, nearly 22 in a hundred of us have vision loss.

The good news is that a few common-sense steps can help most seniors to continue to see well.

One of the surest ways to maintain vision and guard against deterioration is to make sure you have good light available at all times – whether you are reading a book, performing a simple task or working on a detailed hobby or craft project.

Good light – the light that most resembles natural daylight – not only makes it more enjoyable and less tiring to do common activities, it decreases the risk of falls and fractures. And, good light helps people to identify medications correctly, lowering the likelihood of drug-related errors. ”

The full article can be accessed here.  Viva-Lite, manufacturers of full-spectrum bulbs, fully endorse the increased use of full-spectrum bulbs in homes and have a range to met different requirements.

Additional Reading

• Easy ways to improve your vision
• Tips to improve eyesight
• Avoid eye-strain and fatigue with these helpful exercises

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A New Zealand engineer has invented a “cutting-edge” device to calculate just how much sunshine we need to stay healthy.

It’s exciting to see such research take place as it opens up the possibilities for full-scale research into the manner in which Vitamin D is absorbed by humans.  The article states:

Around half of New Zealand adults have insufficient vitamin D and 4 per cent of women and 2 per cent of men are vitamin D-deficient.

With figures like that it’s more and more important that such investigation takes place.  The full article is available here:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10637754

Related posts:

1. Why are we Vitamin D deficient?
2. Vitamin D Deficiencies At Epidemic Levels
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From time to time we are checking the internet for what people say about Viva-Lite. That way we can learn a lot how our customers perceive our brand, products and services.

For example see this feedback on namahatta.org and how well Viva-Lite worked for growing Tulsi:

“We planted Tulasi at home last summer. When she was very little we bought her a 26 W Viva-lite full-spectrum bulb. She was doing well with it. She grew very strong stalk and large, green leaves. Recently we felt she needs more light. We arranged two 36 W fluorescent Viva-lite tubes for her. In Scandinavia there is hardly any natural light at this time of the year!

As far as I’ve understood, plants benefit mostly from certain wavelengths of light. In order to grow nicely, they need more cool or blue light. When they are blooming, they require some red wavelengths, too. Visual color temperature is measured by the degree of Kelvin. That’s what you have to pay attention to when choosing light for Tulasi.

Full-spectrum lights are as close as it artificially gets to a natural mid-day sun during the late summer. Viva-lite bulbs/tubes have 5500 K which resembles normal daylight. They imitate all wavelengths of light to some degree. Because they have a very high color rendering index (CRI), they don’t distort the actual color impression around them. Lights that have low CRI make everything look weird, either yellow or strangely blue.

The standard incandescent or halogen lamps have around 2500-3000 K, which is not useful for plants. They also emanate a lot of heat and waste energy.”

We couldn’t agree more. Visit namahatta.org to read the full article.

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Using the constructed base case, it has been shown that a switch to CFL is beneficial for Icelandic household economically. However, the benefit is much less than the public is led to believe in advertising by manufacturers. As shown in table 1, the break even point is somewhere between the 5th and 6th year. After 20 years, the savings amount to 9,7 Euros per year, for each household in Iceland.

It can therefore be concluded that Icelandic consumers are being misinformed about the true economic benefits of switching to CFL.

As mentioned earlier, the EU preparatory report by VITO, found the biggest environmental impact of lamps to be during their use phase. Their calculations assume the EU27 average for electricity generation, which is 31% from coal, 22% from oil and gas and 47% from renewable sources, of which 32% comes from nuclear power plants. Iceland obtains nearly 100% of its electricity and heat from renewable sources. The use phase therefore does not contribute to global warming. As has been shown, using parts of the EcoReport tool, adoption of regulation 244/2009 with universal household adoption of CFL in Iceland, results in more environmental costs both in Iceland and internationally.

This goes against the spirit and intention of EU regulation 244/2009. In light of these results it is logical to ask further. If nothing else changes, at what point is the electricity generation ratio of a country such that switching to CFL causes more environmental damage than good ?

Read the complete article on the PLDA Greenpages…

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To celebrate this, we’d like to share a story with you from a client in the Netherlands: He is a specialist for rare plants and grows (among others) a special type of amaryllis from South Africa. Now after he was away for some travels and without proper lighting as usual, on his return the plant seemed to have died off and the leafs already showed an unhealthy yellow colour.

Even though he thought it was too late, he felt to give Viva-Lite a go and installed 2×80W Viva-Lite Full Spectrum tubes just to find that after only 3 days of being lit with Viva-Lite, his amaryllis came back to perfect condition adding “this result is absolutely amazing”:

Since then we had many enquiries and lot of feedback from people who use Viva-Lite for their plants and animals alike (e.g. fish, aquarium etc.), many with similar stories.

We thought of sharing this good news with you at the beginning of the New Year.

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1. Lights for Tulasi
2. Organic Goat Farm Lighted With Viva-Lite
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The farmer wanted to light up the barn with daylight so the milk production goes up. She also painted the ceiling which in combination with Viva-Lite it makes a huge difference as you can see for yourself in the following before / after pictures:

Thanks to our distributor in Holland who made these pictures!

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Dave – one of our kind customers in Australia has sent us the following pictures of an energy saving lamp with the Viva-Lite Spectrum and the Sunlight as a comparison:

Both photos were taken through so-called “Spectral-Glasses” which you can get in many stores and on the internet. Or buy them directly in the Viva-Lite International Online-Store and compare for yourself…

Related posts:

1. The Colour Rendering Index (CRI)
2. New Year Amaryllis – Happy And Alive!
3. 2nd International Full Spectrum Lighting Conference