Melatonin Benefits
Many People in Many Ways
While there are a LOT of Melatonin Benefits, there are really just a few reasons why the benefits of melatonin help so many people in so many different ways. While drug companies want to make ONE drug have ONE action in order to do ONE thing, melatonin effects many different bodily functions in many ways due to a general beneficial effect. The main melatonin benefits don't sound very exciting, but because they affect so many critical functions in the body, melatonin effects ripple throughout the body which causes many and varied different benefits. "… melatonin, which is both lipophilic and hydrophilic,
has effects not only in every cell but also
within every subcellular compartment."
Functional pleiotropy of the neurohormone melatonin Melatonin Benefits Your SleepThose who have trouble sleeping can see the benefits of melatonin directly. The best known melatonin effects are as a natural sleep aid for those who have trouble sleeping, and studies show that it's effective as a natural sleep aid whether it's used as Melatonin for Children, adults or the elderly. Unlike other sleeping pills and natural sleep aids, Melatonin Addiction is virtually nonexistent as well. While Melatonin for Sleep doesn't sound particularly exciting, remember that not trouble sleeping can affect every other function in the body. Adrenal gland fatigue, Symptoms of Fibromyalgia and other diseases often stem from trouble sleeping and sleeping disorders. Other conditions, like Autism, seem to have sleeping disorders as a secondary problem that makes the condition worse and negatively affects the entire family.
Not sleeping causes physiologic stress on your body which leads to a problem called 'oxidative stress' that can lead to premature aging, pain, can be one of the Causes of Peripheral Neuropathy, nutrient deficiencies, inflammation, high homocysteine levels and a multitude of other problems. Oxidative stress is what ages us and is one of the main causes of disease. By sleeping better, you reduce physiologic stress and your mood improves which decreases oxidative stress and causes positive ripple effects throughout the body as a result. As an added benefit, there has never been a report of Melatonin Addiction, which can be a HUGE problem with the use of pharmaceutical sleeping pills. Melatonin is an AntioxidantWhat is Melatonin? It's also an antioxidant. While that doesn't SOUND exciting, it really is. As we mentioned above, most disease conditions begin as some form of 'oxidative stress'. When you supply anti-oxidants, you neutralize the free radicals that lead to the conditions required for aging and disease. But don't underestimate this antioxidant action, these melatonin benefits show that this antioxidant action is REALLY powerful. It is SO powerful that at a high Melatonin Dosage it has been used successfully to improve mortality in people with illnesses so severe that they are in the hospital critical care unit with blood infections, severe burns or lung damage requiring life support!! It's also been used to improve survival rates in people undergoing cancer treatments, major surgery and those with liver damage. These antioxidant melatonin effects are WAY more powerful than eating a serving of broccoli! Another Melatonin Benefit is DetoxificationAnother one of the benefits of melatonin is its ability to help detoxify substances. The 'free radicals' discussed above get detoxified by the antioxidant melatonin effects. But another aspect of the melatonin effects of detoxification are that it can preserve levels of 'glutathione'. Glutathione is one of the most powerful antioxidant and detoxifying substances that there is. It lives inside of each and every cell protecting the mitochondrial power plants and your DNA. One of the benefits of melatonin, which is also a Fact about Selenium as well, is that it prevents glutathione from being used up, and thus indirectly acts as a detoxification aid. Importantly, while levels of glutathione were higher in the body tissues of those taking melatonin, they were also higher in the BRAIN, which could explain some of the reports of decreased seizure activity in those taking melatonin. Smooth Muscle RelaxantOne of the ways that Melatonin Supplements some people is its ability to relax 'smooth' muscles. This is different than most muscle relaxants that are mostly use to help relax SKELETAL muscles – such as back muscles or shoulder muscles that you have conscious control over. Smooth muscles, by contrast, are muscles that you have little or no control over under most circumstances. "Unexpected improvements were seen in esophageal reflux,
gastrointestinal symptoms of ulcerative colitis,
cystic fibrosis and chronic diarrhea. Thus it appears
that melatonin may have some as yet unclear
function in the gastrointestinal tract."
'Melatonin in psychiatric and neoplastic disorders' One of the lesser known melatonin benefits are its effects on the smooth muscles of the digestive tract. It can help to relax these muscles to the extent that it has been shown to be of benefit in Irritable Bowel Syndrome, esophageal reflux and other problems of digestive irritability. This makes sense since melatonin is not JUST produced in the pineal gland between the eyes, but it's also produced in the gastrointestinal tract too. It's possible that this is an adaptive mechanism to prevent irritability and inflammation from stress. Just another one of the interesting melatonin benefits. Melatonin Effects on the Reproductive SystemDepending upon who you are, the melatonin effects on the reproductive system may be one of the melatonin benefits- or it may be a problem! Melatonin is quite effective in dosages that are EXTREMELY low. In fact, a normal Melatonin Dosage of even as low as 0.1 mg has been shown to be an effective dose for adults and children. But EXTREMELY high doses, what some would consider close to a Melatonin Overdose, have been used effectively over long periods of time as a natural female contraceptive!! In fact, a pharmaceutical company is in the final stages of creating a prescription birth control pill with high dose melatonin as its primary ingredient! Due to this effect of melatonin, it is important that you understand one of the Melatonin Side Effects could be a change in the reproductive cycle- avoid melatonin if you are pregnant, lactating or trying to get pregnant as the problems could outweigh the benefits of melatonin for you. This is due to melatonin effects on the 'neuroendocrine system', which means that it has the ability to regulate how the brain secretes the entire range of hormones in the body including the Adrenal Glands, the reproductive hormones, the thyroid and the pancreas. While not all of these melatonin effects are understood well due to the limited human studies that have been done, the Melatonin Long Term Effects could very well be melatonin benefits for those with diabetes, infertility and thyroid problems that just have not been discovered or studied yet! These are just a few of the Melatonin Benefits that have been studied. Like Vitamin D, it has a multitude of actions that the Melatonin Long Term Effects could be quite beneficial over time. Unfortunately, many of the proposed effects of Melatonin Supplements just have not been studied in humans and so we may not know about all the long term benefits of this inexpensive supplement for years and maybe decades. If you don't want to wait that long to reap the benefits of melatonin, keep reading to find out the right Melatonin Dosage for you…
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Melatonin Dosage
Resources for Melatonin Benefits |
- Amazon book that examines virtually all aspects of the multifunctional hormone melatonin. Topics addressed include how melatonin is synthesized; possible harmful side effects; and the role this hormone plays in diseases such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's, and cancer.
