Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone that helps control the sleep cycle. It is used to fight cancer and has substantial NIH research showing it’s efficacy.

If your melatonin cycle is disturbed insomnia can result. It either becomes difficult to fall asleep or to stay asleep or both. Note that there are many other causes of insomnia and this is just one of them. Many studies show that disturbance of melatonin production significantly increases cancer risk and all-mortality risk. I speculate that the increased cancer risk and all-mortality risk is in large part due to sleep disturbance and not necessarily a property of melatonin itself.

Melatonin has a dual action. In low doses it is an antioxidant. In high doses it becomes a pro-oxidant. Pro-oxidants create oxidation and theoretically destroy cancer cells. Antioxidants help the body heal and repair.

I used 3 NIH studies and arrived at a threshold of approximately 11mg. Below that melatonin is an antioxidant. Above that it is a pro-oxidant. To be safe I think that the antioxidant dose should be less than 3mg and the pro-oxidant dose should be greater than 50mg.

For 11 days I take 300mcg of melatonin and for 3 days I take 100mg or so of melatonin. I chose the low dose based on the body’s endogenous melatonin production. To mimic the body’s natural melatonin release I take it 1-2 hours before bedtime.

I have seen some research suggesting worse outcomes for cancer patients if melatonin is taken early in the day. The theory is that exogenous melatonin during the day disrupts your body’s normal circadian rythm of melatonin release.