About-Daily (Circadian) and About-Weekly (Circaseptan) Patterns of Human Salivary Melatonin

Summary: Chronobiology weekly.

Interestingness: 1

Paper by Manfred Herold, Germaine Cornélissen, Mary Jo Rawson, George S. Katinas, Cheryl Alinder, Chris Bratteli, Denis Gubin, Franz Halberg in the Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine, Volume 3, Issue 3, Spring 2000.


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They analysed the melatonin and cortisol content of the saliva of five people 29-73 years of age for a week. They think there's a weekly cycle in melatonin, peaking on Tuesday. I'm close-minded.
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Abstract follows:

Circadian rhythms in circulating, urinary, salivary, pineal, pituitary and hypothalamic melatonin have been mapped. About weekly (circaseptan) rhythms, mapped previously in several other species, are demonstrated herein for human saliva, in individuals of widely differing ages. Whether or not the now demonstrated decrease with age in the circadian amplitude of human adults is accompanied by an increase in the circaseptan amplitude, as it is the case for blood pressure, remains to be determined.

Chronobiology: Time Structures, Chronomes, Gauge Aging, Disease Risk Syndromes and the Cosmos

Summary: Waka waka waka wakke waka waka weh weh

Interestingness: 1

Paper by Franz Halberg, Germaine Cornéissen, Chen-Huan Chen, George S. Katinas, Kuniaki Otsuka, Yoshihiko Watanabe, Manfred Herold, Alexander Loeckinger, Alexander Kreze, Eva Kreze, Federico Perfetto, Roberto Tarquini, Cristina Maggioni, Robert B Sothern and Othild Schwartzkopff in the Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine, Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2000.

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This is a long sell-piece of the field of chronobiology. They want people to analyse data assuming a cyclic underlying pattern. I liked their last paper (http://readingrejuvenationresearch.blogspot.com/2010/06/circadian-hyper-amplitude-tension-chat.html), it was a bit out there, used quite unusual-to-me analysis and graphs, and had a bit of data. This one is waaaayyyyy too out there. They basically want to pump the study of all time cycles, and though I can see good reasons for circadian and yearly and all sorts of in-between rhythms being important, they suggested links between the sunspots on the sun and the levels of some type of steroids in urine based on the collections of one person for 1.5 cycles. I'm not buying this second type of cycle. I was surprised this paper was not rejected based on its literary style alone.
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For dealing with everyday physiology, that is, with respect to physiological variation in the normal range, the prevailing position corresponds to that in preatomic physics. The "a-tom" was then the smallest known particle that could not be further split. Breaking the atom opened the door to a new universe of particles governed by new forces and physical laws. Nuclear physics evolved and brought new knowledge, a new energy source and a wealth of practical applications. The analogy applies to the splitting of the normal range into the time structures of everyday physiology. From picking different times of day and seasons for study, a trans-disciplinary science, chronobiology, emerged. Chronobiology objectively maps chronomes (portmanteau'd from chronos = time and nomos = rule), time structures quantifying the relations among cycles and other events. The chronomes of variables in and around us intermodulate with each other; thus, we start exploring organisms as dynamic systems open to their environments near and far, and dependent upon them, beyond air and food. Entering the realm of everyday physiology allowed us to quantify, with refined indices, associations of life with remote drummers. The intermodulating feedsideward mechanisms involved in cosmophysical associations of life on earth may be in part endocrine responses to factors far beyond visible light and temperature. Pertinent knowledge may serve to optimize the quality and duration of life.