What is it about?
Melatonin is a hormone produced naturally by the pineal gland in response to darkness. Mistakenly presumed anticancer capacities of melatonin are based on the proven suppression of estrogen synthesis and signaling. Excessive melatonin production in the darkness of northern regions, particularly in dark skinned people, results in health disparities via hormonal defects. Women are especially endangered in natural light deficiency as their biology requires high estrogen levels.
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Why is it important?
Melatonin supplements are often recommended against insomnia, cancer and ageing. Nevertheless, as melatonin is a pivotal regulator of the endocrine functions, excessive administration may suppress the activity of other hormones and causes serious alterations instead of improvement.
Perspectives
Control and restoration of hormonal equilibrium in dark skinned people living in northern regions and in night shift workers may decrease their health disadvantages.
professor Zsuzsanna Suba
National Institute of Oncology Budapest
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Light Deficiency Confers Breast Cancer Risk by Endocrine Disorders, Recent Patents on Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery, July 2012, Bentham Science Publishers,
DOI: 10.2174/157489212801820048.
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