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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] We're all gonna die
  • Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:01:41 EDT



> I believe there is a place for good quality supplements and believe they can
> assist a person to be healthy or become healthy.

For what it's worth, the research doesn't back up that view.

>
> We love broccoli and consume it in vast quantities here, but I can't get
> Melatonin in broccoli.

No you can't, but you can get it from sunlight. Indirectly. While
everything we produce diminishes with age, drops in melatonin level is most
often
associated with the brain continuing to produce melatonin when in a natural
sleep/wake cycle it would be suppressing it. Thus at night it can't produce
enough
to induce a deep enough level of sleep. Exposure to a lot of sunlight tells
the brain it no longer needs to produce melatonin for the day and so it shuts
down production. Both the mechanism and constituent chemicals are conserved
and
available for night when it is natural to produce melatonin.

I've no doubt taking melatonin supplement is effective, after all insomnia is
a pathology, but I don't think that's the only way to address the problem.
What would give me (personally) pause is this: Suppose I had persistent
infections and bleeding gums and it turned out to be the precursor to scurvy.
I
could take vitamin C supplements and the condition would clear up. Or else
I
could eat a lot of broccoli, and the condition would clear up. With the
latter
solution I would also be getting fiber and 400 known and the gods only know
how many unknown (as anyone who knows anything about the unknown well knows)
phyto-chemicals that prevent all and sundry ailments and enhance the overall
health. WIth the former solution I get none of those.

Like that, longer exposure to sunlight is supposed to balance melatonin
production. With that solution who knows what other benefits one gets. A
bunch, I
bet. With the supplement, I'd (personally) be concerned I was masking
something else that wanted addressing.

Just me.

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