At a recent medical conference, I heard a great lecture on melatonin supplementation that flung wide open the doors of my understanding about the versatility and efficacy of this remarkable substance. The speaker was Russel Reiter, professor of neuroendocrinology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Dr. Reiter’s expertise is melatonin and what he had to say was far, far beyond the common notion of melatonin as the sleep-inducing and jet lag-beating hormone produced by the pineal gland in the front of your brain. Dr. Reiter emphasized that melatonin is a powerful anti-cancer agent. Human studies on a wide variety of cancers now back up earlier laboratory experiments.

These studies suggest that the use of melatonin supplements may reduce tumor growth and prolong survival, and, when combined with chemotherapeutic treatment, improve quality of life by reducing the toxicity of cancer drugs. One Canadian researcher analyzed data from ten randomized controlled studies involving 643 patients and a variety of solid tumors and found that “substantial reduction in risk of death, low adverse events…and low costs related to this intervention suggest great potential for melatonin in treating cancer.” The findings are all that more remarkable because the utilization of melatonin as a cancer treatment occurred in situations only after all other therapies were found to be essentially ineffective.

In Europe, melatonin is already being used by doctors against cancer. As often happens, the Europeans are quicker to use targeted nutraceuticals than we are. Dr. Reiter also described melatonin as a heavyweight antioxidant and immune booster. “Unusually potent,” he said. It turns out that within the last ten years, repeated studies show that melatonin has great efficiency in reducing oxidative stress in the body. It does so by directly neutralizing destructive free radicals. Moreover, the altered melatonin compounds, after knocking out free radicals, are thought to be even more potent. In this respect, melatonin appears to be a serial killer. And if that weren’t enough, melatonin actually strengthens the body’s own antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase and glutathione.

One study reported that supplemental melatonin boosts the production of glutathione, considered to be the most important antioxidant we ourselves make. In recent years, the antioxidant efficiency of melatonin has been tested in a large number of experimental animal studies in which free radical activity is an important disease feature. These experimental models include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cataracts, and atherosclerosis. Melatonin was found to be beneficial by reducing molecular damage and cell death. The take away message I got from Dr. Reiter’s talk was that melatonin absolutely warrants and desperately needs much more serious research. It is wellknown that melatonin levels drop with age. It is also known that healthy elderly individuals have better-preserved melatonin concentrations than those who are frail.

To date, however, a direct association between better melatonin and better health has not been established. That’s what researchers need to start investigating. The potential here is quite promising and the use of melatonin supplements, if found effective, could offer an inexpensive option for treatment of many common ailments that afflict the elderly. Based on the research so far, it appears that taking melatonin may be helpful against a wide range of common age-related disorders. Melatonin is an extremely safe supplement. Even at very high doses there is virtually no toxicity issue. Dr. Reiter commented, in fact, that melatonin may be the safest nutrient to take for cancer. He noted that some people are taking as much as 300 mg daily for cancer without any problems. The general recommendation for promoting sleep is 500 mcg to 2 mg at bedtime. That’s what I’ve been telling my sleep-challenged patients. Some have said they have gone as high as 10 mg and without any side effects. It’s an individual thing.

Over the years I’ve had about a half dozen patients with depression tell me that the melatonin made their depression worse. That’s the only negative feedback I have had. Melatonin is, of course, the hormone associated with sleep. The level produced by the pineal rises with darkness and declines at dawn. To enhance the effect of your natural melatonin before bedtime, try to keep the lights down low or off altogether in the bedroom. “Light pollution” shuts down your own melatonin production. Here’s what you should also know about lights, melatonin, and bedtime:

• The effectiveness of melatonin supplements is not affected by lights.
• A red night light in the room will not affect natural melatonin.
• Probably the worst thing you can do is open the fridge door late at night, when you can’t fall asleep, looking for a soporific glass of milk. The blast of light from the fridge will really sock it to the pineal. I’m not joking, but if you get up for a snack or some milk, put on sunglasses.