Tidbit Tuesday - Melatonin
Hello,
Welcome to another Tidbit Tuesday where we aim to teach you something new about health, nutrition, lifestyle, training, and so much more, every week!
Today we are talking about using melatonin as a sleep aid and more!
Melatonin is a hormone primarily released by the pineal gland that regulates the sleep–wake cycle.
As a dietary supplement, it is often used for the short-term treatment of insomnia, such as from jet lag or shift work, and is typically taken by mouth.
Your body produces melatonin naturally. It doesn’t make you sleep, but as melatonin levels rise in the evening it puts you into a state of quiet wakefulness that helps promote sleep.
Direct light, sunlight, as well as blue and green light can prevent the production of melatonin.
Most often used on a short-term basis if you’re experiencing insomnia, want to overcome jet lag, or are a night owl who needs to get to bed earlier and wake up earlier, such as for work or school.
Johns Hopkins sleep expert Luis F. Buenaver, Ph.D., C.B.S.M. makes the following claims:
Create optimal conditions for it to do its job by keeping the lights low before bed.
Stop using your computer, smartphone, or tablet.
If you watch television, be sure you’re at least six feet away from the screen.
Turn off bright overhead lights too.
You can help program your body to produce melatonin for sleep at the right time of day by getting exposure to daylight during the morning and afternoon.
Take a walk outside or sit beside a sunny window.
While the recommended dose for melatonin is generally quite low (1 to 5 mg), there is another expert that has some vastly different thoughts and has tested with levels as high as 2000 mg with no repercussions.
It was found that orally taken melatonin only has an absorption rate of 3%.
Meaning in a 5 mg tablet you are only getting 0.15 mg of usable melatonin in your system. Sounds like a bit of a waste if you ask me.
Dr. John Lieurance is a naturopathic physician out of Florida who has dove deep into the science of sleep and the use of melatonin.
Dr. Lieurance states "There's no toxic level of melatonin, nor concern with disrupting the body's natural rhythms". He even references a study that used more than 1500 mg of melatonin and still found no concerns with efficacy.
But, what Dr. Lieurance is doing with melatonin is a little different and he claims to have found a way to increase the absorption rate significantly!
And that is by way of suppositories. Which is much closer to an IV than oral ingestion is.
By taking the medication via suppository you increase the absorption rate to over 90%!
Dr. Lieurance also mentions a study done on melatonin for the use of treating COVID-19, this is the conclusion:
"The possible beneficial effects of melatonin as adjuvant use in COVID-19 in anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, immune response regulation has been repeatedly demonstrated in respiratory disorder models induced by infections and associated complications. Melatonin has a high safety profile. Although the direct evidence of melatonin application in COVID-19 is unclear, both its use in experimental animal models and in studies on humans has continuously documented its efficacy and safety and its use by COVID-19 patients predictably would be highly beneficial."
Another study mentions the benefits of melatonin on our mitochondria:
"Melatonin is selectively taken up by mitochondria and acts as a powerful antioxidant. Furthermore, melatonin increases the permeability of membranes and acts as inhibitor of lipoxygenase."
Lipoxygenase are iron-containing enzymes which basically prevent your body from breaking down and using polyunsaturated fatty acids (the use of fat as fuel).
The article goes on to praise melatonin for several other great things such as:
Melatonin has been effective against a wide variety of pathological conditions.
It is also effective on the activity of fibroblasts and stimulates the synthesis of Type I collagen fibers as well as puberty timing.
Activation of melatonin receptors prevents from many fatal diseases by increasing the release of some immune system inhibitor cytokines due to stress.
Melatonin can cause to resistance against oxidative damages by stimulating the antioxidant enzymes and microsomal membranes stabilization.
Melatonin is considered to have protective effects against the damage
caused by ultraviolet radiation.
And the list seems to go on and on!
If you are wondering about taking melatonin, you have a few options to look at.
You can try the melatonin pills/tablets that you can find at the store, however we have seen how little your body actually gets from those.
There is also a liquid/droplet melatonin supplement that may be more effective than the pill form.
And finally, if you are willing to try it, I believe that the products that Dr. John Lieurance has to offer may hold the most possible benefits.
Check him and his products out here, the ultimate sleep aid is the "Sandman":
https://www.advancedbiomecorp.com/ben/
Warning:
Do not use melatonin if you are pregnant or breastfeeding or have an autoimmune disorder, a seizure disorder or depression. Talk to your health care provider if you have diabetes or high blood pressure. Melatonin supplements may also raise blood-sugar levels and increase blood pressure levels in people taking some hypertension medications.
The studies referenced are here:
Melatonin for sleep: does it work?
Pharmacokinetics of oral and intravenous melatonin in healthy volunteers
https://bmcpharmacoltoxicol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40360-016-0052-2
COVID-19: Melatonin as a potential adjuvant treatment
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7102583/
Melatonin and human mitochondrial disease
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5361446/
Happy Sleeping!
Your friend in Health & Fitness,
Coach Sean
