Ma Vie en Noir : Fifty Years with Melatonin and the Stone of Madness / by Daniel Pedro Cardinali.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cardinali, Daniel P., author.

Contributor:

SpringerLink (Online service)

Series:

Springer biographies

Springer Biographies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medicine.

Human physiology.

Internal medicine.

Health.

Medicine & Public Health.

Internal Medicine.

Human Physiology.

Popular Science in Medicine and Health.

Local Subjects:

Medicine & Public Health.

Internal Medicine.

Human Physiology.

Popular Science in Medicine and Health.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Contained In:

Springer eBooks

Place of Publication:

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2016.

System Details:

text file PDF

Summary:

I wrote this book urged by the overwhelming desire that arises towards the end of life to recapitulate the past. My goal was to summarize my experience of practicing science at the end of the 20th and early 21st centuries in Argentina, a country located far away from the world's leading scientific centers. In the book, I summarize the intricacies of the pineal gland ("the stone of madness") as historical, mystical and medical entity and its entry in contemporary medicine with the description of melatonin. I also reflect on how being associated with an unexplored subject at the beginning of their scientific career impacts the life of a scientist throughout their entire life. Today we know that in humans pineal melatonin begins is released every day late in the evening, and there is evidence that it is the trigger for the sleep process. But the most exciting aspect of melatonin is that it is a substance that is present in all living creatures, from unicellular organisms to plants and higher mammals, a fact that evinces its importance for life. Further, the neuroprotective action of melatonin promises to be crucial for the control of neurodegenerative diseases we face as a pandemic in this century. The discoverer of melatonin, Aaron Lerner, based its name on melano, the Greek word for black, because of its effect on the pigment cells of the skin. As in "La vie en rose", the immortal Edith Piaf song written in 1946, my lifelong work with melatonin could well be called "Ma vie en noir".

Contents:

Preface - A Contagious Stone?

Chapter 1 - Brief History of the Stone of Madness

Chapter 2 - The Pre-Scientific Stage of the Pineal Gland

Chapter 3 - The Beginnings of the Pineal Scientific Era: Since the Late Nineteenth Century to Melatonin ́s Discovery

Chapter 4 - Sleep / Wake Cycle. History and Facts

Chapter 5 -When this Chronicler Enters this Story: the '60

Chapter 6 - The Stone of Madness as a Neuroendocrine Organ and Model: '70

Chapter 7 - Peripheral Innervation of the Neuroendocrine-immune System: The Challenges to Change a Physiological Paradigm

Chapter 8 - Melatonin as a Potential Therapeutic Agent: the 80's

Chapter 9 - Melatonin as a chronobiotic that opens "the Gates of Sleep": '90

Chapter 10 - elatonin and "Diseases of the Soul": The Stone of Madness Comes Back

Chapter 11 - XXI Century: The 24/7 Society as an Environmental Mutation

Chapter 12 - Melatonin as a Medicament for the 24/7 Society. Metabolic Syndrome

Chapter 13 - Melatonin as a Medicament for the 24/7 Society. Normal and Pathological Aging

Chapter 15 - Melatonin as a Nutraceutical

Epilogue.

Other Format:

Printed edition:

ISBN:

9783319416793

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.