Art (California) on 01/31/2024
Here is a relevant quote from the review :
While melatonin was initially understood to only regulate circadian rhythms, recent studies indicate that it has a far-reaching effect on various organs and physiological systems, such as immunity, cardiovascular function, antioxidant defense, and lipid hemostasis. As a potent antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and immunoregulatory agent, multiple therapeutic applications have been proposed for melatonin.
While this sounds great, not everything is yet known about all of the health benefits that melatonin provides to humans, animals and plant life and that means that melatonin can do even more than this review highlights. I'm still at 132 mg of melatonin per day and I am bolstering this with regular use of melatonin lotion. The natural age related decline of melatonin in people can not be good for our long term health based on the thousands of studies illustrating how melatonin helps maintain our health.
Art
Replied by Steven Lantz from Georgia on 06/17/2024
Hey Art, Thanks for all the great input on this site. I take about 30 mg a night but just saw a video with a woman claiming that synthetic melatonin, which 90+% is can be loaded with toxic chemicals. Have you researched this issue? Thanks, StevenReplied by Art from California on 06/18/2024
Hi Steven,This is generally considered a problem applying to all supplements, but I have no practical means to discern which supplements might be the best of the bunch. On the web, there are plenty of conversations discussing where supplement manufacturers get their supplement materials from with the general consensus suggesting that the majority of supplements originate in China and may have high toxicant levels. I personally am not hyper focused on that aspect because I have no practical means to test that idea.
I base my thinking regarding melatonin on scientific studies in animals and humans, none of which delve into potential toxins that may or may not be in the tested products. They mainly discuss what benefits the melatonin they are testing has on humans, animals and plants. I base my decisions on whether I use melatonin or not on these studies.
If you go the other way and assume that supplements are tainted based on other data, I guess you just don't use any supplements at all. Even the newer phytomelatonin could be a problem in this sense. My personal choice is to use melatonin for its scientifically proven health effects in humans. I have been taking melatonin at high dose for well over a decade and have consistently increased my dose through the years as more studies confirmed benefit for humans. Before I started using melatonin lotion, I was taking 132 mg of melatonin orally each day and once went as high as 180 mg/day. With my current use of melatonin lotion, my dose is very likely at an all time high. When should I expect those toxic effects to kick in? I wrote about how to make melatonin lotion here :
https://www.earthclinic.com/supplements/topical-melatonin-pain-relief-success-stories.html
I wrote about more effects of melatonin lotion here :
https://www.earthclinic.com/supplements/topical-melatonin-advantages-pain-management-guide.html
I hope that explains my thinking on the subject.
Art
Replied by Alan from Hawaii on 12/05/2025
Hi Art, I read Dr. Shallenberger's comments on using melatonin to reverse macular degeneration. But since there seems to be so many ways melatonin can help with diverse aspects of healing, have you by any chance come across any studies indicating melatonin could also help reverse cataracts?Replied by Art from California on 12/05/2025
Hi Alan,Yes, melatonin has shown some benefit for macular degeneration (AMD), but has not shown the ability to reverse cataracts. For cataracts, at best, melatonin may help prevent or slow their progression, but the best chance for that would be to use melatonin based eye drops. Unfortunately, melatonin eye drops do not seem to be available in the US, unless a compounding pharmacy could make them up on an individual basis. Oddly, melatonin is available in many forms, but not eye drops, at least I have not found them yet.
Imo, melatonin eye drops may be useful for multiple eye health issues, but since they are currently not available, I don't spend much time thinking about that aspect of melatonin.
Art
