On 19th of October, I went to a course organised by the Society of Ecological Medicine in London.

Here are a few ideas that I gleaned at that meeting and a few references that you might find helpful if you want to follow these ideas.

The first idea is about the hormone melatonin. I don’t know whether I missed the lecture, but I did not remember this hormone from undergraduate teaching, but much later it was the ‘sleep’ hormone secreted by a gland in the midline of the frontal brain called the pineal gland, Importantly this is hormone is ancient, it has been with evolving life for countless ages. We have coming to recognise that the hormonal world is so much more than we could possibly have conceived!  Time was when even good medical schools taught about a handful of hormones and I seem to recall the impression of a substance and single function – a lever pulled, a single task accomplished!  How much more glorious is the picture now emerging, and how much more complex. Vast numbers of substances have numerous interlocking functions which work together in dynamic processes and relate to other bodily systems to help keep us on an even keel, the process of homeostasis.

Melatonin is an example of this and the fascinating thing is it’s longevity, it has been with life as it grew and developed through long epochs and is therefore apparently present very widely throughout living things as you would expect.  It’s a good thing to go back to if we are trying to regain the pillars of our health.                                                                                                      Now, it is tradition that melatonin in the body is associated with the pineal gland but it is now known that it is also produced in other brain cells and a wide range of organs in the rest of the body.  It has been thought of as the sleep hormone, inducing and maintaining, a process known as homeostasis.

It also occurs in our food and is produced by our fellow travellers – the human biome. It has been thought of as the sleep hormone, inducing and maintaining.  This is only a start however, it is known to be a profound anti-oxidant, countering damaging ‘reactive oxygen species’, which are produced as a result of energy production.  The body also makes the stuff in response to exercise and naturally during sleep.  It appears quickly in response to sunlight and during a fever. It is stimulated by red and infra-red light and inhibited by blue light,                                                                               So, it is an ancient  substance which responds to various challenges that the body encounters but there are other important effects.  It stimulates various macrophages – white blood cells  -  a vital part of our immunity and also stimulates the important glutathione, which has many helpful functions in keeping our body healthy -  an all round ‘good egg’.

So here is a word that might start to explain a good number of things we are told these days - that outside and sunlight and exercise are good, as is limiting our devotion to the screen. Eating a good natural diet and good sleep are also on our side.

The word is melatonin!

Perhaps sadly most of the literature about melotonin is about the its supplimentary use and I have not found much about it’s wider homoestatic effect in the body.

I’m afraid this a trend in the world that instead of doing natural and simple things to help ourselves we tend to reach for a drug company.

This however is a good one and available without paying a fortune!

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-079X.1993.tb00478.x

Another Way?

A light-hearted look at how your body is put together and functions, because that seriously changes everything!

A Discussion led by Peter Cornah

(villageadamandeve.uk)

When?  2.30 pm 23rd of April ‘24

Where?  Clee St. Margaret Village Hall

I am planning to reprise this in the autumn, probably at Diddlebury.