Monica, the lighting stuff remains hypothetical in relation to adrenals,
just like all the other hypotheses out there remain scientifically
untested. See the Science News articles mentioned earlier to learn more
in relation to why complete darkness may make a difference for hormonal
neoplasias (Vol. 154, No. 16); Ask a reference librarian for help if you
can't find it. For learning about the hypotheses in relation to
day-lighting see http://miamiferret.org/FHC. Steve and I ARE careful about
not having night-lights, not having monitors on, providing black cage
covers -- having checked to make sure that our's doesn't over-heat, having
sleep sacks which block light, etc. for the reasons explained in the
article. Besides, it's easy to do by just changing some habits so if the
pay-off may be so large, why not? This was discussed recently again, and
there is more depth info in older FML posts to be found with the search
feature, too. Time is lacking around here for anything more in depth.
The proposed mechanism is that melatonin produced within the body during
periods of FULL darkness (can be produced in some darkness but the amounts
are greater in full darkness) may differ from ingested melatonin -- or
there may even be other involved still-undiscovered compounds (always very
likely given how little is ever known compared to unknown), and that this
naturally produced melatonin and/or other compounds (or compounds in
conjunction with each other) act as very powerful antioxidants helping the
body defeat the pre-cursors of such illness. It's based upon melatonin
having been already described as a powerful antioxidant and upon studies
revealing that blind people have fewer hormonal cancers than sighted
people, but it is only hypothetical like the rest still. That's why
studies need to be done and people need to finance such studies.
Which reminds me, someone asked about two of the places which do or fund
ferret health work to improve veterinary care. You can get info from MAF's
website but the "exotics section" hadn't been done last I saw and there
isn't enough in the coffers for the ferret fund right now to fund another
study to help our guys. This is off the top of my head:
http://www.MorrisAnimalFoundation.org so I hope I got it right. We've been
giving to them for years and years. The place in NYC which came up was the
AMC: Animal Medical Center.
Sounds like it's time to post useful websites for a range of info again:
See the one above. Also see:
http://www.ferretcentral.org
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083/probintro.html
In addition, use those to link to a HUGE number of useful websites as your
time permits.
Ties: Years ago we had two painted. For some reason her name escapes me
but it was by the woman who does some of the funny carry-alls and cards,
and had ferret t-shirts over a decade ago. If you know who I mean please
POST it publicly and send it on to <[log in to unmask]> who is
seeking a tie. Every single year there are people wanting ferret ties;
some wanting small repeated prints, and some wanting more bold ones. The
e-mail of the person who made our's has something like "13 dogs" and "5
cats" in it, or some-such. Shoot, it's on the tip on my tongue, too...
***FERRET STORE PEOPLE AND FERRETWARE -- YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS SINCE YOU
HAVE HER ITEMS. IF YOU NOTICE THIS; COULD YOU POST?***
[Moderator's note: No, I don't give out email addresses... this one was
in the last ad issue: Linda Gaylord <[log in to unmask]> BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 2874]
|
