Melatonin is a neurohormone produced in the brain by the pinealgland, from the amino acid tryptophan. The synthesis and release of melatonin are stimulated by darkness and suppressed by light,suggesting the involvement of melatonin in circadian rhythm and regulation of diverse body functions. Levels of melatonin in the blood are highest prior to bedtime.

Synthetic melatonin supplements have been used for a variety of medical conditions, most notably for disorders related to sleep.

Suggested Use

Melatonin is a primary regulator of the immune system and is a powerful anti-oxidant (free-radical fighter). Melatonin inhibits cancer cell growth, and can kill directly many different types of human tumor cells.

Melatonin is produced by the human pineal gland during deep sleep and disruption to sleep patterns mainly due to chronic stress means melatonin levels are significantly lower, putting those with disrupted sleep patterns at risk of developing cancer. Studies have revealed cancer patients have low levels of melatonin, while further studies have revealed those who meditate have low rates of cancer. Meditation is a tool to directly increase melatonin production as well as a tool to indirectly increase melatonin production by inducing deep sleep.

Meditation for Melatonin involves meditating for 20-30 minutes twice daily, during the morning and the evening to stimulate the pineal gland of the brain. Stimulation of the pineal gland produces melatonin.

Meditating during the evening serves two purposes. Firstly, it stimulates the pineal gland production of melatonin for that evenings sleep, and secondly, it calms and quietens the mind allowing for uninterrupted sleep. Studies at the University of Texas showed that melatonin administered to rats in the evening reduced tumour size greatly over melatonin administered in the morning. Other factors that lower melatonin levels include: High protein diets, overeating, chronic stress, alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, lack of natural lighting during the day, sleep deprivation, and sleeping in a room that is not pitch black due to moonlight, streetlight or other.

World Research Shows Melatonin Improves Cancer Outcomes
"Melatonin is a potent immune-enhancing hormone produced by the human pineal gland and appears to have substantial cancer-repelling power. In addition to boosting the activity of key immune cells called T helper cells, melatonin stimulates the tumor-killing action of natural killer cells (NK) by increasing the white blood cell production of the cytokine Interleukin-2 (IL-2) [Excerpt from the Definitive Guide to Cancer, by John Diamond, M.D. and Lee Cowden, M.D]
"Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), led by Eva Schernhammer, MD, DrPH, (Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School) were among the first to report that nightshift workers may have an increased risk of developing breast cancer. Decreased levels of melatonin - a hormone closely linked to sleep patterns - is believed to be a possible cause. Now, in the next phase of this research, Schernhammer reports that lower melatonin levels are associated with a higher risk of breast cancer. The findings are published in the July 20, 2005 issue of the Jounal of the National Cancer Insitute (JNCI). The hormone melatonin is typically released from the brain during the night. It is the reason people get sleepy. Nightshift workers, exposed to bright light during the evenings, produce less melatonin. Laboratory studies have shown that melatonin production can put tumor cells "to sleep" by stunting growth. A recent report indicated that in constant light, tumors grew seven times faster than they did in the dark. In this study, the researchers measured urinary melatonin in 147 women who developed invasive breast cancer and 291 matched women who did not develop breast cancer. They found that women with the lowest levels of the melatonin metabolite in their urine were 70 percent more likely to develop breast cancer." [Press Release - Brigham and Women's Hospital Research Unit]
On October 17 2001, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Vol. 93, No. 20, pp. 1557-1568) published two papers reporting a significant increase in the risk of breast cancer among women who frequently did not sleep during the period of the night, about 1:30am, when melatonin levels are typically at their highest.
Research presented recently at the 94th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C., shows evidence that the nighttime production of the hormone melatonin (produced during deep sleep) inhibits the growth of human breast cancer by blocking the tumor's uptake of dietary linoleic acid. [Bassett Research Institute - Preclinical Study supported by the National Cancer Institute]
Studies at the University of Texas Medical Branch showed that "melatonin significantly increased the latency period of the tumor, by delaying the appearance of the tumor"
According to the University of Maryland Medical Center: "Women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer tend to have lower levels of melatonin than those without the disease. Low levels of melatonin stimulate the growth of certain types of cancer cells and adding melatonin to these cells inhibits their growth. Meditation appears to be a valuable addition to the treatment of cancer due to a rise in levels of melatonin in the body."
According to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center: "Melatonin has been shown by a number of studies to significantly inhibit breast cancer in animals and tissue culture." In a separate study performed at the University a higher level of melatonin was found in meditators than in non-meditators.
According to the American Cancer Society: "A National Institute of Health panel found evidence that regular meditation can also reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, and increase longevity and quality of life. The same study found that those who meditated had a better immune response than those who did not meditate."
"Melatonin can kill directly many different types of tumour cells. It is a naturally produced cytotoxin, which can induce tumor cell death (apoptosis). In instances where the tumour has already established itself in the body, melatonin has been shown to inhibit the tumour's growth rate. Melatonin exhibits natural oncostatic activity and inhibits cancer cell growth. In patients in whom cancer has become a noticeable physical burden and produces overt symptoms, melatonin has been shown to alleviate numerous cancer symptoms and to inhibit development of new tumour blood vessels (tumour angiogenesis), which in turn inhibits the cancer from spreading further (mestastasis).

Radiation therapy usually induces anemia. Melatonin stimulates platelet production and has been shown to effectively treat cancer patients with low platelet counts and anemia. Melatonin reduces chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity, neurotoxicity, thrombocytopenia (reduced platelet counts), stomatitis (inflammation of mouth), and asthenia (weakness), and improves the overall response in cancer patients." [Clinical Study, The Life Extension Foundation]
"Results from a new study in laboratory mice show that nighttime exposure to artificial light stimulated the growth of human breast tumors by suppressing the levels of a key hormone called melatonin.The study also showed that extended periods of nighttime darkness greatly slowed the growth of these tumors." [US Department of Health and Human Services - National Institute of Health]
"Experienced meditators practicing either TM-Sidihi or another internationally well known form of yoga meditation showed significantly higher melatonin levels in the period following meditation. " [School of Psychology, La Trobe University, Australia]

Melatonin: Powerful Regulator of the Immune System

By Jo Robinson (Co-Author), with Russel J. Reiter, Melatonin: Your Body's Natural Wonder Drug, Bantam 1995

Melatonin's antioxidant properties were discovered in 1993. It's possible role in the immune system was revealed about ten years earlier. Georges Maestroni, director of the Center for Experimental Pathology in Switzerland, has been the source of many of the significant findings.

Maestroni's first awareness that melatonin might play a role in the immune system came in the early 1980s when he learned that animals that had been deprived of their pineal glands -- the gland the produces melatonin -- had shrunken thymus glands. Thymus glands are key to the body's ability to mount an effective immune response. If a lack of melatonin caused the thymus to atrophy (waste away), then melatonin must be just as fundamental to immunity.

One of melatonin's roles is to counteract the effect of stress on the immune system, whether that stress is caused by viral infiltration,emotional stress, drug-induced immunosuppression, or aging. For example, animals studies have shown that melatonin is very effective in reversing the effects of psychic stress. In a key experiment, rodents were injected with a sub-lethal dose of a virus.(EMCV virus) Half of the mice were then injected with melatonin. Finally, both groups were subjected to restraint stress, a procedure known to inhibit the immune response. At the end of 10 days, 82% of the melatonin-treated rodents were still alive, compared to only 6 percent of the controls. [Maestroni, Annals of the NY Academy of Sciences 1988; 521: 140-48.]

Melatonin has also been shown to reverse the decline in immunity that accompanies aging. In a 1995 experiment, young and old mice were injected with a virus that causes encephalitis, an often fatal brain infection. Half of both groups were then treated with melatonin. In the mice not given melatonin, not one of the old mice and only 6% of the young mice survived. In the melatonin groups, 39% of the young group and a surprising 56% of the old mice survived. In other words, melatonin had an even greater protective effect on the immune system of the aged mice than the young mice. [Archives of Virology; 1995; 140:223-30.]

Melatonin has also reversed the immunsuppressive effect of steroids on the immune system, as well as chemotherapy drugs. [International Journal of Neuroscience 1991; 61:289-98.]

Recent studies (conducted in 1993, 1994, 1995) have given new clues as to melatonin's specific mode of action. A recent finding is that there is a melatonin receptor on a key immune cell called the T-helper cell. ["T-Helper-2 lymphocytes as peripheral target of melatonin signalling." J. of Pineal Research 1995; 18:84-89.] Once linked with the cell, melatonin increases production of key cytokines (signalling cells).

Clinical trials involving melatonin are in the early stages. However, so far, melatonin administration has enhanced production of a number of important cytokines, including a 51% increase in IL-2 (necessary for inhibiting cancer cell growth), a 28% increase in tumor necrosis factor alpha, and a 41 percent increase in interferon-gamma. [Oncology Reports 1995; 2:45-7.]

Immune cells that have been enhanced by melatonin administration include natural killer cells, T-helper cells, eosinophils, and null cells. Salivary IgA, an important immunoglobulin, has also been enhanced (IgA helps protect the mucous membranes from virus and infections.)

Electro-Magnetic Field (EMF) Radiation Avoidance

EMFs are a type of low-frequency radiation emitted from everything electrical around us: power lines, transformers, electrical wiring, computers, TVs, lights, clocks, appliances, etc. Recent studies have linked EMFs to increased leukemia, lymphoma, brain cancer, melanoma, breast cancer, miscarriage, birth defects, suicide, and most recently, Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers have discovered that EMFs can suppress the pineal glands' secretion of melatonin, a hormone which controls our wake/sleep cycle, moods and task performance. Depressed melatonin levels are associated with mood changes, depression and psychiatric disorders. Melatonin also plays a critical cancer role, by increasing the phytotoxicity of the body's natural killer lymphocytes. Suppression of pineal gland function has been implicated in the etiology of breast, ovarian, prostate and melanoma cancers. Other studies have linked EMFs to decreased production of enzymes called "protein kinases" in human lymphocyte cells. This also indicates that EMFs can suppress the immune system. It is therefore important for the cancer patient to limit exposure to EMF radiation, and from regular sources of EMF radiation, including the household computer, microwave oven, electric blanket, mobile phone and cordless telephone, in order to maintain a strong immune system.

World Research Links EMF Radiaton to Cancer
Office workers who used computer monitors (VDU's) had a significant reduction in circulating levels of melatonin over a course of the working day, according to a study by researchers Drs. Bengt Arnetz of the Karolinska Institute, and Mats Berg of the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholn Sweden. No such change was found during days at the office with no VDU use. According to the researchers; "This suggests that there is a direct impact from the electromagnetic environment of the VDU on levels of melatonin."
The idea that low level powerline frequency magnetic fields may reduce the pineal gland's production of melatonin and that melatonin's ability to suppress cancer cells is blocked by these fields, is called the "melatonin hypothesis". At the recent international conference, the Second World Congress for Electricity and Magnetism in Biology and Medicine, held in Bologna, Italy in June of 1997, it is mentioned in the program bulletin: "A number of experimental studies have been conducted to test the [melatonin] hypothesis. Although the literature is still evolving and consensus is being built, it is fair to say, a) there exists credible scientific support for the hypothesis and, importantly, b) this support encompasses in vitro, in vivo, and epidemiological research. The melatonin hypothesis, thus, currently represents one of the more well documented/tested interactions in the field of bio-electromagnetics."
Research reported in 1993 by the University of California, Berkeley, found that melatonin reduces the growth rate of human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) in culture, but that a 12mG 60 Hz magnetic field can block the ability of melatonin to inhibit breast cancer cell growth. This study was designed to define the parameters by which a 12 milli-Gauss (mG) 60 Hz magnetic field can block the inhibitory action of melatonin and Tamoxifen, a widely used drug treatment for breast cancer. They found that a 12 mG field can significantly reduce the growth inhibitory action of melatonin and Tamoxifen on human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) in culture. [J.D. Harland and R.P. Liburdy. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.]
This study was specifically designed to attempt to replicate the previous (1993 University of California, Berkeley) study, with the cooperation of the originating laboratory. The results independently confirmed the previous study's findings that a) Melatonin can inhibit the growth of human breast cancer cells MCF-7 in culture, and b) A 12 mG 60 Hz magnetic field can completely block melatonin's oncostatic (cancer fighting) action. [C.F.Blackman, S.G. Benane, D.E. House and J.P. Blanchard. National Health & Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USA.]
This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that ELF and VLF magnetic fields associated with Video Display Terminals (VDT's) - (computer & TV screens) - influence human breast cancer cell growth in vitro by altering melatonin's natural oncostatic activity. This hypothesis was based on the findings of the two previously mentioned studies. The conclusions of this study appear to suggest that 12 mG VDT magnetic fields also inhibit the oncostatic (cancer fighting) action of melatonin in vitro and that the magnetic field component was the operative factor in the 12 mG 60 Hz exposures. Preliminary data from two seperate experiments indicated significant growth inhibition (33% and 22%) on day 6 in the 2 mG magnetic field conditions. [S.M.J. Afzal and R.P. Liburdy. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, USA.]
At the June 1997 Bologna World Congress meeting, a paper presented by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, specifically looked at melatonin levels and electric blanket use. The results of this study found that: "Nocturnal exposures to 50 Hz EMF generated from electric blankets...showed tendencies of suppressing peak value and/or delaying phase of melatonin rhythm in 7 of the 8 subjects.
A Boston University breast cancer study, led by Patrica Coogan, found a 43% increase in breast cancer among women with a high potential for occupational exposures to magnetic fields, notably those working with main-frame computers.

STRATEGIES TO AVOID EMF RADIATION

Avoid standing in front of the microwave oven when it is operating. Move to premises that are not below overhead powerlines. Change your bed to one without metal parts - metal acts as a conductor for EMF radiation while you are sleeping. Always have a crystal salt lamp or other negative ioniser in each room where electrical appliances such as the computer and television are operating.