Melatonin shows anti-cancer, other benefits

Research on the food supplement melatonin looks very promising, especially in view of exciting recent findings.

This was the remark of Prof. Thomas Radecki, M.D., one of the world’s renowned authorities on melatonin, in his published paper.

According to Radecki, melatonin production tends to be reduced or lacks the normal cycling pattern in old age and in many diseases, including dementia, HIV infection, anorexia nervosa, autism, heart attacks, heart failure, migraines, and obesity.

Double-blind studies have also found some evidence of benefit in hair loss, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, metastatic cancer, nocturia from benign prostatic hypertrophy, and tardive dyskinesia.

"At the very least, melatonin looks excellent for sleep, and older individuals taking it for sleep will probably reap other benefits as well," Radecki said. Pregnant women, however, should not take melatonin, he said.

Radecki said the benefits of melatonin are probably greatest in individuals over the age of 50 when endogenous levels are declining or in individuals with acute diseases characterized in part by oxidative damage, e.g. heart attacks and strokes.

Melatonin has also been shown to increase survival in solid tumor cancers. In a review of 10 scientifically designed (randomized controlled) trials of melatonin in 643 solid tumor cancer patients and its effect on survival in one year, melatonin reduced the risk of death by 34 percent.

Effects were consistent across melatonin dose and type of cancer. No severe adverse events were reported.

This was published by Prof. E. Mills in the Journal of Pineal Research recently. Mills is a faculty member of the McMaster University in Canada.

Lack of the natural hormone melatonin is also one of the implicated mechanisms why nurses and other women who work regular night shifts have a higher risk of colon cancer.

The study, made by researchers of the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, confirmed earlier studies which said that women who work in graveyard shifts may be at higher risk of having colon and breast cancer.

The study enrolled 78,586 women in a long-running program called the Nurses’ Health Study. The result of the study showed that nurses who worked night shifts at least three times a month for 15 years or more had a 35 percent greater risk of colon or rectal cancer.

Shift work disrupts normal melatonin production while increasing levels of other hormones such as estrogen.

In most cases, women’s cancers are often linked with estrogen, but Dr. Eva Schernhammer, the main author of the study, said melatonin may play a more important role.

Melatonin is produced at night and regular exposure to sunlight affects its production cycle. Artificial light suppresses melatonin production.

"Melatonin has well established anticarcinogenic properties, and a link between exposure at night and cancer risk through the melatonin pathway could offer one plausible explanation for the increased risk we observed," the study said.

Local and foreign experts are now considering supplementation with melatonin, a popularly used food supplement which improves the quality of sleep, to help prevent the development of cancer.

The Philippine distributor of Melatonin-T, Trianon International, endorses it as "an aid to sleep problems, making one enjoy deep, restful sleep and waking up the next day feeling relaxed."

It is not promoting it for its other reported beneficial effects, including helping prevent cancer and rapid aging, and preservation of sexual function in men.

Trianon Melatonin-T is classified as an over-the-counter food supplement, and is available in Mercury and Watson Drug stores nationwide.

Francis Melegrito, Trianon sales and marketing director, said the company welcomes provincial distributors for Melatonin-T and its other products. For inquiries, call 815-3239, 892-0723 or 24.