In the article below Matt Richmond wrote about Binghamton University professor Ken McLeod designing a floor lamp that will warm up one’s core temperature. McLeod researched how a warmer core temperature increases the production of growth hormone, which regulates one’s metabolism, and resulting in a healthier office environment. McLeod’s floor lamp invention will take a while to become available, in the mean time focus on having a good ergonomic chair or a plant to freshen the air.
More on the McLeod’s invention below.
by Matt Richmond
Rochester, NY, Dec 18, 2012 — It’s not unusual for people to wonder if their offices are making them less healthy: people complain of a lack of fresh air, sick coworkers, and uncomfortable chairs, to name a few. In Binghamton University’s bioengineering labs, researchers are looking for ways to make workplaces healthier.
Binghamton University professor Ken McLeod says he has proof that a warmer office will make people healthier. In the university’s bioengineering labs, he’s building a personal heating device that uses a low-frequency laser to warm people up.
According to McLeod, fighting obesity by controlling calorie intake and burning the calories you can through exercise isn’t the best way to do it.
McLeod says the main benefit of exercising 30 minutes a day, five days a week, is that it increases a person’s core body temperature. And when your body temperature goes up, you produce more growth hormones.
“But you can see below 37 degrees, we make no growth hormone. You push up even half a degree and you can see this curve coming up fast and by 38 degrees, you’re pushing up a maximum amount of growth hormone, it’s gone up more than 100-fold.”
Growth hormones increase a person’s metabolism which keeps their weight in check. So that’s why you exercise, to warm yourself up.
McLeod wonders, why should we settle for exercising 30 minutes a day to get our body temperature up, when we spend 40 hours a week in the office, letting our bodies do what they have to to keep warm
“If we’re not exercising enough to maintain our core temperature, we’re going to do something else and what that something else is is insulating ourselves from the cold. We lay down white body fat under our skin.”
McLeod’s personal heater works by directing warmth right at a person, instead of heating up the air around them. McLeod estimates that his heater, which looks like a typical floor lamp, would only need about 15 watts of power, compared to more than a thousand watts for a space heater. Continue reading →
