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Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

anthropocenemagazine.org

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Re: Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

#21

Post by satvikpendem »

Arrath wrote: post #6
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #4

Didn't see anything in the article about how much melatonin a person would get from eating food treated this way. I sometimes take small doses of melatonin during the summer months when my sleep pattern tends to drift if I don't actively keep it under control but wonder if consuming it through diet would end up making lots of people groggy during the day.

Forget groggy, melatonin generally works as a sleep aid for me but also gives me wildly trippy and fucked up dreams. I stopped using it specifically because of that.

That's the best part, great way to induce lucid dreams consistently.

Re: Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

#22

Post by kouru225 »

vvpan wrote: post #8

Melatonin is very interesting because it is believed that all living things (bacteria, fungi, etc) have it [1]. Calling it a "sleep aid" is somewhat off because in humans and other animals it is compound heavily involved in modulating circadian rhythms. It is not a "drug". And a little personal anecdote about it: I have gone through a period of bad sleep and depression and was taking melotonin to help with sleep. On…

How were you taking it? My psychiatrist recommended that I take it 12 hours before I want to wake up and really only recommends 1 mg or so.

Re: Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

#23

Post by savanaly »

vvpan wrote: post #8

Melatonin is very interesting because it is believed that all living things (bacteria, fungi, etc) have it [1]. Calling it a "sleep aid" is somewhat off because in humans and other animals it is compound heavily involved in modulating circadian rhythms. It is not a "drug". And a little personal anecdote about it: I have gone through a period of bad sleep and depression and was taking melotonin to help with sleep. On…

Just taking melatonin vs not taking it isn't the only decision space. There's a lot that goes into taking it to make it work. I've never done so but I understand this to be the case from reading this [0].

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

Re: Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

#24

Post by vvpan »

circuit10 wrote: post #14
vvpan wrote: post #8

Melatonin is very interesting because it is believed that all living things (bacteria, fungi, etc) have it [1]. Calling it a "sleep aid" is somewhat off because in humans and other animals it is compound heavily involved in modulating circadian rhythms. It is not a "drug". And a little personal anecdote about it: I have gone through a period of bad sleep and depression and was taking melotonin to help with sleep. On…

Isn’t a drug just anything that affects how your body functions? It doesn’t have to be something that your body wouldn’t have in it anyway

You are probably correct, I honestly do not know. What I meant is that there is an association between melatonin and sleep and there is _some_ research on it as an effective medicine but the quantity of it (to my untrained eye) is limited. So when people take it they generally take it as an over-the-counter supplement with some hope for uncertain effects because "it's the thing in the body that regulates sleep". Thus the quotes around "drug".

Re: Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

#25

Post by cjrp »

vvpan wrote: post #8

Melatonin is very interesting because it is believed that all living things (bacteria, fungi, etc) have it [1]. Calling it a "sleep aid" is somewhat off because in humans and other animals it is compound heavily involved in modulating circadian rhythms. It is not a "drug". And a little personal anecdote about it: I have gone through a period of bad sleep and depression and was taking melotonin to help with sleep. On…

The dosage of melatonin you can buy over-the-counter in the US always surprises me. In the UK I believe it’s only 2mg with a prescription, but I was seeing 5mg+ just in a grocery store.

Re: Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

#26

Post by ac29 »

vvpan wrote: post #8

Melatonin is very interesting because it is believed that all living things (bacteria, fungi, etc) have it [1]. Calling it a "sleep aid" is somewhat off because in humans and other animals it is compound heavily involved in modulating circadian rhythms. It is not a "drug". And a little personal anecdote about it: I have gone through a period of bad sleep and depression and was taking melotonin to help with sleep. On…

Melatonin in the US is frequently found in 5 or 10 mg doses, which is a huge amount and can cause adverse reactions in people. A better dose is 0.3mg (300 mcg) or 0.5mg (500 mcg).

Re: Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

#27

Post by Dylan16807 »

nuxi wrote: post #19
maltyr wrote: post #5

I'm not sure we should cover our food in melatonin. People would recoil at the thought of pretty much any other hormone being added to our food supply. It's strange to me how Melatonin is so uncontrolled in usage, dosage, etc., despite being a hormone. The article suggests it's safer than current food additives, but I find that statement questionable. We don't understand the full effect of Melatonin on the human body…

Are you sure about the recoil? After all, "vitamin" D is a hormone and it's also added to a lot of different foods. And it's also uncontrolled in usage and dosage...

It's a precursor to a hormone. And whether it's a vitamin depends on your sun exposure.

Re: Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

#28

Post by vvpan »

kouru225 wrote: post #22
vvpan wrote: post #8

Melatonin is very interesting because it is believed that all living things (bacteria, fungi, etc) have it [1]. Calling it a "sleep aid" is somewhat off because in humans and other animals it is compound heavily involved in modulating circadian rhythms. It is not a "drug". And a little personal anecdote about it: I have gone through a period of bad sleep and depression and was taking melotonin to help with sleep. On…

How were you taking it? My psychiatrist recommended that I take it 12 hours before I want to wake up and really only recommends 1 mg or so.

Honestly, I do not remember. A few years have elapsed. I did not do so in any thoughtful way - there was a supplement in pill form and I took it in the evening. Pretty much the only time in my life I self-medicated with something. I would say just observe how it makes you feel, keep a diary? At least out of curiosity rather than caution. If you find it makes you feel better then that's great. (Of course subjectivity is a problem in this case).

Re: Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

#29

Post by delecti »

speak_plainly wrote: post #18
circuit10 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t a drug just anything that affects how your body functions? It doesn’t have to be something that your body wouldn’t have in it anyway

I’m no doctor but I think the difference between a drug and a hormone is that a drug is a foreign substance you take to affect the way your body functions while a hormone is something produced endogenously to regulate various processes in the body. People need to understand that melatonin is a hormone and that comes with different risks and issues than a drug.

Drugs and hormones aren't separate groups either. Melatonin is a hormone which is also sold as a drug. Additionally, some hormones are wholly artificial; many of the estrogens and progestins which are used for birth control fit that description.

Re: Melatonin as a treatment for food waste

#30

Post by matthewaveryusa »

cjrp wrote: post #25
vvpan wrote: post #8

Melatonin is very interesting because it is believed that all living things (bacteria, fungi, etc) have it [1]. Calling it a "sleep aid" is somewhat off because in humans and other animals it is compound heavily involved in modulating circadian rhythms. It is not a "drug". And a little personal anecdote about it: I have gone through a period of bad sleep and depression and was taking melotonin to help with sleep. On…

The dosage of melatonin you can buy over-the-counter in the US always surprises me. In the UK I believe it’s only 2mg with a prescription, but I was seeing 5mg+ just in a grocery store.

Behold the new target market: children at 1mg [1]. The US markets melatonin as a vitamin.

I really have no clue on the long term adverse effects, but having used 5mg as a sleeping aid for a bit, one thing is for sure: melatonin is really not for OTC child use.

I'm shocked that this is legal!

[1] https://www.target.com/s/kids+melatonin+gummies

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