Many of you know the importance of Melatonin in our biology, but many of you don’t know it’s far more than a sleep hormone…
Some facts about melatonin you may not be familiar with:
Melatonin is just as important as Vitamin D. Where we view Vitamin D as the “hormone of light,” melatonin is the “hormone of darkness”
Melatonin is colloquially referred to as the “hormone of darkness” since it is produced in response to darkness, as perceived by the eye’s retina [4]. Its synthesis is reduced by exposure to light, with artificial light reducing a person’s melatonin production and increasing disease risk
There are two types of cells responsible for the creation of melatonin: pinealocytes and enterochromaffin cells, and while many talk about optimizing the pineal gland for melatonin production you actually make 95% of your melatonin in the mitochondria.
You make 400x more melatonin in gut mucosa than pineal gland
MELATONIN AUTOIMMUNE TIE: Mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the mechanisms related to diseases of aging. It may be that declining melatonin levels with age and, thus, less protection of the mitochondria from oxidative stress may be contributors to preclinical changes and, ultimately clinical symptoms. There may be the ability to offset some of the decline accompanying the aging process through physiological regeneration with supplemental melatonin, as has been documented in animal and human studies (espeically in autoimmune patients)
Melatonin & Multiple Sclerosis: The suppression of melatonin is suspected to cause this metabolic shift directly or indirectly, further complicating the circadian dysregulation that is evident in MS patients and other neurodegenerative conditions.
Why I’m Not A Fan Of Supplementing Melatonin
Supplementation of melatonin can down regulate your bodies own production and therefore create long term effects like retinal tears, cornea shinkage and more, instead we should be focused on optimizing our environment so ample melatonin creation and utilization can be achieved.
This was the topic of TODAY’S PODCAST with Melatonin Researcher Phd, Dr. Deanna Minich: WATCH HERE
In addition I’ve created the “Optimal Sleep Guide” To help you create that environment for yourself NO MATTER your location, background knowledge or current health status. For this week only i’ll be offering 15% off with code “Melatonin15” - Check Out The Guide Here
What topics would you like me to cover in future newsletters leave a comment below
Sincerely, your friendly neighborhood health nerd,
Ryan