Melatonin

Exploring the Beneficial Effects of Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone best known for its role in preparing the brain for sleep. Due to its effectiveness in this respect, it’s the primary ingredient in many sleep supplements. Outside of the United States and Canada, melatonin-based formulas are only available with a doctor’s prescription. While some argue that using melatonin for sleep isn’t always effective, people suffering from insomnia find that it can help them sleep better in most cases. We already know that there are many positive effects of melatonin, but new research is still uncovering more benefits provided by this amazing hormone.

What is Melatonin?

To understand melatonin and its effect on the body, it’s important to first understand how and why it’s produced. Our bodies rely on a biological clock to function, known as our circadian rhythm. Among the other bodily functions it regulates, the circadian rhythm helps the brain differentiate between wakefulness and sleep. This is a process that relies on the changes between light and dark. As the sun goes down and the sky gets darker, the brain recognizes that it’s soon nearing time for sleep and releases melatonin to promote drowsiness.

Unfortunately for those who work irregular shifts, melatonin production is inhibited during the day, which is why it’s harder to get to sleep in the mornings and afternoons. People who follow irregular sleep schedules experience insomnia and other sleep disorders more commonly because the production of melatonin has been interrupted. This is also why a sleep formula containing melatonin can be more effective for those who work these types of schedules. Their bodies need that extra boost of melatonin during the day, when their brains won’t naturally produce the hormone in sufficient quantities.

What are the Positive Effects of Melatonin?

There have been multiple studies on the effects that melatonin has on the body, leading to the discovery that it can do more than just help you get a good night’s sleep. One of the surprising effects of melatonin is that it can help alleviate the symptoms of jet lag. A study that started in 2010 and lasted for four years looked at the effects that melatonin had on 142 travelers. In that study, researchers found that subjects who were given melatonin supplements experienced less severe jet lag symptoms than travelers who were given a placebo. Those taking the supplement experienced more restful sleep, reduced instances of daytime tiredness and fewer digestion problems.

Melatonin was also found to help people suffering from delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, or DSWPD. This is a condition in which the individual can’t fall asleep until 2:00 a.m. or later and end up sleeping well into the afternoon. Including a 2016 study of 52 subjects, research has found that taking melatonin supplements at the right time in the evening helped people with DSWPD to fall asleep earlier. They also fell asleep faster, taking an average of 22 minutes to nod off.

A 2015 research project looked at 774 patients and found melatonin was also effective in reducing anxiety prior to surgery. Many people suffer severe bouts of anxiety just before undergoing a surgical procedure, but taking a melatonin supplement seemed to alleviate those emotions. While it wasn’t clear whether or not melatonin was effective in treating post-surgery anxiety, it was found to be just as effective as anti-anxiety medications in treating pre-surgery anxiety.

Research into the positive benefits of melatonin is ongoing. Current and future studies are looking into the hormone’s effect on cancer symptoms, high blood pressure, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases and intestinal illnesses.

How Can You Get More Melatonin Naturally?

Take a Supplement

As the previously cited studies show, a melatonin supplement can help you maintain adequate levels of melatonin when you need it most. A high-quality melatonin supplement can be beneficial because a single dose contains a sufficient amount of melatonin to help you get the restful sleep you need. Additionally, certain time-controlled melatonin formulas ensure the melatonin will have the best possible effect on your sleep cycle.

Get More Daylight

Sunlight is beneficial in controlled exposure, because its rays encourage vitamin D production in the body. Additionally, exposing yourself to natural daylight will help regulate your circadian rhythm. The sun’s rays help promote the production of serotonin, which the brain needs to produce more melatonin. In this way, getting more sunlight in the mornings promotes more efficient melatonin production in the evenings.

Turn Off Your Electronic Devices

Most people don’t realize the harm they’re doing when they use their smartphone or tablet just before bed. The blue light that these screens give off disrupts the circadian rhythm, preventing the brain from producing sufficient levels of melatonin. Doctors recommend shutting off all electronic devices at least one hour before your bedtime to give the brain enough time to adjust. This will ensure the hormone will be properly released as you near your bedtime.

Eat Melatonin-Rich Foods

There are certain foods that promote the production of melatonin, so you should consider adding these foods to your diet to ensure you’ll sleep better. Some melatonin-rich foods include asparagus, corn, cucumbers, olives, nuts and seeds. Barley and rolled oats are also helpful in promoting melatonin production.

Sleep on Your Back

This position is a popular yoga pose that’s commonly called the corpse pose, because it helps the body reach a deeper state of relaxation. As you lay on your back and breathe deeply, the brain will begin releasing a higher concentration of melatonin. This is why many people find it easier to fall asleep in this position.

The Truth About Tryptophan: Why Your Turkey Isn’t Making You Tired

Nov 27 by Ewcopywriting

Tryptophan, a compound found in turkey, is often erroneously blamed for that sleepy feeling you get after eating a big Thanksgiving meal. It may surprise you to learn that while tryptophan does start off a chain of reactions that results in the release of melatonin, the “sleep hormone,” there is actually less tryptophan in turkey than in many other commonly consumed foods. Even chicken, which many of us eat regularly throughout the year, contains higher levels of tryptophan than turkey. As Thanksgiving approaches, it’s especially important to understand the truth about tryptophan.

The Truth About Tryptophan and Human Health

Because tryptophan is found in a number of foods we eat all year long, it can’t be said that eating turkey is any more likely to cause sleepiness than eating other foods. On holidays like Thanksgiving, in all likelihood it’s the high amount of fats, sugar and carbs in the meal that are zapping your energy — not the turkey. Even so, the tryptophan in turkey does play an important role in human health, and eating turkey on Thanksgiving can benefit you in a few different ways.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that triggers the production of serotonin, a mood-elevating hormone. Research has found that not getting enough tryptophan in your diet can actually cause a serotonin deficiency. While serotonin does help the body produce more melatonin, as mentioned above, it primarily benefits the mind and body in other ways. If you’re prone to the holiday blues, eating turkey leftovers in the coming weeks could help you feel more like yourself. As a mood-boosting hormone, serotonin gives you that feel-good vibe that you experience when doing something enjoyable. Since it helps you feel better, it makes sense that serotonin can help alleviate the symptoms of depression and anxiety. In fact, many people now refer to serotonin as a natural antidepressant.

Other than depression and anxiety, serotonin also influences many other health conditions. For instance, a serotonin deficiency can cause short-term and long-term memory problems. Conversely, people who eat more foods rich in serotonin-fostering tryptophan experience greater memory recall. Tryptophan has also been found to be effective in helping children with ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, by boosting the level of serotonin in the brain. Children suffering from ADHD have been found to have a significantly lower level of tryptophan in the brain, exhibiting less than half the amount found in healthy children’s brains.

Since getting enough tryptophan results in higher serotonin levels, research has determined that it can be effective in helping relieve PMS symptoms in women. Serotonin works to stabilize the mood and reduce feelings of irritability. Women who experience more severe mood-related PMS symptoms can increase their serotonin production by taking a supplement that contains tryptophan.

Tryptophan: One Reason Vegans Shouldn’t Skip the Turkey

When it comes to serotonin deficiency, it may seem that simply eating more foods that provide the body with serotonin is the answer, especially for vegans or vegetarians. Since serotonin is commonly found in many plant-based foods, it’s easy to assume that eating these foods will help your body benefit from the increased levels of serotonin without forcing you to give up your lifestyle. Some examples of serotonin-rich natural foods include bananas, cherries, eggplant, grapes, potatoes and tomatoes.

While there are many more natural foods that provide serotonin, eating these foods actually won’t increase serotonin levels in your brain. This is because serotonin is unable to cross the blood-brain barrier once ingested, so it will never make it to the parts of the brain that need the hormone. The truth about tryptophan is that it’s vital for the production of serotonin, since it is able to cross the blood-brain barrier. Once there, it begins contributing to the production of serotonin. Therefore, to ensure adequate serotonin levels in the brain, it’s necessary to eat foods that are rich in tryptophan, such as most types of meat.

In addition to red meat, tryptophan can be found in seafood and poultry of all kinds. Other foods containing adequate amounts of tryptophan include:

cheese
chickpeas
eggs
nuts
aats
seeds
soy

In striving to eat tryptophan-rich foods, it can be tempting to adopt a high-protein diet, can defeat the purpose of altering your diet in the first place. As you eat more protein-rich foods, you’re introducing other types of amino acids into your blood stream, all of which compete for transportation to the brain. In this situation, you won’t necessarily experience a boost in serotonin levels even though you’re eating more tryptophan-rich foods. If you’re consuming more tryptophan and wondering why you haven’t experienced a change in your emotional state, you may be experiencing this problem.

To correct the problem, take a look at your diet and try to increase your intake of tryptophan-rich foods without adding more protein to your diet. The best foods for vegans and vegetarians to consume are spinach, asparagus, soybeans, peanuts, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds. Along with Swiss, Parmesan and cottage cheeses, these foods are rich in tryptophan, so they can help increase the production of serotonin without forcing you to make undesired dietary choices. Supplements like Tryptochron provide both tryptophan and 5-HTP, which are both compounds used by the brain to produce more serotonin. Tryptochron also contains certain B vitamins which are vital for the process of converting tryptophan into serotonin.

In addition to sticking to a healthier diet, you may want to increase your level of physical activity and incorporate relaxation techniques into your daily routine. Stress and anxiety can inhibit the way tryptophan is processed in the body, so more exercise, yoga, meditation and other similar practices can help your body transform tryptophan into serotonin more efficiently.

The Little-Known Connection Between Melatonin and Fertility

Nov 26 by Ewcopywriting

Many people associate melatonin with sleep — with good reason. Helping to regulate and maintain the circadian rhythm appears to be the most important and best-known role of this pineal gland hormone. However, melatonin also plays a variety of other important roles in the human body. According to recent studies on melatonin and fertility, it may play a very important role in helping couples to conceive.

Infertility: A Growing Modern Problem

For reasons that doctors and scientists do not fully understand, an increasing number of people are struggling with infertility. Only one in six couples trying to conceive will be able to do so in a reasonable amount of time, generally defined as around a year.

Infertility has classically been seen as a female problem, but men are contributing increasingly to low pregnancy rates. Causes that can be attributed to the male are now behind around 30 percent of infertility cases. For reasons that are not completely understood, sperm counts around the world have dropped dramatically and are continuing to fall. An increasing number of couples are seeking IVF and other fertility treatments, making reproductive technology one of the fastest growing fields of medicine. Despite this medical assistance, birth rates in the developed world are below replacement rates and continuing to fall.

What is causing this decline in fertility? There are several hypotheses, including estrogens in the water supply, increased pollution of water and air, radiation from smart devices and a general inclination to wait until later in life to conceive. Regardless of the cause, several studies suggest that melatonin may be part of the answer.

Could Melatonin Affect Egg Quality?

The rise in in-vitro fertilization has allowed scientists to study in depth what factors make an egg healthier and more likely to successfully become an embryo. The life cycle of an egg is complex and extremely important to fertilization, making it a popular avenue of study in the fertility world. Eggs, or oocytes, spend most of a woman’s life dormant in her ovary. When stimulated, a single egg begins to mature and resumes cell division. It matures in a follicle until it is released. From here, it travels down the fallopian tube to the uterus, where it is hopefully fertilized. If a couple is undergoing IVF, the egg is instead harvested.

Melatonin fluids in follicular fluid have been found to predict the health of the future egg. Melatonin also appears to protect eggs from oxidative stress during the collection and fertilization process, which in turn improves the chances of successful fertilization and implantation.

Simply giving melatonin to women trying to conceive has been found to improve egg quality as well as increase the chances of a successful pregnancy. Although these are all small studies, they definitely suggest that melatonin is crucial to conceiving and carrying a pregnancy, especially for women struggling with infertility.

Melatonin and Fertility in Males

Melatonin is important to the fertility of women, but it also appears to play a role in the fertility of men. High melatonin levels have been linked to sperm quality in both living men and in storage for insemination. This appears to be partly due to melatonin’s role as an antioxidant, preventing damage to DNA in semen.

However, melatonin may play another role as well, one that is increasingly important in the modern world: protecting sperm from damage due to pollutants. For men who live in areas where water and air quality are affecting fertility rates, this could be an immense advantage.

Although melatonin alone cannot cure male infertility (that we know of, at least), it appears to have an important role in male fertility. Men who are on the borderline between infertility and conception may especially benefit from taking a nightly supplement or from taking care to keep their natural production of melatonin high.

Links Between Circadian Rhythm and Fertility

Many of these studies have been performed in-vitro, on eggs that are fertilized in dishes for use in IVF and other reproductive technologies. However, the findings also likely apply to conceptions that occur the natural way. Because melatonin is a natural antioxidant and free radical scavenger, it can prevent cells from getting damaged from respiration and other activities. This is likely part of the reason that both eggs and sperm fare better when exposed to melatonin.

However, there may be other causes of the link between a healthy circadian rhythm and fertility. Melatonin appears to contribute to healthy hormonal cycles in women, which are essential for conception and pregnancy. In addition, people who have irregular melatonin may also have other health risk factors such as obesity or type 2 diabetes, as both of these have been linked to low melatonin levels.

There definitely appears to be a link between melatonin and fertility rates; one that may become increasingly important as infertility rates increase around the world. Although the causality remains in question, people nonetheless may find they are more fertile when they lead a healthy lifestyle, including getting plenty of sleep and keeping their circadian rhythm well-regulated.

Tryptophan and Sleep: Does Eating Thanksgiving Turkey Really Make You Sleepy?

Nov 22 by Ewcopywriting

Thanksgiving is a time of giving thanks, of family and, most of all, of tradition. Although every American family has a unique way of celebrating this fall festival, most traditions have two things in common: turkey and rest. This has led to a widespread belief that turkey, or more precisely, tryptophan, an amino acid that turkey contains in large proportions, makes you sleepy. Is turkey really what makes you feel so tired on Thanksgiving afternoon? The research on tryptophan and sleep has borne mixed results.

Tryptophan and Turkey: Fact or Myth?

Much of the belief that turkey causes sleep is based on the purported effects of the amino acid tryptophan. Like many essential amino acids, tryptophan is converted to different molecules that are crucial to human health. It is an important building block in several proteins, but it also is important because it is converted to a molecule called 5-HTP. 5-HTP is a precursor to serotonin and melatonin, both of which play an essential role in sleep and mood.

Serotonin is best known as the happiness hormone. It is the molecule that is the target of many popular antidepressants. In addition, it plays an important role in digestion. One of the “side effects” of increased serotonin is more energy. Melatonin, on the other hand, is a hormone associated with sleep. Its effects on the human body are many, as it acts as a potent antioxidant and also triggers DNA repair. However, most people who take melatonin will simply notice that it makes them sleepy.

Tryptophan’s role as a precursor to melatonin is the reason that it is so often associated with sleep. For many people, the tryptophan that they eat is converted to both serotonin and melatonin, giving them that happy and sleepy feeling that so many associate with their post-turkey nap. However, the relationship between turkey and sleep may not be so simple.

Links Between Tryptophan and Sleep

Tryptophan has been linked to sleep in several studies. People who take a tryptophan supplement before bed generally wake up better-rested and more alert. They perform better on tests that require concentration and also display less aggression. This change in behavior can even be seen in lab animals. Because tryptophan has to be converted to melatonin in order to induce sleepiness, this effect tends to be more gentle than that seen by taking a sleeping pill or even from taking melatonin.

The problem with linking turkey and sleep is that turkey is not actually the best place to get tryptophan. In fact, chicken has more of this amino acid. Many foods have ample amounts of tryptophan yet are not associated with sleep. This is due to the fact that tryptophan takes a significant amount of time to be converted to melatonin.

First, tryptophan must be transported across the blood-brain barrier, which can take significant time because it basically has to wait in line with other amino acids. Once there, it is converted to serotonin in several different areas of the brain, and then to melatonin in the pineal gland. Eating turkey is not a fast way to fall asleep. On the contrary, your post-turkey dip in energy is likely due to eating a large amount of carbohydrates.

Could a Tryptophan Supplement Help You Sleep?

To keep it simple, tryptophan may not provide a quick way to fall asleep, but it indeed can contribute to your sleeping well. Tryptophan supplements have been shown to encourage higher-quality sleep. However, they may not be the answer to insomnia for some people. In elderly people, for example, this amino acid may have the opposite effect. Older people have a less-functional pineal gland due to age-related changes in blood flow to this gland. As a result, excess tryptophan is converted to serotonin rather than to melatonin, leaving elderly people even more energetic.

People who suffer from insomnia similarly tend to have problems with producing melatonin. As a result, many insomniacs may get the opposite effect as well, getting a boost of energy from the serotonin that is made in lieu of the melatonin they seek.

Getting to Sleep the Natural Way

If you are hoping to sleep better, it may be best to “skip the middle man” and simply take a high-quality melatonin supplement rather than a tryptophan supplement. The effects of melatonin, after all, are what most people seek when they take tryptophan. In addition, behavioral changes such as better sleep hygiene have been found in multiple studies to have the most dramatic effects. Ultimately, there is no guaranteed way to get the sleep you need without the hard work of keeping your circadian rhythm on track. Melatonin can help, but a heaping helping of turkey likely will not.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): How Changing Seasons Can Change Your Mood

Nov 27 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that comes and goes with the seasons. The most typical pattern for SAD is that symptoms start in the late fall or early winter and go away with the arrival of spring. It is also possible for someone to experience seasonal affective disorder in a summer pattern, though this is quite rare.

In previous decades, seasonal affective disorder was considered a completely separate condition than major depressive disorder. However, professionals now consider it to simply be a subset of major depressive disorder, with a seasonal aspect attached.

In order to be diagnosed with SAD, you have to meet the full criteria for clinical depression, you must only experience the depression during a particular season and it must occur for a minimum of two years. If you are experiencing several of the following symptoms, you may meet the diagnostic criteria for a major depressive episode:

anxiety
changes in appetite or weight
difficulty concentrating
feeling hopeless
feeling sad
feeling worthless
feelings of guilt
irritability
lack of energy
lethargy or sluggishness
losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
sleep disturbances
thoughts of death or suicide
symptoms must be present across most days and situations

There are certain risk factors for seasonal affective disorder. Women are four times as likely to be diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder. Those who live far from the equator—whether far north or far south—are many times more likely to suffer from this condition. For example, whereas only 1 percent of Florida residents experience seasonal affective disorder, 9 percent of Alaska residents do. Seasonal affective disorder is most commonly diagnosed in adolescents and young adults, which may indicate that younger age is a risk factor, though it may also be that older adults are less likely to seek out diagnosis and help for this disorder. Lastly, a family history of seasonal affective disorder, major depression and possibly other psychiatric illnesses may raise your risk of developing seasonal affective disorder yourself.

Why Does SAD Occur?

There are several factors that contribute to depression in the darker months of the year (the causes of summertime depression are much less understood). Serotonin is a neurotransmitter highly responsible for maintaining a normal mood; production of this chemical is partly triggered by sunlight exposure. Since there is much less sunlight during the fall and winter, serotonin levels can plummet. Less sunlight also means less vitamin D production; a lack of this nutrient has been highly linked to depression and mood.

Melatonin is another neurotransmitter—its presence promotes mental and physical sleepiness, which is important for falling asleep at night. Melatonin begins to be secreted once the sun goes down; its release is triggered by darkness. When the world around you is dark all the time, melatonin may be released at inappropriate times, leading to lethargy and lack of concentration, which are integral symptoms of depression for many people.

In the fall and winter, the generalized darkness of the outside world can have a negative effect on brain chemistry, causing depression. The cold and gloomy weather can also drive many people to stay inside. Though it may feel cozy to stay at home in the winter, the downside of this is that it could lead to social isolation. Social isolation may be a contributing factor for wintertime depression for some sufferers.

How Can SAD Be Treated?

There are many possible angles to take when it comes to treating seasonal depression. The mainstays of treatment are medication to help re-balance brain chemistry, and specialized psychotherapy for seasonal depression. Therapy is great for helping the patient learn to identify and change negative thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate depression, learn healthy ways to cope with depression and learn how to manage stress.

The principal aspect of treating seasonal affective disorder, that isn’t used to treat conventional depression, is light therapy. The purpose of light therapy is to mimic natural outdoor light to replace the sunlight lost during winter. This treatment has been used for seasonal depression since the 1980s. Traditional light therapy consists of sitting in front of a specially-made bright light for 20 to 60 minutes, usually within the first hour of waking up in the morning.

A common complaint of people who use light therapy is that they do not always have time to sit in front of the light every single morning. To make light therapy more flexible and convenient, a number of companies have developed special light-emitting glasses. With these special glasses, the wearer can continue to carry out everyday tasks while receiving therapeutical doses of light that does not affect the quality of vision.

In addition to these treatments, another great addition to a seasonal depression treatment plan is taking a supplement that contains vitamin D, which has been shown in research to help relieve depressive symptoms. Lastly, an important habit for sufferers of any type of depression to develop is exercise. Research shows that regular exercise can be as effective as medication or psychotherapy. Even just 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week can make a big difference. Exercise relieves depression because it releases endorphins, regulates the circadian rhythm, reduces stress, increases light exposure if done outside and can help improve self-esteem.

Researchers Discover New Connections Between Melatonin and Hemorrhagic Stroke

Nov 06 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

A stroke is a serious medical condition caused by poor blood flow to the brain that often results in cell death. At least 80 percent of all cases of stroke are the ischemic type of stroke. In an ischemic stroke, an artery to the vein is blocked, preventing brain tissue from receiving oxygen and nutrients. However, approximately 13 percent of all stroke cases are a different type called a hemorrhagic stroke. In this type of stroke, a weakened blood vessel in the brain ruptures, leaking blood into the surrounding brain tissue, ultimately damaging it. The most common cause of a hemorrhagic stroke is high blood pressure. Some other causes include trauma, infection, tumors, blood vessel abnormalities and blood clotting deficiencies.

A hemorrhagic stroke often causes severe disability, if not death. Most hospital patients who have suffered a hemorrhagic stroke require mechanical ventilation. However, staying on mechanical ventilation for very long is undesirable, as it can cause side effects like lung injury, pneumonia and gastrointestinal bleeding. Fortunately, new research on melatonin and hemorrhagic stroke has discovered a natural way to improve recovery from hemorrhagic stroke and to reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation in such patients.

New Study Finds Link Between Melatonin and Hemorrhagic Stroke

Though hemorrhagic stroke is less common than ischemic stroke, it leads to death more frequently than ischemic stroke. New discoveries about how to treat the aftermath of hemorrhagic stroke and reduce mortality are invaluable. Getting proper medical care as soon as possible is important for avoiding death from stroke. In particular, experts believe that early initiation of neuroprotective treatments (i.e. medications that help keep nerve and brain cells alive and functioning) may improve the outcome of hemorrhagic stroke.

A 2017 study sheds valuable light on possibilities for hemorrhagic stroke treatment. This study was conducted by researchers from Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, and it was published in the scientific journal Journal of Research in Pharmacy Practice.

The study involved collecting information about 40 adults who had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and who had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit within 24 hours of the event. The researchers had some of the patients receive 30 milligrams of melatonin every night, while the rest of the patients did not receive any melatonin.

Upon analyzing the data, the researchers discovered that melatonin shortened both the duration of mechanical ventilation and the duration of ICU stay. Patients who received this treatment did not need mechanical ventilation for as long and got out of the Intensive Care Unit sooner. This suggests that melatonin helped them recover from the stroke. Further research may prove that melatonin deserves a place as an integral part of the stroke treatment protocol. The authors of the study also note that melatonin may be useful for any patient undergoing mechanical ventilation, regardless of whether or not that is because of a stroke. They note this chemical has sedative, pain-relieving, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This could mean melatonin has many more therapeutic properties than we currently realize.

The Benefits of Melatonin

What exactly is melatonin? Melatonin is a hormone that is secreted by the pineal gland. It is secreted in far greater quantities during the dark hours of the day. Its main function is to regulate the circadian rhythm, or the sleep-wake cycle. Though the body produces melatonin naturally, it can also be helpful for certain conditions to take melatonin by mouth. By far, the main reason to take a melatonin supplement is for a sleep disorder such as insomnia and jet lag. It may also help improve quality of sleep even in people who do not have a definable sleep disorder.

Melatonin has many other lesser-known benefits. It may be helpful for treating certain types of stomach ulcers, tinnitus and heartburn. Some research even suggests that melatonin can slightly improve memory and cognitive function. Further research into melatonin’s antioxidant and neuroprotective properties could reveal many more therapeutic uses for this amazing substance.

Reducing Your Risk of Hemorrhagic Stroke

Some estimates say that an astonishing one in six people will suffer some type of stroke within their lifetime. Fortunately, there are many steps you can take to reduce your risk.

Smoking is one of the biggest risk factors for stroke, including hemorrhagic stroke. It increases the likelihood of blood clots forming, and has many other negative effects that contribute to your stroke risk. Quitting smoking, as well as avoiding exposure to second-hand smoke, will reduce your chance of suffering a stroke.

Along with tobacco, alcohol is another substance that increases your risk of hemorrhagic stroke. For optimal health, men should have no more than two drinks per day, and women should have no more than one.

Diet — even skipping meals — influences the risk of stroke. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, get enough potassium and limit saturated fat. Exercise is also important; meeting the official minimum recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week will help reduce your risk of stroke. A healthy diet in conjunction with regular exercise will also help you maintain a healthy weight, which is important because being overweight or obese greatly increases your risk of stroke and other cardiovascular problems.

Since the most common cause of hemorrhagic stroke is high blood pressure, it is crucial to prevent and treat this condition in order to avoid the risk of stroke. In addition to following the above suggestions, limit your sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams per day, as well as to relieve and avoid stress.

Talk to your doctor about your risk of hemorrhagic stroke. If he or she assesses you to be at a high risk of stroke, you may be prescribed a medication to help prevent blood clots from forming.