WATCHING a solar eclipse may be so stressful that it is bad for your health,
say British researchers. So there might be a grain of truth in myths surrounding
eclipses after all.
Omar Mian at Manchester University and Rubina Mian and Doug Thake at Coventry
University were mocking tales of eclipses making people sick, or even causing
deformities in unborn children. “Then I pointed out there was no evidence either
way,” says Rubina Mian.
Mian took her graduate students to a field in Briey, France, to watch the
1999 summer eclipse. By analysing their blood samples with a luminometer, the
researchers found that leukocyte activity increased by 8.7 per cent during the
eclipse. These white blood cells usually help our immune system, but if
overstimulated they can damage DNA by releasing free radicals. Experiments after
the eclipse showed that darkness, silence and temperature had no effect on
leukocyte activity. But in other studies being prepared for publication Mian has
found that stress can have a big effect.
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“I know I was stressed,” says Mian about the eclipse. “It was really quite
overwhelming.” And if it’s stressful for her, Mian says it must be worse for
those who don’t understand what an eclipse is, or who believe legends about the
phenomenon.