melatonin 411

New Research Helps Explain the Link Between Melatonin and Diabetes

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.

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.

Recent Discoveries Reveal New Connections Between Melatonin and Cancer

Feb 05 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Scientists have long been aware of the link between melatonin and a healthy sleep-wake cycle. New evidence reveals previously unknown connections between melatonin and cancer.

Many people use melatonin as a supplement to get better quality sleep and to treat circadian disorders such as jet lag. Several new studies suggest that melatonin also may have an impact in relation to cancer treatment. Not only does it appear to improve response to chemotherapy, but the presence of melatonin may also promote healthy cell growth.

A Possible Link Between Melatonin and Cancer

A study performed in Iceland looked at levels of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin in the urine of men with and without prostate cancer. 6-sulfatoxymelatonin is a metabolite of melatonin, so its presence in urine is a rough indicator of blood melatonin levels. Men with low levels of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin were more likely to report sleep issues such as problems falling or staying asleep. They also were more likely to develop cancer of the prostate gland. In fact, those with higher-than-normal levels of this melatonin metabolite were 75 percent less likely to be diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.

New Hope for Cancer Treatment?

This study is not the only one pointing to a relationship between low melatonin levels and potential cancer risk. Several other studies have linked higher melatonin levels with lower cancer risk. In addition, melatonin has been found to dramatically improve the effects of chemotherapy.

How can a hormone associated with sleep have such a huge effect when it comes to cancer? Melatonin and cancer appear to be linked, but how? Melatonin is one of the strongest antioxidants produced by the human body. Not only can it promote healthy cell growth, but studies show that patients who take melatonin with their chemotherapy have a higher rate of tumor response and a higher rate of one year survival, even in tumors previously deemed untreatable.

How Melatonin Helps

Scientists have identified a few mechanisms behind melatonin’s effects. First, it appears to reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy as well as its symptoms, which allows patients to complete their treatments at a higher rate. Melatonin’s effects on sleep allow patients to get higher-quality rest, which leaves them physically stronger and healthier. There is also evidence that melatonin also may more directly promote healthy cell growth, but the mechanism of this effect is not currently known. Some researchers believe that melatonin may lower levels of linoleic acid, which increases the growth of some cancers.

Melatonin and Healthy Cell Growth

Doctors and scientists remain unsure about the effects of melatonin in relation to cancer prevention. It is important to talk to your health care provider whenever you add a new supplement or medication to your regimen. However, melatonin has very low toxicity and almost no side effects when taken in a moderate dose, so many health care providers are supportive of its use as a supplement.

While more research will be needed to determine the exact nature of the link between melatonin and cancer, information gathered from studies done to date is very promising. Melatonin appears to be a beneficial adjunct in the treatment of a variety of cancers, helping patients sleep better and feel healthier during therapies. These new discoveries may change the way doctors approach the treatment of cancer while improving survival and quality of life for people who struggle with disease.

Melatonin: The Master Circadian Rhythm Regulator

Feb 03 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Melatonin plays an important role in regulating the circadian rhythm. In addition, this hormone is showing promise as a treatment for a variety of health problems.

Many people have heard of melatonin. It has become a popular supplement in recent years because of its important role in regulating the circadian rhythm. When people suffer from a melatonin deficiency, they may also suffer from insomnia and even more serious disorders such as cancer.

What Is Melatonin?

Melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland of the brain. All mammals make melatonin and use it in similar ways. When our retinas sense low levels of light, they send messages to the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, another brain structure. The hypothalamus then tells the pineal gland to make melatonin, which then acts on almost every cell in your body.

Melatonin is best known for governing our sleep-wake cycles, but it has a variety of other roles. Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant, prevent aging in our cells. It may also play other roles in aging. In addition, melatonin may be important in the regulation of female hormones and a variety of other biochemicals.

The Master Clock of Your Sleep-Wake Cycle

While melatonin plays a variety of roles, it is most important in regulating the circadian rhythm, including sleep-wake cycles. Melatonin is secreted when our brains sense that it is night, and then released continuously as we sleep. Peak levels occur at around 3 or 4 a.m. After this, levels falls sharply and the brain begins to make other hormones that are associated with waking.

Melatonin helps us to fall asleep and stay asleep long enough to get adequate rest. In addition, the presence of melatonin lets your body know that you are asleep so it can perform important repair processes. Because melatonin is an antioxidant, it even participates in important cell repair. These repair processes not only make us feel more rested, but also play an important role in slowing aging and even protecting against cancer.

Melatonin and Illness

Besides regulating the circadian rhythm, melatonin has been found to be helpful in a variety of illnesses. First, it has been used successfully to treat disorders of the circadian rhythm such as jet lag, insomnia and disorders associated with shift work. It has also been found to assist healthy sleeping behavior in mental health and developmental disorders where insomnia is a major feature, such as autism and schizophrenia. It has even shown promise in the treatment of some cancers.

Resetting Your Circadian Rhythm

Because melatonin is the master clock of the circadian rhythm, it is extremely effective in treating problems related to the sleep-wake cycle. People who suffer jet lag after traveling across time zones can use melatonin to naturally fall asleep at an earlier time without the side effects of other sleep medication. Shift workers and people who work odd hours can use melatonin to tell their body that it is time to sleep in the absence of the presence of bright light or other wakefulness cues.

Understanding the human circadian rhythm and the role of melatonin in regulating the circadian rhythm is allowing doctors and scientists to devise new and innovative treatments. New effects of melatonin are being studied, so it is likely that this hormone will become a more important medical treatment in the future.