Melatonin Is a dietary supplement that can help prevent many people from having sleepless nights, but it can also help in promoting good health in a variety of ways. Consider that a study has concluded blind persons are 30% less likely to develop all types of cancer than those
who can see. It is speculated that this protective effect may be due to the fact that blind people continuously produce melatonin, while its production is suppressed in sighted persons by exposure to light during the day.
The link between melatonin and cancer has also been shown to occur in flight attendants, who have an increased risk of breast cancer. This is possibly due to their abnormalities in melatonin production brought on by jet lag and disturbances in the body's biological clock.
Melatonin has been shown to slow the growth of breast cancer cells. Therefore, the use of melatonin supplements can be used to reset the body's biological clock and help normalize people's normal melatonin production when crossing multiple time zones.
Exposure to magnetic fields has also been linked to cancer, and now it has been shown that nighttime exposure to magnetic fields can reduce melatonin production by about 15%, which could lower a person's resistance to cancer. When it comes to restful sleep, melatonin may exert
its effects by helping to reduce the body's core temperature. When a group of males was given melatonin before bedtime, their core body temperature began to decrease about 1.5 hours after melatonin administration, and continued to do so for six hours. The result was that the men
entered into deep sleep more quickly.
The possible side effects of long term melatonin use has been shown to be few. People who use more than 3mg of melatonin per night for prolonged periods sometimes experience vivid dreams, nightmares, low mood and daytime tiredness. Nightly doses of 1mg or less of melatonin
seldom exhibits any side effects.