melatonin

BEWARE!! CANCER AND NIGHT SHIFT WORK LINKED?

April 25, 2012 by James Bogash

Our normal sleep wake cycle that is timed to daylight hours is actually an essential component of good health. Besides the fact that the stress that may disrupt sleep cycles is deadly to us, night shift work may have a direct effect on cancers rates via a hormone called melatonin.
Melatonin is a hormone produced deep in the brain (the pineal gland) and helps to regulate our sleep / wake cycle among other things. Sunlight hitting the back of the retina shuts down the production of melatonin. Thus,e the onset of nighttime will allow the body to release more melatonin as less sunlight is no longer hitting the retina.

The research linking melatonin levels, night shift work and cancer has been mounting for several years now and includes:

This particular study adds further evidence to the equation, looking at the levels of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin levels (a derivative of melatonin):

6-Sulfatoxymelatonin levels were 62% lower in night shift women when they slept in daytime.
FSH and LH were 62% and 58% higher, respectively, in night shift working women sleeping in daytime.
When night shift workers did sleep at night, they had 42% lower 6-sulfatoxymelatonin levels.
At night, while working, 6-Sulfatoxymelatonin levels were 69% lower than daytime workers sleeping at that time.
FSH and LH were 35% and 38% higher, compared with day shift workers in nighttime sleep.

Overall, it is clear that not sleeping at night will lower the levels of the protective hormone melatonin, while at the same time increasing levels of reproductive hormones that may increase the risk for cancers such as breast. Add this risk on top of women who do not sleep well at night due to stress related sleep problems and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

DO YOU HAVE SLEEP PROBLEMS? FIX IT NOT MEDICATE IT! – (07-23-07)

April 7, 2012 by James Bogash

Valerian for Sleep: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Our entire approach to sleep disorders is just a little dsyfunctional. If someone has a problem sleeping, there is something really wrong to be avoiding this absolutely essential process. This can come from several sources, but adding a medication to force a body into an unnatural sleep just can’t be good in the long term (of course, we don’t really know because few, if any, sleep drugs have had long term studies done on them…). Altered cortisol rhythms from stress, neurotransmitter dysfunction, melatonin production mis-timing can all cause sleep problems. These need to be fixed, NOT medicated.

I remember a patient who worked midnights asking me what he could take for energy. Knowing his sleep cycle, I asked how he was sleeping. Poorly of course–so he tried a little melatonin to help regulate his sleep cycle. One week later he came in and had all the energy he needed. It’s not that some high dose sugar and caffeine carbonated beverage wouldn’t have done the trick.

Read entire article here

RISK OF POSTMENOPAUSAL BREAST CANCER – (08-17-09)

February 13, 2012 by James Bogash

Urinary Melatonin Levels and Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Risk

Hate to sound like a broken record, but if ANYONE out there thinks that cancer risk is in our genes and we have no control over it….that absolutely, positively, without a doubt flies in the face of hundreds of studies confirming a large degree of control over our risk of cancer and the outcomes of cancer diagnosis.

In this particular study, we found higher levels of melatonin (a hormone produces deep in the brain to help settle us into sleep when the sun goes down) led to a 38% reduced risk of breast cancer. That means that good daylight sun exposure and getting your body to sleep WITHOUT the use of drugs, as well as NOT working a graveyard shift can all help avoid breast cancer.

Read entire article here

NIGHT SHIFT INCREASES RISK OF BREAST CANCER?

January 22, 2012 by James Bogash

NIGHT SHIFT INCREASES RISK OF BREAST CANCER? This is not the first study to find links between melatonin levels and breast cancer. If you look at a “light map” of the US, the areas with the most light at night have the highest rates of breast cancer. It is highly likely that this relates to the production of melatonin. Melatonin is produced deep in the brain in the pineal gland, but it’s production is shut down by light striking the retina. Helps set our sleep / wake cycles.

So, staying inside all day long (not getting strong sunlight exposure) or staying up late at night can mess with our body’s production of melatonin. The current thought is that melatonin has some powerful antioxidant properties, and this may be a mechnism by which it protects our genes from cancer.

Read entire article here.

MELATONIN’S EFFECTS ON DEPRESSION AND THE BRAIN

September 9, 2011 by James Bogash

For those who are unaware, melatonin is a hormone produced deep in the brain (the pineal gland) and helps to regulate our sleep / wake cycle, among other things. Sunlight hitting the back of the retina shuts down the production of melatonin, while the onset of nighttime will allow the body to release more melatonin. So what does this have to do with depression?

We’ve all heard of serotonin and the drugs like Prosac and Paxil and Zoloft that affect serotonin use in the brain. These are generally used to treat depression, but, in a close review of the studies that have been done, their effectiveness over placebo was minuscule. Of course, in these same studies, the placebo had a powerful effect on the patient’s depression, meaning that anyone responding to these drugs is probably benefiting from a placebo response and not the drug itself.

Melatonin and serotonin are players along the same pathway; thus, what effects one pathway will influence both hormones. It is for this reason that there is rising interest in drugs that modify melatonin levels to affect depression. The drug companies know that these current financial blockbuster drugs, if the curtain is ever pulled back, could fall like a house of cards. So they are looking elsewhere.

The biochemistry is pretty straightforward; there is only a single step between serotonin and melatonin production in the pineal gland. The pathway starts with the amino acid tryptophan (or 5-HTP, which is the next compound produced and can be very effective for depression or anxiety). As would be expected, serotonin levels are higher during the day, but production shifts to melatonin as night falls.

So what does this mean? It ties in stress, sleep hygiene, anxiety and depression into a biochemical pathway. Stress levels will lead to a rise in cortisol levels later in the day, making it hard to fall asleep. Problems sleeping may lead the sufferer to be exposed to bright lights when the body really should be producing more melatonin. Less melatonin production will interfere with the smooth flow through the biosynthetic pathway, leading to depression.

In addition, melatonin levels have been linked to things like migraines, seizures and cancer. Rest assured that these conditions will be impacted as well.

The bottom line is that stress management and proper sleep are an integral component of any healthy lifestyle. Sleep medications do nothing to fix the elevated cortisol, and will likely disrupt the synthesis of melatonin, further throwing off the cycle. Stress needs to be managed with any number of tools available so that sleep patterns can be restored.