Re: doing darkness

One thing that we do is after dusk (sometimes before) we try to switch
any lights around them to amber ones. Amber has the least effect on the
body's own natural melatonin production. Sadly we can't do anything
about some green and blue equipment lights except try to cover them.
Blue is the most disruptive color and green is the second most
disruptive color.

Those are probably more readily available than they were when we got
them because so much more research has come out on the importance of
melatonin, but when we got ours we had to buy them from Low Blue Lights
dot com
https://www.lowbluelights.com
which apparently still exists.

Why does darkness matter? Increases in light exposure decrease the
amount of melatonin the pineal gland produces and in turn that allows
the pituitary to release larger amounts of LH and FSH. LH has been
connected, by over a hundred studies, to the development of neoplasia
(new growths) and hyperplasia (overgrowth of tissue) in adrenal glands
and so to adrenal tumors among those studies (including not only ferret
ones from veterinary study but also ones where ferrets were the animal
models for human studies). BTW, a recent human study showed that the
rate of human prostate growths was lower for those who live in
locations that do not have much night lighting, using the NASA maps
of ambient night lighting. There is a lot of info from resources like
PubMed, Science News back issues, scotobiology professors, etc. BTW,
notice that some of those studies looked tightly at portions of the
endocrinology while others did overviews for a larger adrenal picture,
but bit by bit each portion has been very well studied by one than one,
alternatives considered and dismissed, and now people are down to learn
more about any nuances.

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 6267]