Melatonin

Researchers Discover How Coffee Affects the Circadian Rhythm

Coffee is an American obsession. While many people enjoy this energizing beverage, many of us also view it as a bad habit, even if a minor one. However, a new chronobiology study on coffee and the circadian rhythm has found that moderate amounts of coffee affect the circadian rhythm in positive ways, and may be especially good when it comes to regulating your sleep-wake cycle.

How Coffee Affects the Circadian Rhythm: Turning Back the Clock

Many of the studies looking at the effects of caffeine on the circadian rhythm have been performed on lab animals rather than humans. Recently, researchers decided to definitively nail down exactly how caffeine affects the circadian rhythm by studying the effects of this stimulant on both live humans and human cells in-vitro.

In a human study, four groups of people were subjected to one of four treatments shortly before going to bed. The first group was exposed to bright light and given a double-espresso strength dose of caffeine. The second group was exposed to dim light and given a double-espresso dose of caffeine. The two other groups were both exposed to bright or dim light but were given a placebo pill. The result? Not only did the caffeine keep participants awake at night, but it completely shifted their circadian rhythm so they produced sleep hormones and fell asleep an average of 40 minutes later—nearly half the magnitude of delay caused by bright light. In short, coffee appears to delay the circadian clock by about 40 minutes, about half as long as does exposure to bright light.

When human cells in Petri dishes were treated with caffeine, the same effect was observed. Researchers found that coffee affects the circadian rhythm in human cells in-vitro by activating adenosine receptors, which are important regulators of internal clocks. In effect, the clocks were held back.

Of Mice and Metabolism: Caffeine and Metabolic Markers

This is not the first study that has found coffee can have powerful effects on internal clocks and metabolism. In prior research, mice were exposed to caffeine. Half of the mice were allowed to eat whenever they wanted while half had restricted feeding times. It was shown that caffeine restricted the gene expression and thus production of inflammatory factors and metabolic markers associated with cancer in the intestines of both groups. In the group allowed to eat freely, it also restricted these factors in the liver. Interestingly, coffee affects the circadian rhythm of different cells in different ways.

A Cure for Jet Lag?

What does this mean for human health? First, caffeine may be used in the future to modify the activity of circadian clocks. This could help in the treatment of jet lag, non-24 hour circadian rhythm disorders and several other sleep disorders. However, caffeine alone appears to have less effect on the liver and possibly other organs with their own internal clock mechanisms. In essence, we may be able to use our new knowledge about how caffeine affects the circadian rhythm to cure jet lag in the brain, but jet lag in the liver will remain an issue. In other words, some organs will still remain in their own time zone.

This research also has potential consequences for people who enjoy a cup of coffee after dinner or otherwise take in caffeine at night. By doing so, you may be delaying your internal clocks and interfering with sleep more than previously believed. Even if you can easily fall asleep after a cup of coffee, your internal clocks have still been altered. A substance that is beneficial to people trying to reset internal clocks may not be beneficial to others.

Because caffeinated beverages are so popular in the United States, it is important to understand how coffee affects the circadian rhythm and other aspects of health. It appears that caffeine can be extremely beneficial in people who need to modify their internal clocks slightly, but that it could have unwanted effects in others who drink it before bed. In short, if you are looking for a warm beverage to enjoy after dinner, unless you’re trying to adjust your circadian rhythms, you may want to reach for the herbal tea.

New Research Helps Explain the Link Between Melatonin and Diabetes

May 25 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Irregular sleep cycles and melatonin levels can have a detrimental effect on every aspect of health, but their connection to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes is especially strong. Recently, scientists looked for a mechanism through which the two seemingly-unrelated health issues might be linked. Their research indicated that the melatonin 1B receptor appears to be the connection, a discovery that opens a door for new and innovative treatments and preventative measures.

Shift Work, Melatonin and Diabetes

Shift work has been linked to a variety of diseases, including endocrine disorders such as type 2 diabetes. Melatonin appears to play a huge role in this connection. Produced in response to darkness, melatonin is a factor in a variety of endocrine reactions. It is a cue to the body that we are about to sleep, and that the body can begin the cell repair and other activities that occur when we are deep in slumber.

When people work shifts at odd hours, their exposure to natural light is affected. They may sleep during the day when sunlight is high, and spend evenings or nights under bright artificial lights. This leads to disordered melatonin production. But how can changes in melatonin levels contribute to a disorder of insulin and blood sugar like type 2 diabetes?

Melatonin Receptor 1B: The Missing Link?

Melatonin, like many hormones, exerts its effects by activating cell receptors to set off activity inside the cell. New research has found that one receptor, the melatonin 1B receptor, plays a role in the body’s response to insulin. When this receptor is activated, the cells have less of a response to insulin. This produces higher blood sugar, which is normally a healthy response at night. People who sleep at night need to conserve blood sugar so they do not become hypoglycemic during their overnight fast. However, this response can be maladaptive in people who work at night, as they generally eat meals during the night.

This explains a part of the relationship between melatonin and diabetes, but there is yet another twist. Some people have a genetic variant of the melatonin 1B receptor rather than the one present in most of the population. These people have an increased response to melatonin and thus even more insulin resistance during times of melatonin production. Disordered melatonin production coupled with high levels of melatonin at times when they are eating, as occurs for shift workers, can be especially destructive to these people’s bodies. Over time, the regular periods of insulin resistance can lead to type 2 diabetes. This hypothesis is supported by other research indicating that this same genetic variant is linked to increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes.

A Connection Between Genes, Lifestyle, and Disease

Type 2 diabetes has been assumed to have a genetic component because it tends to run in families. Even when lifestyle factors are taken out of the equation, some people are simply at higher risk. Lifestyle factors also play an important role, but the influence of genes cannot be discounted. Some people are genetically primed to develop insulin resistance and other diseases of glucose metabolism.

Researchers suggest that this new information can be used to help people who carry this genetic variant to prevent getting prediabetes or diabetes. For those with the variant form of melatonin 1B, it is even more important to have regular sleep cycles and maintain a natural circadian rhythm.

Could Sleep Be the Best Medicine?

It appears that for many people, getting quality sleep is especially important to maintaining good health. However, shift work is a necessary part of our society, as the population needs certain services available 24 hours a day. Fasting during night hours and restricting carbohydrate intake to light hours may prevent some of the ill effects of insulin resistance caused by a variant form of melatonin receptor 1B. In addition, shift work could be avoided by those who are genetically at risk of type 2 diabetes.

The number of people who are prediabetic or diabetic in the Western world is steadily growing. Identifying at-risk populations, as well as the behaviors that increase their risk, may help to stem the modern tide of endocrine disease. New advances in chronobiology are helping scientists and doctors to understand the link between melatonin and diabetes in hopes of offering better care to people who desperately need it.

Are Brain Salts Responsible for Sleep-Wake Cycle Regulation?

May 13 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

A precise balance of salts in the body is important for a variety of biological functions, from nerve activity to fluid balance. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that salts are also involved in maintaining a healthy sleep-wake cycle. However, new science reveals that salts appear to play a much bigger role than expected, acting as part of the regulation system of our circadian rhythm.

Electrolyte Balance and Brain Function

When ingested and absorbed into our body fluids, salts such as sodium and potassium become ions. These ions, also called electrolytes, are key parts of many biochemical reactions. They are also conductors of the electrical currents needed for muscle activity, neuron signaling and more. Salt balance is important to health. The role of salt in brain signaling is one reason the body works hard to keep sodium and potassium levels within a very narrow range.

When our neurons receive an impulse, sodium channels along the axon, which looks like a long open tail. Salt flows into the cell quickly, causing the electrical balance to change. This creates a current that is passed down the axon, opening sodium channels along the way. This current is passed to another cell, which repeats the process until the message has reached its target location. The majority of signals in the brain are transmitted using this process. Many disorders that affect both sleep and cognitive function, such as schizophrenia, have been associated with aberrant or faulty signaling of sodium channels.

Salts and Your Sleep-Wake Cycle

Because the brain is dependent on sodium and potassium balance to send and receive information, electrolyte imbalances can have a variety of effects, including disruption of the sleep-wake cycle. When people have even mild imbalances of salts, they will suffer from changes in their sleep patterns, fatigue, fuzzy thinking and even dementia. These are all symptoms we associate with disrupted sleep-wake cycles as well. Are these coincidental side effects, or could salts actually function as regulators of the circadian rhythm? This is what a set of Danish researchers set out to discover.

Salts, Neuromodulators and Sleep

Scientists know that neuromodulators such as cortisol and melatonin play a huge role in regulating the sleep-wake cycle. These neuromodulators affect salt balance by opening sodium channels as a means of signaling. Salts appear to act independently of these hormones, as they are controlled by non-hormonal means. While the relationship between neuromodulators and salts is still a subject of study and debate, salt appears to be an independent variable affecting sleep. When salts were injected into the brains of mice, their wakefulness, or lack thereof, changed in a predictable way. Researchers were able to put a mouse to sleep, or wake them, simply by adding salts. The relationship between neuromodulators and salt balance may actually be the mechanism by which they cause sleepiness or wakefulness.

This may seem far-fetched, but it is not an unusual way to control neural activity. The activity of sodium channels is an important regulator of many brain processes, so many hormones and pharmaceuticals work on cells by opening or closing these channels. It is possible that changing salt levels are an important way that the brain controls the sleep-wake cycle.

The Future of Sleep Disorder Treatment?

Obviously, people with sleep disorders cannot be treated by a shot of salts into the brain as the mice in the study were. However, there may be other applications for these findings. Many drugs act by changing the activity of salt in the brain. For example, many epilepsy drugs block the activity of voltage-gated sodium channels, which transmit most neural signaling. In short, people who suffer from circadian disorders may soon have a medication to help them regulate their sleep-wake cycle if other research supports the conclusion of this study.

While no one should begin eating more salt to treat a circadian disorder, this new discovery is nonetheless promising. Understanding how different variables such as salt balance affect the brain, and by extension, our sleep-wake cycles will allow us to better understand how circadian disorders develop. This can, in turn, lead to more effective treatments for people who suffer from sleep disorders.

Seven Signs You Have Low Serotonin

Apr 27 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Serotonin, which is often referred to as the “happiness hormone,” is most often associated with happiness and feelings of well-being. While this inhibitory neurotransmitter definitely has an effect on mood, it also affects our brains and bodies in a variety of other ways. Low serotonin can impact nearly every system in the body, causing symptoms that interfere with just about every aspect of daily life. Here are just a few ways that low serotonin can interfere with your health and well-being.

1. High Anxiety

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are often used to treat anxiety because anxiety is one of the most common symptoms of a serotonin deficiency. While serotonin is not the only hormone implicated in anxiety, people who suffer from anxiety disorders have been shown to have low serotonin in key areas of the brain.

2. Memory Problems

Serotonin is important for cognition and thinking, especially in the area of memory. When people suffer from low serotonin, they may not have trouble storing new memories, a process known as memory consolidation. This leads to difficulty in school, work and everyday tasks. If your memory just isn’t what it used to be, consider boosting serotonin levels as a method of treatment.

3. Carb Cravings

If you find yourself reaching for sweets and starches when you are feeling depleted, low serotonin may be the culprit. Eating complex carbs can indirectly raise your serotonin levels by shifting metabolism to carbohydrate pathways rather than those that use amino acids. This impacts serotonin levels because tryptophan, an essential amino acid, can then be used as a building block for serotonin rather than for energy.

4. Digestive Difficulties

If you associate serotonin with the brain, you only know half the story. Ninety percent of your body’s serotonin is located in the GI tract, where it plays a key role in regulating digestion. When you have low serotonin in your gut, you may suffer from diarrhea, anxiety and a variety of other gastrointestinal symptoms.

5. Insomnia

We fall asleep in response to a rise in melatonin and serotonin levels. Without these two hormones, people may find it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. In addition to being important to the process of falling asleep, serotonin is also a precursor to melatonin, which means it can be converted into this sleep hormone. If you are low on serotonin, you may be low on melatonin as well.

6. Increased Appetite

Have you been feeling hungry even when you have just eaten? Low serotonin levels may be the reason. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter most implicated in hunger. Serotonin inhibits dopamine, so low serotonin may mean an increase in hunger and eating. If you can’t stop eating, try to choose foods that support healthy serotonin production.

7. Chronic Pain

Abnormal serotonin levels have been repeatedly linked to chronic pain disorders such as fibromyalgia and chronic headaches. If you suffer from muscle aches, headaches, or other chronic pain, low serotonin may be the culprit.

Natural Ways to Treat Low Serotonin

There are a few ways to increase your serotonin if you believe it may be low. Many people find relief taking a 5-HTP supplement. In addition, research has found that meditation, exercise and light exposure all may increase serotonin levels. There are also foods that can increase serotonin levels such as milk, chickpeas and a variety of brightly-colored vegetables. Eating well and taking supplements often can help alleviate symptoms of low serotonin.

Low serotonin is so common in the U.S. that it is almost an epidemic. Many people suffer from vague health symptoms that cannot be treated effectively by modern medicine. Finding natural ways to increase serotonin can allow many people to function better and feel better in their daily lives.

Melatonin: A Casualty of Modern Technology?

Apr 22 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Today’s society has access to a wider range of entertainment, education and convenience than ever before thanks to modern technology. Cell phones, tablets and laptop computers are more portable than ever, allowing us to lead lives in which we are constantly in touch. However, the huge preponderance of screens we’re exposed to emanate unnatural light that can prevent human brains from making melatonin at the levels needed for good function. Low melatonin levels in the population are causing a variety of health problems, affecting more than just sleep.

Melatonin and Your Health

Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland of your brain in response to a lack of light. While most people associate melatonin with sleep, it actually controls hundreds of activities related to metabolism and the cell cycle. Melatonin is also a powerful antioxidant, helping to repair oxidative stress that’s occurred during the day. It serves as a cue for the production of other hormones, including female reproductive hormones, as well. In addition, melatonin is crucial in turning on genes that produce proteins that are needed for DNA repair and other restorative processes that mainly occur when we sleep.

When people have low melatonin levels, the most obvious symptom is a disruption of the circadian rhythm. However, the effects of low melatonin are far-reaching and can impact almost every system in the human body.

Low Melatonin Levels: A Modern Epidemic

Artificial light has become ubiquitous in modern life. From the television to the smartphone, this light is all around us. While humans once went to bed with the sunset, we now can be productive long into the night. This constant unnatural light interferes with our body’s production of melatonin. This is not merely theoretical; research has repeatedly linked insomnia and other sleep disorders to the use of devices with lighted screens. Heavy cell phone use is linked to increased sleep disorders as well as a higher prevalence of depression, mental health problems and other disorders linked to a lack of sleep.

The High Cost of Low Melatonin

Melatonin is a master hormone that governs a variety of crucial cell processes, so a deficiency can have wide-spread consequences. Some effects of low melatonin are not surprising: Fatigue, depression and lowered mental function. However, low melatonin levels have also been linked to a variety of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and IBS/IBD.

The reason for this link appears to lie in melatonin’s role in the immune system. Autoimmune diseases are characterized by an increase in the Th-17 subset of T-helper cells, which produce a cytokine called IL-17. This protein is important in protecting our bodies against infection, but when it is produced unchecked it causes much of the inflammation and damage that we associate with autoimmune disease.

Melatonin appears to lower levels of IL-17 by putting Th-17 cells “to sleep.” These cells are less active when there are high levels of melatonin and more active during the day when melatonin is low. The presence of increased IL-17 in people who have low melatonin levels suggests that a disturbed circadian rhythm can have even more destructive effects than previously believed.

New Treatments, New Hope

It is difficult or even impossible for most people to divorce their lives entirely of technology and screens. However, this does not mean we must resign ourselves to lives with fatigue and other negative health effects of low melatonin levels. People can choose to turn off screens and dim lights one to two hours before bed to allow melatonin levels to rise. In addition, there are melatonin supplements that can raise levels of this crucial hormone to the amounts needed to stimulate crucial processes such as sleep, cell repair and immune modulation.

Maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm is difficult in the modern world, but more important than ever. Although technology has made our lives better in many ways, it is a mixed blessing. Low melatonin is a risk to your health that can be successfully treated with lifestyle changes and supplementation, allowing you to enjoy good old-fashioned health in the modern day.

Melatonin and Depression: Exploring the Connection Between Mood and the Circadian Rhythm

Apr 14 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses in the developed world and one that takes a huge toll on both sufferers and their loved ones. Depression also costs the nation as a whole, with its economic impact estimated at more than $50 billion a year in the United States alone. New research on the link between melatonin and depression suggests that melatonin may be an effective natural way to offer relief for this difficult-to-treat illness.

Sleep, Melatonin and Mental Illness

Melatonin deficits have been linked to mental illness of all kinds, from schizophrenia to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Insomnia, sleeping too much and at odd hours and other sleep disorders are common and recognized symptoms of many types of mental illness. While researchers once believed this was just a result of emotional distress, these illnesses are now known to be directly affected by and linked to low melatonin and the resulting sleep disorders.

Clearly, sleep is essential to our mental well-being in a variety of ways. This link led researchers to begin looking at the relationship between melatonin levels and one of the most common mental illnesses on the globe: clinical depression.

The Link Between Melatonin and Depression

Low melatonin has been found in several research trials to be a contributing factor in major depressive disorders. In fact, scientists can predict the severity of depression symptoms from salivary melatonin levels. While low serotonin was once believed to be the main cause of depression, we now know that the human brain is not so simple. Neurohormones such as serotonin and melatonin affect each other due to the interconnected nature of the brain. Melatonin appears to be especially important in developing depression and in treating it as well.

Melatonin, combined with light therapy, has been used for years to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is considered a form of depression. A new study is examining whether this supplement may be useful in treating non-seasonal depression as well. This research follows a much smaller groundbreaking study in the early 2000s that discovered melatonin was useful as a treatment for patients who had refractory, or difficult-to-treat, depression. A growing body of unrefuted evidence suggests that this natural supplement, which is affordable and available without a prescription, may be an important part of correcting neurotransmitter imbalances that cause depression.

Treating Depression in a New Generation

While current depression treatments such as SSRIs work for most people, there are many who struggle to live with and move on from this devastating illness. Researchers are currently looking at new ways to approach the issue of depression and mental illness in general. Melatonin appears to affect levels of both serotonin and cortisol, both of which are imbalanced in people with depression. Stabilizing melatonin levels may help other neurotransmitters to return to healthy levels. This approach to depression, addressing a root cause rather than symptoms, may be the most effective in treating a complex and multifactorial psychological disorder.

Research in chronobiology is shedding light on the strong connections between circadian rhythm and disease. Sleep is essential for good health, so stabilizing sleep cycles may improve illnesses of all kinds. In the case of clinical depression, melatonin may even be a viable stand-alone treatment. While more research will be needed before melatonin becomes a primary treatment for depressive disorders, evidence indicates that treating disorders of the circadian rhythm may be a new and more effective approach to mental illness.