From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-06-25 00:16:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Re: melatonin
At 9:06 PM -0400 6/24/01, Sukie Crandall wrote:
>Remember that the pineal gland produces melatonin (as do extra
>pineal glands in amphibians and other organ (at much lower levels)
>in plants) and that darkness triggers and continues this production
>while light ends it. There have been rodent studies (not mentioned
>in this text, but recalled from earlier readings) showing that blue
>of green light is especially detrimental in this regard and that
>even low light levels reduce production. Anyone can therefore
>increase the melatonin available to their ferrets by increasing the
>degree and length of time of total or near-total darkness, without
>giving supplements, by simply increasing the ferret's ability to
>make more on its own with darkness.
Clarifications:
"blue OR green light"
This paragraph does not refer to therapeutic doses such as those
being looked at to see how much they might help with adrenal disease
for some. Instead, I am referring here to amounts for regular
ferrets. Hope that was obvious, but just in case...