A Full Moon Tonight!!!!!!!!!

"As we expected a full moon tonight, remember the stories about mortals who changed into werewolves with the full moon? Growing scientific evidence strongly suggests what the full moon actually does affect people, biologically as well as emotionally.

For example, enzymes are more active when the moon is full; so are many hormones. Blood pressure and heartbeat increase, and metabolisam accelerates.

According to pioneer research by Dr. Ralph W. Morris, pharmacology professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, a full moon seems to make humans do just about everything but howl at it. An authority on the subject, Morris has conducted hospital studies that bear out several long-held moon myths.

He has found that bleeding ulcers are much more likely to act up just before a full moon than at any other time. Also, cardiac patients are more vulnerable to attacks of angina pectoris.

Citing studies by others, Morris said hemorrhaging often was most severe during a full moon and that stroke and epileptic convulsions occurred more frequently. Also more serious at this time are problems linked with diabetes.

Such findings ultimately could lead to better medicine, Morris said. Patients with chronic conditions that are aggravated during a full moon could take precautions against discomfiting episodes or keep medication close at hand in case of emergency.

Morris also believes that chronopharmacology--how response to drugs is affected by time--- can provide a key to improved therapy. In recent clinical study involving rodents, morphine was found to be more effective in decreasing pain during a full-moon phase. Rodents also were more responsive to dioxin, a drug given heart-attack victims.

A full moon can aggravate tensions and anxieties, as hospital psychiatrists and police departments will attest. Studies also indicate that assertiveness and aggressive tendencies increase during a full moon and that bizarre behavior increases and crime rates are notably higher.

A New York study showed that arson rose 100 percent during a full moon. Nationwide, the murder rate is believed to jump as much as 50 percent. Morris pointed out that David Berkowitz carried out his "Son of Sam" slayings on eight nights---five of which had full moons.

Morris acknowledged that pinpointing the causes of all this lunar madness is tricky at best. Because Earth, sun and moon are directly aligned with each other at full moon, some scientists have held the theory that the electromagnetic and gravitational relationship between Earth and moon at that time is somehow responsible for the odd goings-on.

And what about the werewolves? In other cultures and other times, citizens would protect themselves against possible danger when the moon was full by locking away people with mental and physical disorders. Morris speculated that epileptics would escape from confinement and suffer seizures that created hideous facial and bodily distortions. Onlookers, not untouched by the moon's strange effects, were prone to mistake them for blood thirsting werewolves."

By: Robert Brody


You probably allready knew this but just some fun stuff to read!!!