What to expect from SLEEPSMART:
Suggested usage: 1 capsule before bed or as directed by a healthcare practitioner.
VEGETARIAN FORMULA
| Melatonin identified in 1958, is a hormone manufactured from serotonin (our feel good hormone) and secreted by the pineal gland. The human body is governed by an internal clock that signals the release of many hormones that regulate various body functions. Melatonin is most well known for its ability to control our sleep, wake cycles where it is secreted in darkness and suppressed by the light. It is also used to treat jetlag where it resets our internal clock when we travel by air across several time zones. Children have much higher melatonin levels than adults and sadly as we age it is dramatically reduced. Anti-aging specialists believe melatonin to be essential in retarding the aging process. Low levels of melatonin are also found in those individuals with sleep and depressive disorders. |
Melatonin Protects Against Female Cancers
Exciting new research shows that melatonin is important for much more. A study published in Neuroendocrinology in 2003 found that melatonin has an antiestrogenic effect on estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer cells. Further research released in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that nurses who worked rotating night shifts 3 nights per month for fifteen years had a higher incidence of colorectal cancer. Earlier studies had confirmed that night shift workers had higher rates of breast cancer but the colorectal study found melatonin also had an anticancer effect on intestinal cancers.
Another study reported in Gynecology and Obstetric Investigation showed a significant correlation between melatonin deficiency and endometrial cancer. Unlike cervical cancer there is no screening method for endometrial cancer which is the most common pelvic cancer in women. In this study they looked at 138 women. Sixty-eight women were diagnosed with endometrial cancer and 70 with abnormal bleeding. The researchers compared the blood melatonin levels of each group and found that there was a 6-fold lower difference in melatonin levels in those with endometrial cancer. The researchers believe that melatonin levels may be an indicator of endometrial cancer and declining levels of melatonin a risk factor for developing the disease.
Melatonin has also been evaluated as a treatment to maintain normal blood pressure in diabetics. It also protects the stomach mucosa from acute gastric lesions caused by stress. For those people having difficulty stopping benzodiazepines commonly referred to as sleeping pills melatonin has been used effectively to help withdraw from these drugs without side effects.
Night lights and street lights streaming light through your bedroom window at night both have been found to inhibit melatonin production while sleeping. Purchase light-inhibiting drapes for your windows, turn off those night lights and close your bedroom door at night to shut out the light to enhance your body's own melatonin levels.
Anisimov VN. The role of pineal gland in breast cancer development. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol. 2003 Jun;46(3):221-34.
Dauchy et al., "Dim Light During Darkness Stimulates Tumor Progression by Enhancing Tumor Fatty Acid Uptake and Metabolism," Cancer Letters 144:131-136 (1999).
Girgert R, Bartsch C, Hill SM, Kreienberg R, Hanf V. Tracking the elusive antiestrogenic effect of melatonin: a new methodological approach. Neuroendocrinol Lett. 2003 Dec;24(6):440-4.
Grin W, Grunberger W. A significant correlation between melatonin deficiency and endometrial cancer. Gynecol Obstet Invest. 1998;45(1):62-5.
Schernhammer ES, Laden F, Speizer FE, Willett WC, Hunter DJ, Kawachi I, Fuchs CS, Colditz GA. Night-shift work and risk of colorectal cancer in the nurses' health study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003 Jun 4;95(11):825-8.