Rhythmicity from the start👶

🪶 I am an antioxidant synthesized in darkness from tryptophan and serotonin. What am I?

Hi,

I have been wanting to share today's review for a long time. Read the paper here: Melatonin and stable circadian rhythms optimize maternal, placental and fetal physiology (2013).

Or, keep reading for my summary. This is a great introduction to the topic, which I wrote about in much more depth here.

What says darkness and fertility like the moon? Photo by Sebastian Voortman.

I learned a ton about melatonin from this review, such as how it:

• is a more powerful antioxidant than vitamin C and vitamin E

• protects ova and sperm from damage

• protects mothers from long-term damage from pregnancy-induced high blood pressure

• may protect babies from adverse outcomes including metabolic disorder, obesity, adhd and autism spectrum disorders

• is suppressed in mothers with pre-eclampsia and eclampsia

• and so much more

Circadian Rhythm and Melatonin

The circadian rhythm controls melatonin cycles. If you remember from Useful Jargon, endo/exo pathways are important to consider! In the body, melatonin naturally rises in the night, but only in darkness. The modern lifestyle tends to provide about 16 hours of blue-enriched artificial light. This is far too much and is the #1 reason about 99% of people in the USA are suffering from disruption¹.

This review highlights the special need for future-parents to restore nighttime darkness.

Read the review here: Melatonin and stable circadian rhythms optimize maternal, placental and fetal physiology (2013).

That's all for today, but you can always review the archive at nikkofujita.substack.com. I will send more research about natural light cycles in my upcoming emails📩.

You may also be interested in:

Useful jargon📕: how photosynthesized Vitamin D beats dietary Vitamin D

Useful jargon📕

Consolidated vs unconsolidated sleep😴: how artificial lighting unnaturally compresses human sleep patterns

Consolidated vs unconsolidated sleep😴

Circadian rhythmicity🏙: how eliminating blue-light induced disruption is a new frontier in health

Circadian rhythmicity 🏙

⭐️ Circadian Coaching: how to help those in your care resynchronize and strengthen their rhythms ← ((this one is PACKED with info and citations))

👉Start Here

Best,

Nikko

P.S. The answer to the "Who am I?"question is, of course, melatonin.

1. Walker, W., Walton, J., DeVries, C, Nelson, R. (2020). Circadian rhythm disruption and mental health. Translational Psychiatry, 10:28.