Has Anyone Seen the Research on Melatonin?

Symptoms & Treatments Complementary Therapies
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Hi everyone,

I recently stopped taking quetiapine fumuarate to help with my anxiety and sleep disturbances so I was looking for an alternative. This drug was great, started working instantly, but over some months I was sleeping way more often and a zombie in the daytime, hence the reason I stopped taking it. SO, I looked into Melatonin. What is interesting is while looking up studies on Melatonin and Fibro to see how it may help me sleep, I found some research on it also having an effect on pain. Has anyone else seen this? Could be worth a tryā€¦as Melatonin is drug free, all natural! I just make sure I avoid sugar or artificial sweetners ā€¦I take it in pill form so that I am not getting those extras. I have been trying 10mg, which worked pretty well but now I think I may need 15. It is something to look into and consider, if you have not already. Studies suggest 15mg is a good dose for fibro patients.

Hope you are all doing okay todayā€‹:kissing_heart::butterfly:
Starr

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It would be interesting to see the studies that you found. One caveat. . . . You said that melatonin is drug free, all natural. So are mushrooms, but that doesnā€™t mean that all mushrooms are safe and advisable to eat. Again, without seeing the research, I donā€™t know about the dose or the amount of time to take it, but 10-15mg a night is pretty high. At a dose this high, I would want to talk to my doctor about it.

Sharon from ModSupport

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Hi Starr, thx for the suggestionā€¦ Iā€™ve just looked up the abstract of a Feb2020 meta-study on pubmed. Their result is that the 4 studies that were eligible to be included and they examined look promising for fibro-pain reduction, but research needs to be taken to a higher level.
Iā€™d always been told or read to take L-Tryptophan or perhaps 5HTP. Iā€™ve tried both, without success. Melatonin up to 5mg Iā€™ve read, the abstract didnā€™t show the dosage but I assume it varied. But little side effects. Good for IBS and heartburn. Officially for jetlag, getting to sleep. Too much in the daytime and you get sleep and depressive (winter).
Betablocker, ASS and cortisone-meds and reduced serotonin reduce melatonin - I take ASS.
Might be sensible to test it (at 2am), costs 50ā‚¬ if you order a kit online yourself.

OK, my conclusion: Iā€™ve tried lots, but Iā€™m now taking ASS and we have almost no sun here at the moment, and I still have full bottles of both, I didnā€™t have adverse effects and they may be good for heartburn and ISB. So Iā€™ve got them out again and am taking them for a few weeks again, 1x50mg of 5HTP in the evenings. So thanks again for the idea!

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You are so welcome. I live in upstate NY and we def have barely any sunshine at this time of year. What is this ASS you speak of?

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I would def encourage you to speak to your doctor first before anything. I spoke with my sleep apnea doctor about it, and she told me it is one if the safest things I can take. I encourage you to ask about it if you have sleep disturbances like I do and the potential for some pain reduction is a great ā€œriskā€. I was skeptical too at first, but I have not had any adverse reactions to melatonin, I am not sleep during the dayā€¦it hasnā€™t been a miracle either, but I am averaging 5 hours of sleepā€¦and that is rare for me without any help at all.

Starr :butterfly:

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Iā€™ve found melatonin helpful for getting to sleep, but havenā€™t noticed any effect on pain. Still, it at least seems to help me sleep decent for 3-5 hours before I start with the constant waking up.

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Do you mean melatonin?

Youā€™ve hit the bullā€™s eye: you speak to your docs about all of those over-the-counter things you take to get their opinion. Thatā€™s how you get the best care. Another professional thatā€™s often overlooked is the pharmacist. They can be really helpful too.

Laughed at Sharonā€™s comment about mushrooms being all-natural too. Another one is arsenic.

Seenie

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I agreeā€¦if I get 5 hours Iā€™m doing great LOL.

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Yes Seenieā€¦I asked her about melatoninā€¦she said its just a supplement and very safe to take :pray: I def agree that every idea we read about should be run by a doctor first to be safe!

Thank you :purple_heart:

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Whoops: ASS is German for ASA acetylsalicylic acidā€¦ which I need because of my blood fats.

First 2 nights the 5HTP hasnā€™t helped. But in the daytime I had pretty massive heartburn and my IBS was ā€˜normalā€™/like always, so itā€™s not helping thereā€¦ But Iā€™m continuing the trial for a bitā€¦ :slight_smile:

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Here is a good summary:

In North America ASS is best known as aspirin

As far as safe and natural, I wish Soccrates was still around to tell us his experiences with Natural products especially that Hemlock Teaā€¦

TJ

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Oh okay JayCS well I wish you good luck with it, I hope you do well!!

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Here is some of the published research articles I have been reading on Melatonin in fibromyalgia studies. If you link this one, you can also find a fair amount of others studies that have been done.

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Hi Starr - since your pubmed-links seem to have gone wrong (and the visible one is not that significant), Iā€™m guessing you praps meant to link to the Feb20 meta-study I mentioned above?:

(BTW last night I was up 6x, so itā€™s not working for me, unfortunatelyā€¦ )

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My link was intended to get readers to a starting point to see the articles. There are more than just the study in 2020. For example, here is one from Dec 2000.

A trial from April 2011

If they follow my link (or yours) and click on similar articles, there are a fair amount of them. I am sorry to hear it isnā€™t working for you. Are you trying extended release or instant/chewable? I have been experimenting ā€¦it seems like the instant/chewable ones are working a little better for me than the extended release was, but I am still experimenting with dif mgs. I donā€™t think it is a fix-all, but it seems to help some days.

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Iā€™ve been on 5-HTP for 7 days now, since Iā€™ve also stopped workingā€¦ Which is it supplying my energy?
Tonight I slept 10h40, my sleep this week was on avg. 9h20, so I canā€™t complain about that either, unless I say thatā€™s too much and making me tired/drowsy rather than keeping pain down.

Excerpt from https://forum.livingwithfibro.org/t/jaycs-s-fibro-blog/13307/174:

Interesting what will happen to my energy and pain when I stop 5-HTP again - on this epilepsy forum I read someone with increased energy (and more vivid dreams) due to 5-HTP. 5-HTP | Coping With Epilepsy Forums , but also several people with increased seizures.

But 2 focal seizures this week were perhaps caused by the 5-HTP

As I had two focal seizures this week, one at night, making 4 this month, both very unusual, Iā€™ve researched epilepsy-forums and seen that some peopleā€™s seizures improve, some worsen, with melatonin also. However last time I took it was in May, where I didnā€™t register any seizures in my pain diary (even more unusual). So Iā€™m not worrying about the seizures that much as they havenā€™t come on again since then, neither has an aura. Interesting, never been on epilepsy forums before; seems quite a few people are claiming that a lot of it starts in the disbalanced gut flora. However my neurologists are sure that mine is ?mainly caused by brain cortex having remained in my speech centre at birth.
Excerpt from https://forum.livingwithfibro.org/t/jaycs-s-fibro-blog/13307/174:

Here Tryptophan Side Effects: L-Tryptophan Is Far From Harmless it says:
One of the principal L-tryptophan catabolites, 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK or 3HOK), augments oxidative stress in the brain and is able to induce depression , epileptic seizures, and other brain damage (Guilarte & Wagner, 1987; Stone, 2003; Wichers & Maes, 2004)

Excerpt from https://forum.livingwithfibro.org/t/jaycs-s-fibro-blog/13307/174:

English wikipedia (as well as other sites too) also says ā€œPotential side effects of 5-HTP include heartburn, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, sexual problems, vivid dreams or nightmares, and muscle problems.ā€ā€¦

If at all I have had slight heartburn twice, and I was unsure what from, drowsiness today and on some nights vivid dreams (cf. blog).

Excerpt from https://forum.livingwithfibro.org/t/jaycs-s-fibro-blog/13307/174:

I could try L-Tryptophan instead (again), but I thinks itā€™s probably similar. Melatonin itself doesnā€™t go thru the blood-brain-barrier.

So it seems 5-HTP is more effective than melatonin and tryptophan.
Research for 5-HTP with fibro is even older than research for melatoninā€¦
1990, 1992, 1998ā€¦ 5-Hydroxytryptophan: a clinically-effective serotonin precursor - PubMed
The reason for this research being old btw is said on a good German site to be that L-Tryptophan, 5-HTP (and melatonin) all increase serotonin, and the up-and-coming (chemical) SSRIs (= serotonin-enhancers, fluoxetin etc.) seemed much more effective.
L-Tryptophan was made illegal in the US, due apparently actually to only half-clarified contamination, which caused EMS in a lot of people.

Blog-like memory of Dec/Jan when I first took tryptophan as a doc-recommendation.

Just realized that this topic is taking back to Dec/Jan, to the first doc who tried to do something about my pain, whoā€™d recommended this, plus testosterone, and did extremely painful acupuncture and hyaluronic-acid-back-injections on me, and didnā€™t acknowledge fibro as a diagnosis and also didnā€™t listen to meā€¦ She was a ā€˜rehab medicā€™, sort of orthopedist. The next orthopedist wasnā€™t particularly helpful either.

Thinking about Picamilon (not FDA-approved)

BTW - an acquaintance has also recommended picamilon once again. Iā€™d tried 2 pills heā€™d given me a few months ago. Iā€™m skeptical there because itā€™s a lab-synthesis of GABA and niacinic acid, which is why it is not FDA-approved, so not allowed, but illegally? sold, in the US, but available here. While that seems scary (unregulated) I think I should compare it to having tried tilidine or taking statins for my blood fats, since picamilon is claimed to reduce, as well as blood pressure, both of which might be better than taking the other chemicals. One of the adverse effect of picamilon is said to be skin problems, but cf. tilidine etc.

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Iā€™ve been using Melatonin for years now. It has different dosage recommendations for different problems one might be trying to address. About a year and a half ago, I was doing some reading about it again and the article indicated courses of treatment should be limited to specific amounts of time-depending on dose and target diagnosis. Since I was experiencing some other strange symptoms at that particular time( which I now know weā€™re part of the HAYWIRE of menopause!) i thought, maybe I ought to give this a rest for a while. So I discontinued it.
I had the longest fibromyalgia flare up Iā€™d had in YEARS. Still ā€¦ I thought- I suppose I should ride this outā€¦ugh. After 6 months of everything worse, I got back on it. Only 3 mg at bedtime, but Iā€™ll not stop it again. Iā€™d like to see better research on long term safety and max doses. Too much anecdotal information out there, driven by the manufacturers and not science.

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Iā€™ve now tried melatonin itself, got it prescribed by my GP as an extended release 2mg pill and it zombified me, so I left it at 2 nights. Then needing something halfway thru a terrible night I halved it, so 1mg not extended release any more and that was a really good trick, helped get almost 4 hours sleep straight. Iā€™m thinking about playing around with it further. Also thinking about CBD oil again, just going down to 1 drop, Iā€™d tried 3 and that also had zombified me. Especially if a night goes wrong, which I usually know by 1am.
(Iā€™m here cos Iā€™m confused cos my blog just completely disappeared a few minutes agoā€¦)

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CBD revisited: similarly awake at night, more tired during the day and doesnā€™t feel good. Like melatonin. Better not try it for longer whilst working, have to wait for the next longer break.

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Just realized I hadnā€™t updated this: melatonin worse than CBD oil put me on sick leave for 4 weeks. I overreacted to 2mg extended release, tried it several timesā€¦ Made me drowsy all day. No sense at all playing around with it further everyone recommendedā€¦ GABA seems to do the trick tho, at least after 2 weeks of good daysā€¦