Melatonin: Noooooooooooooooooo!

narouz

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“Many health food stores are now selling melatonin, to induce sleep and “prevent cancer.” They have taken some information out of context, and don’t realize how dangerous melatonin is. It makes the brain sluggish, causes the sex organs to shrink, and damages immunity by shrinking the thymus gland. It is the hormone of darkness and winter, and is produced in the pineal gland by any stress which increases adrenalin. Adequate sun light suppresses the formation of melatonin.” -Ray Peat, PhD

http://www.functionalps.com/blog/2011/09/30/light-is-right/
 

charlie

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Wow! :yipes

Glad I never took any of that stuff.
 
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N

narouz

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Charlie said:
Wow! :yipes
Glad I never took any of that stuff.

Yes, and furthermore, here's what happens to very naughty boys and girls:

The popular supplements melatonin, tryptophan, fish oils, St. John's wort, and the various omega -3 oils, all increase the risk of retinal light damage and macular degeneration. Serotonin uptake inhibiting antidepressants are suspected to be able to cause it.

Processes similar to those that damage the over-sensitized retina can occur in other cells, as a result of stress. The substances that sensitize the retina to light-damage, can also increase the incidence of new or metastatic cancers.
--Dr. Ray Peat
in Aging Eyes, Infant Eyes, and Excitable Tissues
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/aging-eyes.shtml
 

bradley

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In an interview (can't remember which), Peat said that 1mg or under is not toxic. I take .25mg occasionally to help with sleep. If i take more than 1mg i get pretty bad side effect though.
 

nwo2012

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I have to stick my hand up and say that I have used it in the past. Probably around 200 x 3mg tabs in total. Can thank Mercola for that recommendation. Was using it after nightshifts to help get to sleep. Hopefully no damage done (none that I have noticed so far). Funnily enough, once the RP 'diet' was utilized, and with a tiny crumb of Cynoplus (about 1/10th=3mcgT3/12mcgT4), I am out like a light!
 

bradley

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nwo2012 said:
I have to stick my hand up and say that I have used it in the past. Probably around 200 x 3mg tabs in total. Can thank Mercola for that recommendation. Was using it after nightshifts to help get to sleep. Hopefully no damage done (none that I have noticed so far). Funnily enough, once the RP 'diet' was utilized, and with a tiny crumb of Cynoplus (about 1/10th=3mcgT3/12mcgT4), I am out like a light!

do you take the cynoplus at night?
 

nwo2012

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bradley said:
nwo2012 said:
I have to stick my hand up and say that I have used it in the past. Probably around 200 x 3mg tabs in total. Can thank Mercola for that recommendation. Was using it after nightshifts to help get to sleep. Hopefully no damage done (none that I have noticed so far). Funnily enough, once the RP 'diet' was utilized, and with a tiny crumb of Cynoplus (about 1/10th=3mcgT3/12mcgT4), I am out like a light!

do you take the cynoplus at night?

Sorry for late reply. Yes probably 1/10th of one right before bed sublingualy. Helps me get to sleep and stay asleep for 5 hours (record for me, before RP way of life it was 3 at a time).
 

milk_lover

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Ray Peat said:
Adequate sun light suppresses the formation of melatonin.
@haidut this is probably another benefit of sunlight. Also I remember Peat saying/writing that sunlight decreases prolactin. I found a study on reddit that claims increased melatonin signaling is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes (http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdf/S1550-4131(16)30160-7.pdf), so sunlight could reduce the risks of type 2 diabetes.
 

burtlancast

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Adequate sun light suppresses the formation of melatonin.” -Ray Peat, PhD

And prevents sleep onset.

People with delayed sleep phase syndrome have their melatonin chronically suppressed at evening from artificial light (more specifically the blue part of the spectrum).

Wearing amber teinted glasses prevents blue light from supressing melatonin secretion, which can then induce sleep at the correct time.

Two sides of each coin, let's not forget.
 
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I have always loved to go to sleep with the lights on. I fall asleep faster that way.
In the summer i love to stay up till the sun rises and go to sleep with the curtains opened.
 

nomoreketones

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I think melatonin also increases prolactin substantially, no?

***t. I need to get off this stuff.

 

Dave Clark

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Interesting that adequate sunlight 'suppresses' melatonin, because all I am reading and hearing from the health and science community is that 95% of the melatonin in the body is not in the pineal gland, but in the body's cells, and that NIR light from the sun 'increases' melatonin in the body. Example:
 

Texon

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You did read that the dose was 80mg right. No human in the right state of mind is taking that lol.
There is Dr. Shallenberger that recommends very high dose melatonin for all sorts of things. My personal experience has not been good at 3 mgs.
 

AnonE

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One of my biggest health mistakes was relying on melatonin after traveling/working abroad fairly consistently in the late 2010s.

It took me a good few years to finally cut it out completely. Going down to 0.5mg for a while I thought was OK, but even that was really hard to come off. After the initial month of crap sleep on zero, everything is finally better this year. Energy, strength, and eventually sleep all became better off vs. on.

Lots of deceptive marketing on this!
 

baccheion

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0.3-1.0 mg or less is fine. Melatonin during the day is bad. Sustained-release is better. The gut produces 500x more melatonin than in circulation. Much in the cells yes. Might not be Peaty.

Melatonin + DHEA was the big release of the 80s by Life Extension Foundation. Both sustained-release. Clean anti-aging when matched with meeting all RDAs and keeping 2-1-2-8-4 calcium-magnesium-phosphorus-potassium-sodium ratio. Bonus: 800-1200 mg phosphorus.
 

bornamachine

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Melatonin is high in turkey meat, thus you become sluggish and sleepy after heavy turkey meal, cranberries help to break down melatonin.

Think about this defense mechanism, I'm a turkey, you're a fox, you eat me, hopefully you become so sluggish you will die or be killed.

It's powerful stuff, never touched it.

I recall RP saying your body makes it in the mcg amounts and people are taking it in the Mg amounts!

Easy to mess yourself up doing that
 

Motorneuron

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Probably in low dose help 👍 or Cycling and take su during the day.
 

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