Cardiovascular Disease, or CVD, is a common and growing health issue. It is estimated that nearly half of Americans have some form of heart disease, according to this brief article link:
Given that information, it is clear that people should have a prevention plan to avoid ever having CVD in the first place, and hopefully, this post will help in that effort.
In my experience, the simpler and the fewer supplements required, the better the chances of following a specific health plan.
This remedy's simplicity suggests that it will be easy to stick with and will likely bring other health benefits with it.
CVD is a broad term that covers multiple health issues, including heart disease, heart attack, stroke, heart failure, arrhythmia, and heart valve problems.
https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/consumer-healthcare/what-is-cardiovascular-disease
The following abstract link gives some insight into some of the known risk factors for CVD other than PD.
Further, it discusses how melatonin may help work against these risk factors and against CVD itself. Multiple disease states increase your chances of getting or having CVD.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32002576/
In the study links below, the value of melatonin in CVD will be discussed.
Melatonin has multiple positive health effects that show the potential to alleviate some of the health issues associated with CVD. Melatonin is itself a potent scavenger of reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), peroxynitrite (ONOO-), and H2o2 which, in excess, can all cause damage to normal cells throughout the body and the vasculature.
Melatonin is also a potent antiinflammatory. It also upregulates the body's potent antioxidant system while activating the Nrf2 pathway, increasing the body's total antioxidant capacity (TAC).
Melatonin can neutralize up to 10 oxygen radicals, while vitamin E and vitamin C can only neutralize one radical. Melatonin or its metabolites are also able to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and repair a perturbed or damaged BBB. Melatonin can also enter all body tissues to get to most places that are damaged and then exert its multitude of positive health effects to effect repairs as needed—all this while having an excellent safety profile.
This study link below goes into greater detail about the many positive health effects of melatonin in the body beyond the heart and vasculature. It discusses how melatonin can act to return the body toward homeostasis via its antioxidative, antiinflammatory, metal chelating, mitochondrial protective effects, and radical scavenging effects, to name just a few.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7563541/
The following study link covers the potential of melatonin in heart failure, an area of medicine that could use bolstering via melatonin's multiple actions.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6099639/
The following article discusses the value of melatonin in multiple cardiovascular issues that could fall into the category of CVD, which is a broad range of the anti-health problems that melatonin seems adept at working against.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4947538/
This following link to a very brief abstract clearly states that melatonin can interact directly with the heart via melatonin receptors in the heart via melatonin receptors M1 and M2 receptors to exert its protective effects directly in the heart while further offering protective effects against specific drugs known to cause heart damage.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15702887/
There are many ways the heart can be damaged by other diseases or chemicals, such as diabetes. Melatonin has shown the ability to protect against some of this damage, especially mitochondrial damage throughout the body.
These subsequent two links discuss the damage that can be imparted on the heart in diabetes and how melatonin may help offset some of this damage:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jpi.12491
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28480597/
The following abstract link discusses how melatonin can lower elevated heart rate and shows that melatonin reduces the development of endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis, which are considered a crucial pathophysiological disorder of increased heart rate pulsatile blood flow.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27264986/
The following article discusses the protective effects of melatonin in myocardial infarction (heart attack).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7201093/
The following two articles discuss the role of melatonin and its multiple protective mechanisms of action related to myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury that occurs after oxygen-rich blood is restored after a blockage or partial blockage of a blood vessel to the heart.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5518188/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28500761/
In this next link, melatonin's potential to express anti-hypertrophic effects in cardiac hypertrophy ( left ventricular enlargement) is discussed.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30958896/
The following mouse study illustrates the utility of melatonin in myocardial infarction. While it is just a mouse study, it offers insights into melatonin's specific mechanisms in increasing cardiomyocyte production and heart regeneration.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32839503/
The above studies help define some of the ways that melatonin is likely to be heart-protective and CVD preventative.
Many more studies add confirmation to these multiple heart health effects of melatonin, so these are only a few of many studies. Still, the point being that melatonin continues to show its value in multiple areas of human and animal health and is worth having a melatonin discussion with your doctor about possibly implementing melatonin into your health regimen moving forward.
Since I am not a doctor, I can not recommend melatonin or dosing of melatonin for any health condition. I can say that I am still taking 106+ mg of melatonin/night for over 4 1/2 months now after previously taking it at lower dosing for years.
Dr. Neel continues to recommend 1 mg of melatonin for every kilogram of body weight for the treatment of his over 1,000 Covid-19 patients, and he is experiencing great success at that dose in his patients.
My intent in the dose I am currently taking is to afford the multiple health effects that melatonin seems to offer in many human health areas, such as those listed in the next paragraph.
In this ongoing melatonin series, we have already shown that melatonin is beneficial for stroke prevention and recovery, Covid-19, COPD / Emphysema, Parkinson's disease, Memory, and now we are showing the cardiovascular benefits of this remarkable molecule called melatonin. This melatonin series does not end here, as will be shown in future additions to this series! The following links briefly mention some of the known health benefits associated with the use of melatonin, such as cancer.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5405617/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27500468/
As always, it is imperative that you seek the advice of your doctor or healthcare professional before starting or testing melatonin to make sure it is safe for you at the dose you want to take and that it is not contraindicated with any of your current medications, supplements, vitamins, and other alternatives. I am just showing studies that help to clarify all of the potential benefits that melatonin offers.
