Color yourself healthy

Experts say surrounding yourself with cheery rainbow hues is the key to enjoying your best summer yet!

- —BY BRENDA KEARNS

The ‘color-free’ way to keep allergies at bay

Beautiful colors and natural light can be healing during the day. But keeping your bedroom completely dark at night could halve your risk of summer allergy flares. So say Canadian investigators, who found that sleeping in a darkened room encourages melatonin levels to stay high. And while this hormone is a well-known sleep aid, their study reveals that it also keeps immune cells calm, stopping them from overreacting when they encounter pollen, dander and other allergens.

End indigestion with a blue view

As the temperature rises, so does your risk of bloating and indigestion, since keeping your core temperature steady on hot days disrupts the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which controls digestive enzyme release and speedy stomach emptying. Luckily, you can soothe an upset stomach by relaxing by a pool or strolling along a lake or other body of water. Research from UC Davis suggests enjoying these blue views activates the digestion-enhancing PNS in less than 2 minutes.