TED Community ยป Richard Weller

About Me

Location:
United Kingdom, Edinburgh
Current organization:
University of Edinburgh
Gender:
Male
Areas of expertise:
Dermatology, Photobiology
I am:
Doctor, Scientist
Associations:
alpine club , Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh)
My website links:
CIR, Dermatology
Universities:
University of London-Kings College, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat, University of Pittsburgh
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  • A comment on Talk: Richard Weller: Could the sun be good for your heart?

    Apr 17 2013: Joana
    thanks for the comment. I suspect Warfarin (Marevan) will not interact with NO effects on blood flow, as NO affects platelet activity and reduces clotting, while Warfarin acts on Vitamin K dependent clotting factors. the reason to avoid green leafy vegetables whilst on warfarin is that they contain Vitamin K
    Richard

  • A comment on Talk: Richard Weller: Could the sun be good for your heart?

    Mar 7 2013: Dave- I am flattered you should ask. No, I don't have a blog, and haven't really thought about it before. This TED talk has thrown my research into the public eye in (to me) a most unexpected way. I send my research subjects a round up of the findings of the studies they have been involved in, and publish in the scientific journals. Maybe I should think about updating my department web page with something similar.
    best wishes
    Richard
  • +1

    A reply on Talk: Richard Weller: Could the sun be good for your heart?

    Feb 18 2013: Dear Bntam
    we have started looking at this. Beetroot contains large amounts of Nitrate (NO3) and this is reduced to NO. There is now good evidence that this will lower blood pressure, and also makes muscles use oxygen more efficiently. Beetroot juice was apparently drunk by many of hte athletes at the LOndon Olympics and had to be approved by the IOC as not being a drug! So can sunlight enhance the effect of a high nitrate (e.g. beetroot) diet? We hope to find out.
    Richard

  • A reply on Talk: Richard Weller: Could the sun be good for your heart?

    Feb 18 2013: We stuck to UVA to give clear water between or findings and any possible vitamin D effects. UVB might have the same NO releasing effects, but UVB lamps burn very easily, and are thus difficult to use.
    Richard

  • A reply on Talk: Richard Weller: Could the sun be good for your heart?

    Feb 18 2013: Free radical biology is very complex, and so we have concentrated on measuring what actually happens in human volunteers. The epidemiology is pretty strong showing cardiovascular benefits from sunshine. Richard

  • A reply on Talk: Richard Weller: Could the sun be good for your heart?

    Feb 18 2013: Linda thank

    You Australians live 2 years longer on average than the English, and 3 years longer than Scots. Pretty striking figures and I think a pay-off well worth the very slightly increased risk of death from skin cancer. Richard

  • A reply on Talk: Richard Weller: Could the sun be good for your heart?

    Feb 18 2013: Interesting idea. I need to check it, but I am pretty sure that there is such a relationship. For a long time in hte UK we used to keep 'winter wards' which were closed in summer and re-opened for hte annual seasonal increase in acute admissions in winter. There are more heart attacks in winter and it is a busier time for internal medicine doctors in the UK. I don't think there are such strong seasonal changes at lower latitudes where there are in any case not the same pattern of 4 seasons- rather a 'dry' and a 'wet'. Richard
  • +1

    A reply on Talk: Richard Weller: Could the sun be good for your heart?

    Feb 18 2013: Alejandro
    thanks for your questions. Skin colour is an interesting one, and something we want to look at. Vitamin D synthesis is certainly affected by skin colour and the amount of sun at different latitudes has been a strong evolutionary driver for different degrees of pigmentation around the world (great TED talk by Nina Jablonski on this). We think that it does not affect the NO driven response to UV though- but we haven't tested this properly yet. As for variation with body site- again an interesting question - don't know, but I wonder if the stores of NO2/NO3 etc get depleted in sun exposed sites more than sun covered? Something else we need to look at! All best. Richard

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