Our Metabolism (Energy)

Although a lack of darkness has many effects, the primary effect is probably the destructive effect, or at least, the limits, that long days and very short nights place on our metabolism. Some of the other “pathways” by which excess light harms us may turn out after more research to have as their ultimate cause, energy shortfalls, too. By metabolism, we mean, again, the engines that drive us, so it's probably worth a quick introduction to how our bodies work. We eat energy sources such as fat and sugar and building materials such as proteins and minerals. The energy sources, say after they are broken down into sugars, are turned into usable fuel by the little mitochondria within every cell – our moment to moment fuel powering everything we do is, entirely, phosphate atoms. These are attached to proteins and power each new chemical reaction that's needed. It's very much as if each atom of phosphorus were a small battery good for one brief charge powering one reaction. The mitochondria use the energy in sugar to create the convenient phosphor fuel that the cells actually make use of. In being used, the phosphor atom “battery” drops off, which provides the energy to power one chemical reaction. The phosphor atom is then rapidly collected and recycled again by the mitochondria, which burn more sugar to do this. So sugar may be the fuel that generally powers mitochondria, but ATP (phosphor) is the fuel that powers everything else that happens in our bodies.

But for all this to happen smoothly, and for us to have all the energy we want and need, our mitochondria, our engines that consume sugar, have to be working well. That means that they can't be asked to do too much for too long in a 24hr period, and they have to have a sufficient period during the night during which any chemical reactions that have been incomplete or which gone awry (creating dangerous oxygenated free radicals that can react randomly with other molecules) during the day can be cleaned up before the engines are badly damaged. Melatonin is the chemical nature designed to do this job – the best antioxidant ever discovered. If there's enough melatonin in circulation, for long enough each night to do the job properly, that is. (In other words, melatonin is both a hormone - a messenger molecule - and an extraordinarily powerful antioxidant, an active molecule.) Use artificial light to abbreviate your daily period of darkness, and there won't be enough melatonin circulating to to either job properly. Your mitochondria will suffer damage, and become less and less efficient. Slowly, this microscopic degradation will catch up to you in ways you finally DO notice.

We now know enough to say with certainty that insufficient darkness causes metabolic problems and metabolic insufficiency – researchers and scientists can argue the extent of the effect, or the exact consequences of it, but they can no longer argue about whether it occurs (a bit like global warming, that.) The research unequivocally shows, it does occur. Our mitochondria need proper nightly maintenance. Without it, our whole energy economy is in trouble. When that happens, it's a bit like an oil shortage in the world economy, suddenly dramatic rationing goes into effect and the equivalent of lineups at the gas pump appear – and once rationing is in effect, much that ought to be done to keep us in peak health for the long run, can't be done.

Fatigue is one way to ration energy in the body of course, and that's why we feel fatigue when we're ill with the flu, etc – our bodies are devoting our energy and metabolites to the hard work of battling an illness and so all other energy uses are rationed during this wartime period. Note that, we may have plenty of potential energy sources – plenty of sugar and fat in our diet and in our bloodstream and still not have enough useful phosphor-based ATP fuel available for use if our mitochondria are damaged or badly maintained. Without the mitochondria working with proper efficiency, these potential energy sources can't be properly used – they may have to be stored as fat, and at worst, they may simply be excreted as sugary urine.