Get your own Free Home PageMelatonin - another "wonder" drug
By Andre Y. Popen © 1996
Melatonin - this word was not new in a medical world. However general public became familiar with this drug only after Geoffrey Cowley's article in Newsweek in August 7, 1995.
Few of my clients brought me copies of this article and asked my opinion about this drug. From my training in Allopathic medicine I knew that melatonin is a hormone manufactured from serotonin and secreted by the pineal gland. The pineal gland is a small pea-sized gland at the base of the brain.
In New Age community it associates with our third eye - organ of clairvoyance in our spiritual body.
On the physical level, the identification of melatonin in 1958 provided the first solid scientific evidence of an essential role of the pineal gland. However we still do not know all of the functions of this hormone. As all hormones from the base of the brain melatonin involved in the synchronization of other hormonal glands. Melatonin plays key role in the biorhythm of hormone secretion. Release of melatonin is stimulated by darkens and suppressed by light. Disruption of pineal gland function is thought to be a major reason for seasonal affective disorder as well as jet lag.
The article in Newsweek included long list of melatonin's benefits. I did not know about some of them. My usual answer was that I do not feel comfortable about taking hormones. So far all hormones used as a drugs in medicine have side effects. Taking hormones suppresses natural manufacturing of these hormones in organism. It interferes with work of organism's defense mechanism, produces chain of unpredictable changes, causes imbalance in other glands. Remember cortical-steroids, when in 1930s our medical science discovered cortisone. It was also a "miracle" drug, that treated all problems without known side effects. Now we know that side effects of cortisone much greater then its benefits.
Within few weeks after article in Newsweek melatonin became very popular. It was not so easy to find it in health food stores, they sold out this "miracle" drug very fast. However, pharmaceutical companies "fixed" the problem very quick and in a few months you could see big signs in health food stores: "We have melatonin". I received many offers to buy melatonin at a very low price. Few books were written about melatonin, they also stimulated this boom. How about serious research?
Several double-blind studies have shown melatonin to be very effective in relieving jet lag. Different dosage and time of taking recommendations have been given to avoid the problem of extreme drowsiness sometimes produced by melatonin at an unwanted time.
Initial studies performed in the 1980s demonstrated that melatonin levels are typically below normal in patients with clinical depression. However, in all of these studies it turned out that antidepressant drugs or other factors were responsible for depressed melatonin level. More recent studies have not supported the association of low melatonin levels being common in patients with clinical depression. In fact, one double-blind study demonstrated that melatonin supplementation actually dramatically worsened clinical depression in some cases. Obviously worsening of depression is quite serious as it increases the risk for suicide. Another study in nondepressed subjects demonstrated that when melatonin was given during the day it tended to cause fatigue, confusion, and sleepiness.
Melatonin plays an important role in the induction of sleep. Low melatonin secretion at night can be a cause of insomnia. Several double-blind trials have shown melatonin supplementation to be very effective in promoting sleep. However, some studies showed melatonin had no effect on sleep even when the dosage was very high (up to 150 mg). It appears the sleep-promoting effects of melatonin are only apparent if melatonin levels are low. In other words, melatonin is not a sleeping pill.
Melatonin has been shown to possess antioxidant effects. This action may explain the studies in rats showing that melatonin supplementation led to longer lives (31 months vs. 25 months). However, the clinical significance of melatonin's antioxidant effects have not been fully determined. It has no greater significance than vitamin C, vitamin E, and host of other antioxidants.
Melatonin has been shown to inhibit several types of cancers, particularly hormonally related cancers as breast cancer and prostate cancer. It has been shown to inhibit both the initiation and promotion of cancer. It has been theorized that the increased cancer incidence reported in individuals living and/or working in an environment in which they are exposed to higher than normal artificial electromagnetic fields may be caused by suppression of melatonin synthesis. The exposure of humans or animals to light (visible electromagnetic radiation) at night rapidly depresses pineal melatonin production and blood melatonin levels. Likewise, the exposure of animals to various pulsed static and extremely low frequency magnetic fields also reduces melatonin levels. Melatonin has been shown to increase survival time in patients with solid tumors with brain metastasis in 15 out of 24 patients (63%) died within one year in the melatonin group, compared to 21 out of 26 (88%) in the group receiving supportive care only.
Similar results have been shown with melatonin in combination with interferon, tumor necrosis factor, and tamoxifen. However these studies are not double blind, indicating a placebo response may be partially responsible for some of the improvements noted.
No doubt, melatonin is an important regulating hormone. However it is not a nutrient. Hormontherapy belongs to Allopathic medicine. The way of Natural medicine is to assist the body's healing power. If an organism does not manufacture enough of some hormone we have to find the ways to help it to do that.
Research shows that by going to bed early (by 10p.m.), sleeping in pitch dark, and getting exposed to bright light the next morning, we produce more melatonin at night. If you have to work with artificial light, use full-spectrum lamps. Consumption of ginger, tomatoes, bananas, oats, sweet corn, rice, barley and other high-carbohydrate foods in your diet stimulates manufacturing of melatonin. Also, melatonin production can be stimulated by: taking multiple vitamin and mineral supplements (with extra calcium, magnesium and antioxidants), taking extracts of some herbs, such as Ginseng and Ginkgo Biloba, systematic exercising, meditation, minimizing of exposure to artificial electromagnetic fields, and eliminating our health-destroying habits: using of tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, drugs.
And the last note:
The National Nutritional Foods Association (a supplement industry trade group) has advised supplement manufacturers and health food stores that melatonin "may be inappropriate as a product to be sold in a health food stores".
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