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Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

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Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#81

Post by YinglingLight »

rsp1984 wrote: post #71

For anyone taking Melatonin as a sleeping aid: The dosages it is being sold at are way too high. Recent studies point to 0.3 mg being the right amount for adults [1]. That dosage (taken over a period of several months every day at the same time) helped me get through a period of insomnia last summer, when basically all the other medications failed or had too strong side effects. [1] http://news.mit.edu/2001/melatonin…

“Many health food stores are now selling melatonin, to induce sleep and “prevent cancer.” They have taken some information out of context, and don’t realize how dangerous melatonin is. It makes the brain sluggish, causes the sex organs to shrink, and damages immunity by shrinking the thymus gland. It is the hormone of darkness and winter, and is produced in the pineal gland by any stress which increases adrenalin. Adequate sun light suppresses the formation of melatonin.” -Ray Peat, PhD

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#82

Post by collyw »

Reason077 wrote: post #64
dc2447 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Melatonin is now available from Chemists. You need to do a short online consultation but other than that it’s straight forward to buy

It’s not permitted to be sold by chemists in the UK. If so it would be an over-the-counter medicine. Rather, it looks some online chemists skirt around the rules by having an “online doctor” issue you with a prescription. But the UK-based ones I found were very expensive and it is surely cheaper just to import from the US via eBay etc.

biovea.com ships it to the UK.

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#83

Post by Confusion »

rsp1984 wrote: post #71

For anyone taking Melatonin as a sleeping aid: The dosages it is being sold at are way too high. Recent studies point to 0.3 mg being the right amount for adults [1]. That dosage (taken over a period of several months every day at the same time) helped me get through a period of insomnia last summer, when basically all the other medications failed or had too strong side effects. [1] http://news.mit.edu/2001/melatonin…

And [1] explains why this is the case. In short: patents.

[1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/10/melatonin-much-more-th...

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#84

Post by all2 »

zdragnar wrote: post #9
canttestthis wrote: post #5

Tangentially I'm interested to know whether taking melatonin for long periods of time (years) reduces its effectiveness. I've been taking it for nearly a year but I've heard stories about how you need to keep increasing the dose to get the same effect.

It lost effectiveness after a few months for me. On top of that, it gives me very restless legs, to the point that it can actually be harder to fall asleep :/

Restless legs can be a sign of micro nutrient deficiencies.

- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25827521

- https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02011191 (if you follow this to its completed paper it claims there are neurological effects of biotin supplementation in their study group).

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#85

Post by krageon »

YinglingLight wrote: post #81
rsp1984 wrote: post #71

For anyone taking Melatonin as a sleeping aid: The dosages it is being sold at are way too high. Recent studies point to 0.3 mg being the right amount for adults [1]. That dosage (taken over a period of several months every day at the same time) helped me get through a period of insomnia last summer, when basically all the other medications failed or had too strong side effects. [1] http://news.mit.edu/2001/melatonin…

“Many health food stores are now selling melatonin, to induce sleep and “prevent cancer.” They have taken some information out of context, and don’t realize how dangerous melatonin is. It makes the brain sluggish, causes the sex organs to shrink, and damages immunity by shrinking the thymus gland. It is the hormone of darkness and winter, and is produced in the pineal gland by any stress which increases adrenalin. Ad…

"In general, the direct actions of melatonin on the gonads and adnexa of mammals indicate it is an important agent for maintaining optimal reproductive physiology" - https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/14/4/7231

When I look at other papers in this space I do find some adverse responses in hamster nuts when given melatonin injections (but not when it is administered using an implant).

At this point I did not want to research the other claims in the quote anymore. Instead, perhaps I can ask you: Do you know of any solid research that backs these (frankly very strong and contrary to everything else I've read) claims? If not, why did you choose to say this?

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#88

Post by vegardx »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #10
canttestthis wrote: post #5

Tangentially I'm interested to know whether taking melatonin for long periods of time (years) reduces its effectiveness. I've been taking it for nearly a year but I've heard stories about how you need to keep increasing the dose to get the same effect.

Indeed melatonin supplementation causes tolerance development. The correct dose to avoid it is 0.3 mg [1]. Nevertheless I'm glad pharmacies sell pills with much higher dosage - you can just buy the 2-10mg pills, crush them and take the dose you need. I bet they would sell 0.3 mg pills for the same high price if they knew. [1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/10/melatonin-much-more-th...

This is melatonin, so it's not really dangerous, but you should be careful with breaking up pills that aren't supposed to be broken in two or more. The amount of active ingredient is not evenly distributed in the pills, so you're not really halving the dosage.

For some reason melatonin is sold i boxes of 30x2mg for $25, and you need a prescription. It's completely ludicrous. You're only allowed to bring a months worth across the border. It's illegal to order by mail. /rant

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#89

Post by gnulinux »

timClicks wrote: post #28
gnulinux wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have chronic insomnia, I had it all my life. I used to use melatonin but yes over time it lost its effect and melatonin is not one of those drugs you can just take more to sleep. It has a very precise dosage and if you take more it doesn't make you more sleepy. If you have chronic insomnia, you need to solve the root cause. In my case it is anxiety, and currently I'm trying to solve my anxiety and my sleep quality…

I don't have specific knowledge to counter this, but am surprised. It implies that humans would need more melatonin over the course of their lives, yet they produce less and less as they age...

Sorry I didn't mean it lost its effect over the years. As other answers say it makes me sleep for a few days and then it stops being effective and I try to increase the dose a little which doesn't help. Other drugs I used were Xanax and Ambien, but I dropped all of them for different reasons. Currently, I'm using Prozac.

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#90

Post by [deleted] »

orliesaurus wrote: post #42
magrimu wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Melatonin administration has been found to increase hair growth in a variety of mammals >In a randomized double-blind study of 40 women with hair loss, melatonin solution applied to the scalp increased hair growth significantly relative to placebo Seems like a positive. The article is suggesting that by helping regulate the circadian rhythm, the use of melatonin can potentially: extend lifespan, prolong fertility, r…

> Unfortunately, this is unlikely to affect male pattern hair loss. Source?

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