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Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

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Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#101

Post by geggam »

gnulinux wrote: post #8
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.

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…

what i have found is when i take 3mg of melatonin i sleep well. When i take more than 6mg of melatonin i get into deeper sleep and sleep less hours feeling refreshed as if i slept longer

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#102

Post by cooooooffffeeee »

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?

It's suspected that male pattern hair loss is a combination of genetics and testosterone. Melatonin will not impact your DNA or testosterone levels.

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#103

Post by graeme »

Question for people on melatonin. I tried 0.5 mg does, from cutting a 1 mg pill in half. Didn't have much effect.

Had a concussion three months ago and started taking 2 mg based on a post concussion study I read. this did markedly improve my sleep.

1. Did anyone experience a good effect only at higher doses

2. I'm doing much better day to day on this dosage, but I don't want to impair my own production. Do I need to go down to 0.3 mg, or can I cycle it etc?

It's really been life changing. Will ask my doctor the next time I'm in, of course.

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#104

Post by howard941 »

howard941 wrote: post #96
raducu wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried trazadone or mirtapine? I've had good results with trazadone, bu would wake up after 5-6 hours with adolescent-like erections and read that it can actually cause priapism; mirtazapine works wonderfully(also a very strong antihistamine at lower dosages) but it leaves me groggy for 24 hours.

On the subject of mirtazapine, I was like a zombie for the first week @15mg and ready to ditch it but the doc persuaded me to stick it out and sure enough the chronic drowsiness went away by the following week, leaving only the potent sleep induction that encouraged an increase to 30mg. But this thread terrifies me now, finding it's also a dementia-inducer. Is there any literature I can review to either allay or just…

Gauche to follow up on my own post but the mirtazapine-dementia link is strong in this study https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/two-types-of-dr... but rather weak, and correlative rather than causative if my reading of this study https://www.ehealthme.com/ds/mirtazapine/dementia/ is correct (in that roughly half of the demented patients were co-dosed with an antipsychotic, presumably to help manage the agitation that can accompany dementia) . So now I feel I really need someone much better versed in medicine to advise.

(copyedited)

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#105

Post by mises »

phkahler wrote: post #98
killjoywashere wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free radical damage is not the main mechanism of UV-induced DNA damage. The main mechanism is direct dimerization as the photo-excited electron relaxes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_DNA_damage

It's hard to see how anything could prevent that other than sunscreen.

Think back to your high-school bio and chem; remember the whole idea of unpaired atoms or groups if atoms running around? That's a free radical. Remember that it takes energy to break chemical bonds? That's what UV does: provides the energy. The damage it causes is basically knocking random compounds and proteins apart. This leaves a random atom running around without an electron: a "free radical". Antioxidants donate an electron, thereby neutralizing the free radical. The real problem is when it does it to DNA; it can forcibly bond with it, and that's when you can get cancer. Which is why antioxidants are important.

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#106

Post by illegalsmile »

I've been taking melatonin for the last 3 months since cutting out alcohol and it seemed to help with falling into a sleep. As Friday I stopped taking it because I don't want to be reliant on something for sleep other than exercise and proper diet. Anecdotally, my sleep the last three nights since cutting it out have been horribly restless and not fulfilling. I'd rather not take it but if after a week normal sleep doesn't return I might since it sounds like it's relatively benign compared to other sleep aids.

Are there any longitudinal studies about years of usage?

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#107

Post by themodelplumber »

GordonS wrote: post #62
themodelplumber wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Already done. No dementia in family history, and the actual literature leaves much to be desired in terms of qualitative result. By the way I discourage the use of the term "linked" in light conversation as it has recently and unfortunately become a socio-culturally appropriated term indicating proof of causality. That a linkage exists often means far less than most people think, and this could immediately impact the…

I didn't read the paper since it first came out (1-2 years ago?), but I seem to recall a clear causal link was found?

I would really encourage you to review the study again. For example, the authors themselves acknowledged a lot of legitimate reader concerns with the inclusion of this statement:

"These observational studies have 4 important limitations. First, current anticholinergic use was ascertained at study entry and periodically during follow-up only by conducting a medication inventory. Second, these studies lacked information about the dose and duration of anticholinergic use. Third, these studies had short follow-up periods. This last point is important because the pathophysiological changes in the brains of patients with AD require several years to occur. Finally, these studies did not take into account that certain anticholinergics are used to manage insomnia and depression, prodromal conditions that can be seen in early but undiagnosed dementia, leading to protopathic bias."

I had other concerns as well, and these items alone are a pretty big deal. Like I said above, the _quality_ of the establishment of a "link" is really leaving much to be desired here. This is barely even legitimate science, where any kind of causality is concerned.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullar...

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#108

Post by projectramo »

illegalsmile wrote: post #106

I've been taking melatonin for the last 3 months since cutting out alcohol and it seemed to help with falling into a sleep. As Friday I stopped taking it because I don't want to be reliant on something for sleep other than exercise and proper diet. Anecdotally, my sleep the last three nights since cutting it out have been horribly restless and not fulfilling. I'd rather not take it but if after a week normal sleep do…

I have the same concerns and every doctor I ask tells me the study show no long term effects at all.

One explanation: I tend to take melatonin when I am very tired and didn't get enough sleep the previous night. But on those nights I sleep very well anyway. And once I have enough sleep I don't sleep as deeply the next night. Perhaps that is a lurking variable for me.

Do you have a fitbit or something to track the sleep?

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#109

Post by projectramo »

graeme wrote: post #103

Question for people on melatonin. I tried 0.5 mg does, from cutting a 1 mg pill in half. Didn't have much effect. Had a concussion three months ago and started taking 2 mg based on a post concussion study I read. this did markedly improve my sleep. 1. Did anyone experience a good effect only at higher doses 2. I'm doing much better day to day on this dosage, but I don't want to impair my own production. Do I need to…

I found no dose effect (weird, intuitively, I know). I ate a packet of gummy bears that, I didn't realize, turned out to be melatonin gummies! I think the packet had something like 15 mg. I was on a flight from china and had barely slept the night before (becuase of flight connections). I fell asleep for 2 hours and then I was awake for the flight. Conversely, I've taken 1.5mg and slept soundly.

Re: Melatonin's Effect on Skin and Hair

#110

Post by JimBrimble35 »

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…

I recall listening to a sleep specialist on a radio show one morning (how's that for citing my sources).

Apparently there are two different methodologies for administering Melatonin. One is to use a higher dose(1mg - 3mg) before sleep (~an hour) as a hypnotic. The other is to take a much lower dose, closer to the 0.3mg you suggested, roughly 4 - 6 hours before the desired bed time.

The latter is used for modifying the circadian rhythm , and fixing problems with sleep wake cycles.

I think the primary takeaway from that show was that people should discuss their sleep problems and treatment with a doctor that specializes in sleep. The treatments and science can be somewhat counter intuitive.

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