The Moon In Our Health

The moon, sublime from space, has accompanied humans throughout their existence; the differences between day and night affect how our body works, but could there be something else?

Earth's only natural satellite, the moon, constant change between new and complete, provided a rhythm for many people's offsprings. The moon has had high cultural and chronological significance; throughout history, people made calendars based on the lunar phases. On the other hand, scientists have also focused on investigating the moon's effects on our surface.

The moon generates a gravitational pull, causes the movement of water on the closest side of our planet and another on the far side. As the world rotates, the part affected by the lunar pull changes, creating a high tide every 12 hours at a given location.

The moon generates some gravitational attraction on the planet, varies with the position in the moon's path. The moon has a magnetic field that modifies the route that follows the water in our oceans.

The moon helps regulate the temperature, maintaining a more stable climate. The tilt of our planet affects the sun's energy is distributed on Earth and can influence the advance or retreat of glaciations; it can cause sudden and abrupt changes in the weather.

Image 1: The moon is involved in many roles in nature.

Health effects

The moon on human health; is well-known as the "Transylvanian effect"; or the moon's influence on human behavior.

These assumptions spread in popular culture throughout history, have caused a great discussion in the scientific community about whether it is true; even before the Middle Ages, there are stories of when people thought werewolves to arise with the arrival of the full moon.

Well, although the degree of magnitude is not so exaggerated as to control our autonomy and tell us what to do, there is a certain degree of truth in the influence of the moon on human health and functioning.

Daylight and darkness at night generate rhythmic changes in our body, which name is the circadian cycle. The light in your eyes tells your body when day or night when to sleep or be awake, alterations occur in the hormones and changes in the functioning of various organs, is clear because it intervenes in physical and mental health.

The circadian cycle is essential; when it fails can cause illness, for example, anxiety and depression in people. In cases where people have their "biological clock" altered, it can cause psychiatric diseases such as depression, seasonal affective disorder, schizophrenia, neurodegenerative disorders, among others.

There is an ongoing debate about the connection between the lunar cycle and psychiatric illness. The literature presents contradictory results. There are both positive and negative reports

13,067 Chinese patients with schizophrenia show lunar periodicities. People with schizophrenia tend to be stable during the new moon, but the first quarter and the full moon aggravates their condition. Patients with paranoid schizophrenia are more susceptible to deterioration during the full moon, so they deserve more attention and care from communities, families, and hospitals.

Finland reports inform 6,808 homicides committed in 1961-2014; during the full moon, the homicide prevalence is 15% fewer than during the new moon.

Image 2: The circadian cycle is the main effect on the body influenced by the moon.

Studies Get Higher Ratings for Full Moon Sleep Patterns; Unlike with the new moon, both in the morning and night.

On the other hand, the data of 17,966 cases of people attended. Lunar cycles did not show the connection with admission or discharge rates of hospitalized psychiatric patients, nor was there a relationship with the length of stay.

Many clinical studies give negative results on the moon's effects on dreaming. For example, there is 10-year research that shows lunar cycles have no connection to brain waves from sleep.

Reports in the world indicate that some of the people exposed prenatally to the fasting of the Muslim celebration "Ramadan" have poorer general health than the standardized indices. This effect is manifested mainly among older people, who also report symptoms more frequently, are predisposed to coronary heart problems and type 2 diabetes. There is an association between damage to health caused by lunar patterns, the cultural habits of the population enhance the harmful effects.

“We know many animal species in which the reproductive behavior is synchronized with the lunar cycle to increase reproductive success,“ says Würzburg chronobiologist Charlotte Förster. 

Another interesting fact is that the female menstrual cycle and the moon are closely related; both have a duration of about 29.5 days.

Several studies show the correlation of whose female cycles with the moon and the highest probability of becoming pregnant; recent evidence also suggests that births are more likely to occur at night during a full moon and during the day when there is a new moon.

Förster and his colleagues study the course of the menstrual cycles of 22 women who had kept menstrual cycles to clarify the influence of the moon on human reproduction, in some cases over 32 years.

Scientist groups are researching lunar biological effects such as acute myocardial infarction, which could help the actions to reduce adverse damage for people sensitive to geomagnetic disturbance. Electromagnetic effects might also account for some evolutionary changes. Nevertheless, environmental variations attributed to the moon explain confounding factors and inconsistencies in the data.

Image 3: The lunar phases would be related to the tide movements and female cycles.

Lunar dust has shown a surprising fact it has vast oxidative potential. Health reports show that interaction with dust could have serious health consequences, but we still do not know its utilities as material.

People's beliefs and activities are relevant to maintaining good health., is necessary to look more closely at the regional environment of the countries and the cultural activities of the regions that could be intervening. Therefore, we must be attentive to this type of popular belief, and the doubts in this regard are real.

There must be correct data in the investigations to avoid confusion, so attention is required to analyze the information, the data displayed, and the types of measurements.

The moon may not influence our whole body in its entirety, but it does modify a large part of the physiological functions.

Lunar cycles involve many changes in the environment and the human body. The phases cause the switch of many behaviors and functions of the body, this evidence that it influences many activities and behaviors. These surprising effects occur in world cultures where the moon is of great importance.

References

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• Chakraborty, Ujjwal. (2014). Effects of different phases of the lunar month on humans. Biological Rhythm Research. 45. 383-396. 10.1080/09291016.2013.830508. 

• Nat Geo. Maya Wai-Haas. Why does the earth have a moon and how does it affect our planet. July 3, 2019. Link https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/why-does-earth-have-moon-how-does-it-affect-our-planet0.

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• Dergaa I, Fessi MS, Chaabane M, Souissi N, Hammouda O. The effects of lunar cycle on the diurnal variations of short-term maximal performance, mood state, and perceived exertion. Chronobiol Int. 2019 Sep;36(9):1249-1257. doi: 10.1080/07420528.2019.1637346. Epub 2019 Aug 1. PMID: 31368366.

• Michael Bevington, Lunar biological effects and the magnetosphere, Pathophysiology, Volume 22, Issue 4, 2015, Pages 211-222, ISSN 0928-4680, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pathophys.2015.08.005.

• Gupta R, Nolan DR, Bux DA, Schneeberger AR. Is it the moon? Effects of the lunar cycle on psychiatric admissions, discharges and length of stay. Swiss Med Wkly. 2019 Apr 23;149:w20070. doi: 10.4414/smw.2019.20070. PMID: 31012946.

• Turci F, Corazzari I, Alberto G, Martra G, Fubini B. Free-radical chemistry as a means to evaluate lunar dust health hazard in view of future missions to the moon. Astrobiology. 2015 May;15(5):371-80. doi: 10.1089/ast.2014.1216. Epub 2015 May 6. PMID: 25946080.

• Ewijk, Reyn. (2011). Long-Term Health Effects on the Next Generation of Ramadan Fasting During Pregnancy. Journal of health economics. 30. 1246-60. 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2011.07.014. 

• Salvatore J. Garzino. SAGE Journals. Lunar Effects on Mental Behavior: A Defense of the Empirical Research –  Volume: 14 issue: 4, page(s): 395-417. Issue published: July 1, 1982.

• Näyhä SLunar cycle in homicides: a population-based time series study in FinlandBMJ Open 2019;9:e022759. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022759.

• Women temporarily synchronize their menstrual cycles with the luminance and gravimetric cycles of the Moon. By C. Helfrich-Förster, S. Monecke, I. Spiousas, T. Hovestadt, O. Mitesser, T. A. Wehr. Science Advances27 Jan 2021 : eabe1358.