Melatonin Better Than Expected

Russel J. Reiter, Ph.D., M.D. (h.c.), D.Sc. (h.c.) / University of Texas Health Science Center / San Antonio, Texas, USA

Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant neurotransmitter produced not only by the pineal gland in the brain, but it’s also made in the skin and possibly other tissues. Levels of this vital substance tend to decline as we age (in both the skin and in the brain). Melatonin is widely known as a natural sleep-promoting compound, but research has shown that melatonin offers other remarkable health promoting benefits.

Dr. Reiter is known as the Godfather of Melatonin Education. In his book, “Melatonin-Breakthrough Discoveries That Can Help You”…Dr. Reiter states there have been more studies done on Melatonin than Vitamin C.

For the past century or so, the developed world has been performing an open-ended experiment on itself by lengthening its days and shortening its nights to become a 24-hour per day productive society. Artificial lighting disrupts your biological clock and melatonin production, with unfortunate effects on your health. As Dr. Russel Reiter says, “light may be killing you.” If we didn’t have artificial light, we would be producing much more Melatonin than we are now.

Light At Night May Be Killing You. Light at night suppresses Melatonin levels proportional to the brightness. Usually Melatonin levels go up and remain elevated for the duration of darkness.

YOUR BRAIN is not stupid. It recognizes light when it sees it and tells your pineal gland no more Melatonin and the lack of Melatonin de-synchronizes every cell in your body.

When you turn on a light at night, you immediately send your brain misinformation about the light-dark cycle. The only thing your brain interprets light to be is day. There are consequences, numerous consequences to your body when you do this. No matter what you do, AVOID turning lights on in the middle of the night and NEVER sleep or allow your children to sleep with the TV on.

Melatonin promotes sleep but sleep does not promote melatonin. ONLY DARKNESS promotes melatonin.

A 2-hr exposure to light from electronic displays suppresses Melatonin by about 22%!

In just in the last 5 years, recent studies have revealed that tumors grow rapidly during daylight hours versus during the night the same study revealed that tumor growth was suppressed when in Melatonin saturated blood. Furthermore, these studies suggest that supplementing with Melatonin also increases the effectiveness of drugs used to combat cancer. It’s fascinating! Melatonin delivers a one-two punch! (Dr. Reiter Article: Bright Lights, Big Cancer)