The Hemp Connection [Search results for epilepsy] 

It came up in a Facebook conversation yesterday that a woman with PCOS had been prescribed Depakote (valproic acid) and her PCOS became worse.

It is important to know that this medication, commonly administered for the treatment of bipolar disorder and epilepsy, has actually been reported in several research studies to worsen laboratory values and symptoms of PCOS (see references below).

There is speculation that this is partially due to the fact that carnitine levels drop in the presence of Depakote.

The good news is, carnitine is available as an over the counter supplement, and research has suggested that taking acetyl-l-carnitine supplements while on valproic acid is beneficial to help minimize these side effects. The dose that has been reported/suggested is 4 grams per day.

Even though the research isn't as strong for other psych meds that have been correlated with weight gain, it's in my tool box to recommend to anyone who has noticed their symptoms worsen after starting medications in this category (psych and nervous system medications), to use the carnitine supplements.

I have written in other places that I believe it should be standard protocol when prescribing Depakote, to also prescribe carnitine. I hope, at least in practices where women with PCOS are part of the specialty, that this can become part of the treatment plan. It's an easy tool with a lot of potential.

Popovic V, Spremovic S. The effect of sodium valproate on luteinizing hormone secretion in women with polycystic ovary disease. J Endocrinol Invest. 1995 Feb;18(2):104-8.

Stephen LJ, Kwan P, Shapiro D, Dominiczak M, Brodie MJ. Hormone profiles in young adults with epilepsy treated with sodium valproate or lamotrigine monotherapy. Epilepsia. 2001 Aug;42(8):1002-6.

Luef G, Abraham I, Trinka E, Alge A, Windisch J, Daxenbichler G, Unterberger I, Seppi K, Lechleitner M, Krämer G, Bauer G. Hyperandrogenism, postprandial hyperinsulinism and the risk of PCOS in a cross sectional study of women with epilepsy treated with valproate. Epilepsy Res. 2002 Jan;48(1-2):91-102.

McIntyre RS, Mancini DA, McCann S, Srinivasan J, Kennedy SH. Valproate, bipolar disorder and polycystic ovarian syndrome. Bipolar Disord. 2003 Feb;5(1):28-35.

Ribacoba-Montero R, Martínez-Faedo C, Díaz-Díaz C, Salas-Puig J. [Remission of polycystic ovary syndrome associated with valproic acid in an epileptic female] [Article in Spanish] Rev Neurol. 2003 Apr 1-15;36(7):639-42.

Betts T, Yarrow H, Dutton N, Greenhill L, Rolfe T. A study of anticonvulsant medication on ovarian function in a group of women with epilepsy who have only ever taken one anticonvulsant compared with a group of women without epilepsy. Seizure. 2003 Sep;12(6):323-9.

Wood JR, Nelson-Degrave VL, Jansen E, McAllister JM, Mosselman S, Strauss JF 3rd. Valproate-induced alterations in human theca cell gene expression: clues to the association between valproate use and metabolic side effects. Physiol Genomics. 2005 Feb 10;20(3):233-43. Epub 2004 Dec 14.

Flück CE, Yaworsky DC, Miller WL. Effects of anticonvulsants on human p450c17 (17alpha-hydroxylase/17,20 lyase) and 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2. Epilepsia. 2005 Mar;46(3):444-8

Rasgon NL, Altshuler LL, Fairbanks L, Elman S, Bitran J, Labarca R, Saad M, Kupka R, Nolen WA, Frye MA, Suppes T, McElroy SL, Keck PE Jr, Leverich G, Grunze H, Walden J, Post R, Mintz J. Reproductive function and risk for PCOS in women treated for bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disord. 2005 Jun;7(3):246-59.

Morris GL 3rd, Vanderkolk C. Human sexuality, sex hormones, and epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav. 2005 Dec;7 Suppl 2:S22-8. Epub 2005 Oct 20.

Joffe H, Cohen LS, Suppes T, McLaughlin WL, Lavori P, Adams JM, Hwang CH, Hall JE, Sachs GS. Valproate is associated with new-onset oligoamenorrhea with hyperandrogenism in women with bipolar disorder. Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Jun 1;59(11):1078-86. Epub 2006 Jan 31.

Joffe H, Cohen LS, Suppes T, Hwang CH, Molay F, Adams JM, Sachs GS, Hall JE. Longitudinal follow-up of reproductive and metabolic features of valproate-associated polycystic ovarian syndrome features: A preliminary report. Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Dec 15;60(12):1378-81. Epub 2006 Sep 1.

Prabhakar S, Sahota P, Kharbanda PS, Siali R, Jain V, Lal V, Khurana D. Sodium valproate, hyperandrogenism and altered ovarian function in Indian women with epilepsy: a prospective study. Epilepsia. 2007 Jul;48(7):1371-7. Epub 2007 Apr 18.

Reynolds MF, Sisk EC, Rasgon NL. Valproate and neuroendocrine changes in relation to women treated for epilepsy and bipolar disorder: a review. Curr Med Chem. 2007;14(26):2799-812.

Morrell MJ, Hayes FJ, Sluss PM, Adams JM, Bhatt M, Ozkara C, Warnock CR, Isojärvi J. Hyperandrogenism, ovulatory dysfunction, and polycystic ovary syndrome with valproate versus lamotrigine. Ann Neurol. 2008 Aug;64(2):200-11.

Bilo L, Meo R. Polycystic ovary syndrome in women using valproate: a review. Gynecol Endocrinol. 2008 Oct;24(10):562-70.

Gorkemli H, Genc BO, Dogan EA, Genc E, Ozdemir S. Long-term effects of valproic acid on reproductive endocrine functions in Turkish women with epilepsy. Gynecol Obstet Invest. 2009;67(4):223-7. Epub 2009 Feb 24.

I was asked to clarify some comments I recently made about chia, as they were questioned for their accuracy. I'm all for revisiting and making sure my information is accurate, so here is my response.

First of all, while the information on this blog should be helpful to anyone regardless of whether or not they have PCOS, it IS targeted toward women who have this hormone imbalance. So some of the information I provide is more geared toward their specific nutritional needs and not the apparently healthy population. This should always be kept in mind when reading what I write.

One of the questions about my post was that I stated that taurine is an essential amino acid. There is actually some debate about this. Some experts say no, we can synthesize it. Others call it a conditional amino acid, meaning in some situations it may be essential.

Women with PCOS seem to have something going on in their brain and nervous systems that interferes with everything from mood and appetite regulation to speech and language function. (Simply read the responses to my question last week about the symptoms I listed and you will see what I mean.) Much of the dietary protocol we have developed is actually derived from epilepsy research at Johns Hopkins University, with the premise that calming nervous system excitability makes it easier for the brain and nervous system to function as they should when not under duress. Taurine is an amino acid showing promise as an anti-seizure compound, which makes me wonder whether or not a hyperexcitable brain blows through available taurine much more quickly than a brain that does not have to live under these conditions.

That being said, I am more comfortable with the premise that for the population for whom this blog is written, as well as anyone living with any kind of condition that places stress on the brain (migraines, epilepsy, OCD, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, PTSD, schizophrenia, etc.), taurine may actually be an essential amino acid. Research to support my claim still needs to be done, but I am more comfortable being conservative on this one, especially given the responses to last week's questionnaire and the severity of some of the diagnoses I just listed. Better to be safe than sorry.

Secondly, even if the amino acid profile of chia is complete, the total protein content of chia is relatively low. So if we're advocating for a 30% protein diet in a woman who is being advised to consume 1500 calories a day, she is going to need to consume about 113 grams of protein. That translates into your needing, at this protein level, to consume 700 grams of chia per day, just to get your protein needs. That is also 3,430 calories' worth of chia, more than twice your daily calorie needs. And while its amino acid profile is nearly complete, its nutritional profile is not. It contains no vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin K, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, or iron, to name a few.

From an omega-3 standpoint, I did invert the numbers. There is no consistent order by which omega-6 and omega-3 ratios are reported, and though I usually check to be sure I did not flip them, I did not this time. I do apologize for that.

According to http://www.nutritiondata.com/, chia seed contains an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 3.03, which is actually quite good.

The caveat is that the omega-3 this food contains is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), not EPA or DHA. Most omega-3 experts will contend that in the most perfect of conditions conversion of ALA to DHA is at best 5%. Again, the women this blog serves seem to need a much higher level of DHA than average for a variety of reasons. We find that they seem to do best on 1000 mg DHA daily, the level recommended by Dr. Artemis Simopolous for treating depression. Calculated out, if you are depending on chia seed to get all of your omega-3 fatty acids, from ALA through EPA and DHA, you're going to need to consume about 115 grams of chia seeds per day. Just be forewarned.

Bottom line, I actually think chia is a healthy food--as part of a varied diet. I especially think that for vegans reading this blog it can be a great addition to your diet. However, I do not believe in superfoods. There seems to be a trend toward wanting to find one perfect food that has it all. I have yet to find it. It's understandable when we're surrounded by a lot of confusing information and we live in a culture where over 10,000 new products hit the grocery shelves each year (I saw half of them in Anaheim last month and it was overwhelming!) that we'd want to have just a few foods and a small nutritional comfort zone. Unfortunately that is not really how human nutrition works.

This is an especially important philosophy to stick to on this blog, given the fact that we're learning that a very high percentage of the women we're helping have some kind of history of"veganism gone wrong"…in other words, overzealous veganism with a focus on eliminating foods rather than on learning how to eat to be nutritionally complete with no animal products on the menu. We discourage fanaticism and encourage food curiosity and variety!

We were designed to be omnivores and to eat a variety of foods from a variety of sources. I encourage you, rather than arguing for why you should narrow your choices down to feel more comfortable around food, to learn to negotiate a wider variety of foods you are willing to include in your diet.

Gaby AR. Natural approaches to epilepsy. Altern Med Rev. 2007 Mar;12(1):9-24.

It's a quiet day around here, and I am cleaning up papers. I found a chart I prepared several years ago, in which I listed the commonly recognized symptoms of PCOS, and did literature searches to see how often these symptoms appeared in other medical diagnoses. The diagnoses that occurred most often were epilepsy, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorder.

I don't really know what this means, except that maybe we're not always looking at the right places when we try to understand the syndrome. Maybe we're not correctly connecting the dots.

I sent this to a PCOS researcher who didn't seem very excited about the information at the time. I am not a researcher, and I will never have the laboratory that can do this research. So I am posting the information hoping that someone who can…will pick up where I left off and do some creative work on behalf of the women with PCOS.

One comment I WILL make, is that I don't entirely believe PCOS is caused by insulin resistance. It is a very
prevalent symptom, but correlation does not always equal causation. I don't think we would say that insulin resistance causes epilepsy or bipolar disorder. I do wonder what function insulin resistance plays in an imbalanced system, as the body wouldn't have that mechanism if it didn't have a need for it.

I know, I know, I'm stepping away from conventional wisdom on this one. I just think we need to think outside a much bigger box for the most profound answers to the PCOS mystery.

I wonder sometimes if insulin resistance isn't a way for the body to shuttle glucose to a brain and nervous system that are overstressed, since that system is so dependent on glucose for fuel.

The letters after each symptom denote which of (E) pilepsy, (B) ipolar disorder, and (A) nxiety disorder has been reported in peer-reviewed research to be associated with that particular symptom.

Acne E, B

Infertility E, B

Irregular periods E, B, A

Decreased sex drive E, B

Obesity/rapid weight gain/difficulty losing weight E, B, A

Acanthosis nigricans E

Male pattern baldness/alopecia E, B, A

Hirsutism E

Binge eating E, B, A

Intense cravings for sweets E, B, A

Anxiety E, B

Insulin resistance E, B

I've been writing this blog long enough to know that as soon as I recommend a supplement, the post is circulated, reposted, retweeted, ad nauseum. If I talk about changing food choices, it sits there like a bump on a log.

I posted the information about myoinositol supplementation because I knew that many of you are having such a hard time with the side effects of metformin, that it might be helpful to try this compound as an adjunct.

In the process of researching the topic, however, I came to understand that part of the reason many of you have a problem with your myoinositol levels in the first place…is that your dietary choices may have backed you into a corner.

Myoinositol isn't new news, really. Back in 1980 a physician and a dietitian wrote a very nice review article and developed some recommendations for increasing dietary inositol that I'm going to summarize here. In a nutshell, it's a dietary intermediate that is found in high quantities in nerve cells. If your nerves are working harder than they were designed to, as is the case when you don't manage your stress, don't attend to good sleep hygiene, overexercise, and eat a poorly varied diet, there is a really good chance you're going to deplete your myoinositol levels more quickly than you can replete them. That is a consequence for ANYONE not taking good care of themselves, it's not a unique feature of PCOS.

For anyone struggling with medical issues related to hyperexcitable brains, including migraines, epilepsy, anxiety disorder, OCD, PTSD, bipolar disorder, etc., it's highly possible that your daily myoinositol needs are simply higher than average. Everything you see us write about on this blog, from omega-3's to antioxidants, is designed to reduce that hyperexcitability and make it easier for your brain to function as it should. It certainly is not going to hurt to take a supplement, and if you've been asking your brain to run on nutritional empty for a long time, or if you've been working hard to turn your PCOS around with good habits and just don't seem to be getting over the hump with it, supplementing may be a great tool to add to your already good habits.

There is some thought that people with insulin function problems may have alterations in myoinositol function, which could also increase the daily needed dose.

I must iterate, however, that a myoinositol supplement is NOT a substitute for a healthy diet. There is no such thing as a donut for breakfast, a Snickers for lunch, and a binge for dinner…cancelled out by a few pills in a bottle. So my guess is that those of you who are making good changes diet and stress management-wise in conjunction with the supplement are the most likely to achieve the benefit of the supplement. That is just how biochemistry works!

The study I recently quoted (focusing on neuropathy, not ovulation) used a myoinositol dose of 4 grams. The study I quote today found an effective response from a highest dose of 1,500 mg. It doesn't mean that these are the doses recommended for each particular diagnosis, or type of inositol, pill or food…it simply means those are the doses the reseachers decided to study.

However, since that is the dose reported in the ovulation study, and more of you reading this are interested in conception than nerve pain, I'll post the values of the highest myoinositol containing foods and let you figure out what your best food/supplement combination is to achieve that dose (4000 mg or 4 g daily).

I'm going to tell you, what I was thinking as I compiled this list was that if you're only concentrating on carb/protein/fat content, you're cutting out all your myoinositol sources. It looks like Mother Nature makes sure that when we eat carbohydrate as it appears in nature, that it comes packaged with a nutrient important for metabolizing it. It's when we refine that sugar and eat it out of context, as with sodas, candy, baked goods, etc…that we dig a hole for our nervous systems.

We just can't outsmart her, can we?

The complete list can be found at this link.

Myoinositol Containing Foods with more than 100 mg/serving
1/2 cup grapefruit juice 456 1/2 cup canned great northern beans 440 1/4 fresh cantelope 355 1 fresh orange 307 1 slice stone ground wheat bread 288 1/2 cup rutabaga 252 1/2 cup kidney beans 249 1/2 cup orange juice 245 1/2 cup canned oranges 240 1/2 cup canned peas 235 1/2 fresh grapefruit 199 1 fresh lime 194 1/2 cup canned blackberries 173 1/2 cup mandarin oranges 149 1/2 cup canned lima beans 146 1/2 cup kiwi fruit 136 1 cup split peas 128 2 T. creamy peanut butter 122 1 fresh nectarine 118 1/2 cup canned black-eyed peas 117 1/2 cup grapefruit sections, canned 117
Rex S. Clements, Jr., M.D. and Betty Darnell, M.S., RD. Myo-inositol content of common foods:
development of a high-myo-inositol diet. Am J Clin Nutr September 1980 vol. 33 no. 9, 1954-1967.

I was just posting on my other blog (www.thisisyourbrainonpsychdrugs.blogspot.com) about the association between epilepsy medications and folate deficiency. It reminded me that folate is important for women trying to conceive. And you can get it in places other than supplements…like food!

Dark green vegetables can be hard to get into your diet if you're busy, but they're important to prioritize. I think spinach gets a bad rap because many of us remember it plopped in a cold blob on our school lunch trays waaaay back when. But it's really not that bad!

An easy way to add spinach to your diet, if you're already eating salad, is to remember to pick up a bag of spinach leaves along with your regular lettuce, and mix them together when you're tossing a salad. Spinach is an easy thing to add to some of your simple favorites--like a quesadilla. When I lived in Chicago spinach pizza was all the rage. Why not put a few leaves on your favorite sandwich? Or add it to your next omelet?

If you want to cook spinach the old fashioned way, dress it up with pine nuts and raisins.

It's not so much that spinach isn't a good food, it's more about getting in the habit of keeping it around and making it a habit of including it in some of your old favorites.

Hello everyone!

The last two clients I evaluated are struggling with acne. And recently, we were linked to an acne care website that is bringing in a whole new audience. So I thought it might be a good time to talk a little bit more about this topic.

First of all, thanks to Fran Kerr for linking to Susan Dopart's testimonial about flax and fish oil! It was a great way for our two organizations to become connected. I am going to put Fran's blog (http://www.highonhealth.org/) in our resource list because she has so much great information to offer. Not just on skin, but on living healthy in general.

Secondly, for those of you who are coming to us from Fran's blog/website, I'd like to ask you if you have ever heard about polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). It's the focus of this website, and many women find out they have it when they seek help for their acne. And…many women don't get that assessment. I actually had a dermatologist tell me she'd rather just give her patients birth control pills and end the appointment rather than get into it because it's such a complicated diagnosis.

A very common scenario is just that. A young girl goes to the dermatologist for her acne, gets birth control pills, takes them for 10 years or so, goes off them, tries to get pregnant…and can't. What happened was that the birth control pills treated the symptom…but essentially shoved the problem under the rug…where it continued to fester and create havoc elsewhere in the body.

So I want to take a moment to list the symptoms of PCOS for those of you who might have had this experience but either didn't have a doctor who wanted to deal with it, or who had a doctor who thought if you just"got your act together" you wouldn't have the problem.

Symptoms of PCOS include:
A family history of infertility, irregular periods, or diabetes
Being of an ethnic heritage that tends to have a high rate of diabetes
A history of early puberty (first period at 11 years or younger)
A history of taking medication for depression, bipolar disorder, seizure disorder, epilepsy, or migraine?
A history of gestational diabetes in any of your pregnancies.
An android ("apple shaped") body type (measure your waist to hip ratio; greater than.8)
Irregular periods (or none at all)
Dark velvety patches of skin on you neck, groin, or in your armpits
Hair loss or male balding spots
Difficulty losing weight
Intense cravings for carbohydrates or sweets
Problems conceiving
Decreased sex drive
Excess hair growth on your face, like a mustache or beard
Excess hair on your chest or back
Acne on your face, chest or back

If you see yourself painted in this symptom set, please print this out with your symptoms marked and show them to your physician. Ten percent of all women who have this syndrome will be diabetic by age 40, and with diabetes comes a whole other list of problems.

And keep checking back here. There are lots of ways to manage PCOS that do not involve medication, and we'd love to help you learn about them. In fact, the list of practitioners at the right is a list of registered dietitians who have taken the time to complete a 20 hour course in the management of PCOS. They are just waiting to hear from you.

For more information, please visit my web page on the topic: http://www.afterthediet.com/polycystic.htm

Have a wonderful week, it's a short one with the upcoming holiday!

I'm posting inCYST's symptom checklist, developed by Mia Elwood, LCSW, of Healthy Futures in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mia's lecture on mood disorders and PCOS is part of the inCYST professional training. I like Mia's list because it addresses many of the food and mood aspects of PCOS that are not often written about. And in my opinion, when moods are not taken into consideration, their imbalances can generate many of the behaviors that make it hard to manage PCOS.

If you're new to this blog, or if you haven't seen this, take a moment and run through the symptoms. If this sounds like you, one of our inCYST providers is happy to help you figure out your personal action plan. You can also print this out and show your medical caregiver to give them a more complete picture of the issues you need help with.

If you wish to duplicate this for any reason, please include the copyright information at the bottom as Mia deserves credit for her original work. Thanks!

If you feel this profile describes you, stick around and read more! Pay particular attention to Ellen Reiss Goldfarb's post on lab tests you can get to monitor how your diet, exercise, sleep, and lifestyle changes are helping you to get back into balance.

Screening for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Other Hormonal Contributors
Name ________________________ Date _______________ Current Age _____

*Code answer with a YES(Y), NO(N), MAYBE(M), NOT APPLICABLE(NA), or HAVEN’T PAID ATTENTION(HPA).

Sometimes, hormones contribute to our symptoms. These questions help to explore whether hormones may be contributing to any of your symptoms.

When was your first period? Age ___ When was your last menstrual period? ___ What is your current height? ___ What is your current weight? ___

___Do you believe that you are perimenopausal or in menopause? If so, what symptoms are you experiencing that lead you to believe this?

___Have you had regular periods consistently throughout your life? Explain:

___Do your symptoms (that you are here for) change in any way according to your cycle? If yes, how do they change and when in your cycle do you notice a change?

___Has your menstrual flow become lighter/much heavier than usual for you?

___Have you ever gone more than two months without a period?

___Do you have skin that is dark or thick, especially on the neck, groin, underarms, or skin folds? ________

___Has your menstrual flow become lighter/much heavier than usual for you?

___Do you have any skin tags, teardrop-sized pieces of skin usually found in the neck area and/or armpits?

___Have you or any family members had bipolar disorder, an eating disorder, epilepsy, or migraines?

___Do you take any psychotropic medications? (antidepressants, mood stabilizers, etc.)

___Have you ever had trouble getting pregnant?

___Has your sex drive decreased?

___Do you feel you have excess hair growth? ___ Where? ___face ___back ___chest ___other____________

___Do you feel more irritable than usual?

___Have you lost/gained weight recently without your eating/exercise habits changing? _________________

___Is it hard for you to lose weight or maintain a genetically healthy weight?

___Do you have more mood swings than you used to?

___Do you have severe acne? (if adolescent) or adult acne?

___Is your waist to hip ratio greater than 0.8? Ratio _________

___Have you noticed your hair thinning or hair loss?

___Do you have strong cravings for sweets or carbohydrates?

___Do you or any family members have a history of PCOS, insulin resistance, diabetes, hypoglycemia, gestational diabetes? Who?

___Are you experiencing any other symptoms (emotional,physical, cognitive) that you feel may be related to hormones or your cycle (or lack of one)? Describe

Created by Mia Elwood, MSW/Healthy Futures-MSE, LLC, 2004/www.healthy-futures.com

You may know of melatonin as a potent sleep aid. So much so, that if you took melatonin and you did not experience an enhanced ability to sleep, you stopped taking it.

Did you know, melatonin is a very powerful antioxidant as well? Some of the benefits of this compound relevant to PCOS include:

--lowered blood pressure
--improved memory
--reduced adrenal gland activity and cortisol secretion
--reduced cortisol response to stress
--reduced blood glucose, insulin levels, and insulin response to a glucose load
--reduced cholesterol and triglycerides
--reduced testosterone levels
--increased progesterone synthesis
--slows gastric emptying (which can help you to feel fuller, longer)

That's a lot of stuff! And it's not just not sleeping well that interferes with melatonin metabolism. So does fasting and starvation…which includes any kind of radical diet, including the medically supervised ones and the HCG ones. Melatonin levels in all three types of eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, are disrupted. Obesity suppresses normal melatonin daily rhythms. Omega-3 deficiency reduces melatonin synthesis and total tissue levels.

Vitamin deficiencies such as B12, zinc, and magnesium, can interfere with good melatonin status. When I read that, I immediately thought of the many vegetarians reading this blog, as those are common deficiencies when vegetarian eating is not proactively balanced.

Normal melatonin metabolism may be dependent on physical activity.

Medical problems associated with a melatonin imbalance include: affective disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, asthma, autism, bipolar disorder, cervical cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, cluster headaches, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, Cushing’s syndrome, depression, diabetes, duodenal ulcer, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, hypertension, idiopathic pain syndrome, lung cancer, metabolic syndrome, migraine headaches, obesity, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, Parkinson’s disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, pre-eclampsia, premenstrual syndrome, schizophrenia, seasonal affective disorder, sleep apnea, and ulcerative colitis.

I'm well aware that many people reading this blog are looking for a magic supplement to erase the need for making healthy lifestyle choices. If you choose to supplement with melatonin, it likely will not hurt you, and it may help you to restore normal sleep patterns, but it will never replace the power of regular, adequate sleep. Just sayin'.: )

If you've never used melatonin before, and you decide to start, you may want to try it on a night when it's not essential that you be up and functioning early the next day. It can have a paradoxical reaction in some people.

And, if you happen to be a professional pilot, the FAA advises against using melatonin while on duty. It certainly wouldn't hurt on your days off, especially if you've been on some grueling red eye flights, just beware of this disclaimer while officially on duty.

I have an extensive list of references I've collected from which this blog post was derived. If you would like them you can contact me directly.

Bottom line, if you don't value sleep, your body is going to have a really, really, really hard time being healthy.