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[FONT="]Current Biology. 2008 Sep 9;18(17):R784-R794[/FONT]
[FONT="]Human responses to the geophysical daily, annual and lunar cycles.[/FONT][FONT="]Foster RG, Roenneberg T.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Circadian and Visual Neuroscience, Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, University of Oxford, Levels 5 & 6 West Wing, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headley Way, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Collectively the daily, seasonal, lunar and tidal geophysical cycles regulate much of the temporal biology of life on Earth. The increasing isolation of human societies from these geophysical cycles, as a result of improved living conditions, high-quality nutrition and 24/7 working practices, have led many to believe that human biology functions independently of them. Yet recent studies have highlighted the dominant role that our circadian clock plays in the organisation of 24 hour patterns of behaviour and physiology. Preferred wake and sleep times are to a large extent driven by an endogenous temporal program that uses sunlight as an entraining cue. The alarm clock can drive human activity rhythms but has little direct effect on our endogenous 24 hour physiology. In many situations, our biology and our society appear to be in serious opposition, and the damaging consequences to our health under these circumstances are increasingly recognised. The seasons dominate the lives of non-equatorial species, and until recently, they also had a marked influence on much of human biology. Despite human isolation from seasonal changes in temperature, food and photoperiod in the industrialised nations, the seasons still appear to have a small, but significant, impact upon when individuals are born and many aspects of health. The seasonal changes that modulate our biology, and how these factors might interact with the social and metabolic status of the individual to drive seasonal effects, are still poorly understood. Lunar cycles had, and continue to have, an influence upon human culture, though despite a persistent belief that our mental health and other behaviours are modulated by the phase of the moon,
there is no solid evidence that human biology is in any way regulated by the lunar cycle.[/FONT]
[FONT="]European Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2002 Jun;9(2): 127-30[/FONT]
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Moon cycles and violent behaviours: myth or fact?[/FONT]
[FONT="]Núñez S, Pérez Méndez L, Aguirre-Jaime A.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Emergency Department and Research Institute, Hospital Universitario N.S. de Candelaria, Carretera del Rosario, s/n, 38010 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.[/FONT]
[FONT="]We formulated the hypothesis that lunar phases, identified by the fraction of the illuminated visible surface of the moon, have a relationship with the frequency of victims of aggression seen in an emergency department. If such a relationship exists, an increase in the frequency of incidents with the phases of full moon or new moon would be expected. In order to test this hypothesis, the daily frequency of victims of violent behaviour seen in the emergency department was used to create a temporal series of data. This was then correlated with a temporal series of lunar luminosity data from the same time period. Crossed correlations in the delay range -7 to +7 days showed coefficient values ranging between -0.102 and +0.034, demonstrating weak correlations without statistical significance. Despite the attractiveness of the popular belief that the moon influences human behaviour,
the analysis of our data does not support an association between lunar phases and frequency of violent behaviour. That is, we cannot predict the frequency of cases from a knowledge of lunar luminosity, at least in the period over which our study was performed.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Chronobiology International. 2005;22(6):1137-43[/FONT]
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Influence of lunar phases on suicide: the end of a myth? A population-based study.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Biermann T, Estel D, Sperling W, Bleich S, Kornhuber J, Reulbach U.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
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[FONT="]The hypothesis of lunar influence on suicide remains widespread, despite the fact that little scientific evidence to substantiate it. We conducted a population-based study to assess the influence of the lunar phases on suicides according to age, sex, and chosen method. The study included all suicides in Middle Franconia between 1998 and 2003. From a population-based sample of 3351 events, the files of 3054 suicides (1949 males and 1105 females) were complete for the study variables. Data were categorized by lunar phase, sex, age, and chosen method-"violent" vs. "non-violent" acts. No significant relationship was detected between the full, absent, and moon's interphases and suicide incidence. Nevertheless, there was a weak association between the absent moon and choice of a non-violent suicide method in men aged less than the median of 40.2 yrs.
There was no evidence of a relationship between suicide and lunar phase. Some explanations for this phenomenon are discussed.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 1998 Aug;32(4):496-9[/FONT]
[FONT="]Lunar cycles and violent behaviour.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Owen C, Tarantello C, Jones M, Tennant C.[/FONT]
[FONT="]University of Sydney, Department of Psychological Medicine, Manly Hospital, New South Wales, Australia.[/FONT]
[FONT="]OBJECTIVE: It is commonly believed that the full moon exerts an influence on violence and aggression in psychiatric settings. The literature to date is contentious. This study used a robust methodology to examine the hypothesis that there was an increased frequency of violent and aggressive behaviour among hospitalised psychiatric clients at the time of the full moon. METHOD: Prospective data were collected in five inpatient psychiatric settings across the Northern Sydney Area Health Service. Morrison's hierarchy of violence and aggression was used to rate behaviour. Lunar phases were clearly defined and Poisson regression used to examine relationships between lunar phase and violence. Extraneous temporal variation was considered. RESULTS:
No significant relationship was found between total violence and aggression or level of violence and aggression and any phase of the moon. CONCLUSION: Future research could profitably examine the implications of a belief in the lunar effect among health workers in the face of evidence that no relationship exists between violence, aggression and the lunar cycle.[/FONT]
[FONT="]New England Journal of Medicine. 1979 Jan 11;300(2):96.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Human births and the phase of the moon.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Abell GO, Greenspan B.[/FONT]
[FONT="]PIP: Published studies on the frequency of births as related to the lunar cycle are inconsistent with each other. The distribution of all births during 51 lunar cycles, from March 17, 1974, to April 30, 1978, was analyzed by the authors at the University of California, Los Angeles, Hospital. There were 11.691 live births, of which 8142 were natural, 141 multiple, and 168 stillbirths. In none of the 4 samples was the mean number of births occurring on the date of the full moon above average,
showing that the birthrate during the period surveyed did not in any way correlate with the cycle of lunar phases.[/FONT]
, nominado "La Luna" y su influjo parece ser notable en los varones de mediana edad de la zona, aunque su mayor influencia parece corresponder a los dias iniciales del més en los que, por cierto, dichos especímenes cobran su sueldo....
), pero afirmaciones del tipo "yo puedo afirmar", sin que estas se acompañen de las pruebas adecuadas, carecen de todo rigor y por ende de toda credibilidad. En la segunda parte de la frase suubrayada, haces mención a que este es un hecho comprobado... yo solo deseo que alguien (si es posible tú, en este caso), nos demuestre, con alguna prueba mínimamente seria y solvente, que este fenómeno realmente existe y ha sido contrastado y medido. Yo seré el primero en admitir que me equivoco si alguien muestra una sola prueba de ello. (no miles, ni cientos, ni varias... una sola, por favor...
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