Melatonin, Could it
be the The Supermolecule The World Ignores!?
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By Roger Coghill, MA (Cantab) C Biol MI Biol
MA(Environ Mgt) Director, Coghill Research
Laboratories, Pontypool South Wales
How fast our world is changing! Tsunamis,
hurricanes, snowfalls, droughts are only a few
of the grim but obvious reminders of rapid
global change. But underlying these are more
insidious changes, invisible, silent yet equally
pernicious: the dramatic and persistent growth
in our use of electromagnetic energy. My granny
could remember days before radio, just as I can
remember days before TV, and that long-gone era
of the copper boiler and the mangle, the 78 rpm
vinyl record, and super-8 cine camera. Our
increasing consumption of electricity results
from the invention of a myriad of new electric
appliances, instruments, and systems, including
the laptop I am using to write this and the
cellphone in my pocket.
"Cancer now affects one in three, with breast
cancer affecting one in nine women Close quotes"
Concomitant with this convenient improvement in
lifestyle have come increased cancer mortality,
sleep disorders, and impoverished immune
competence. Cancer now affects one in three,
with breast cancer affecting one in nine women.
Cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's,
Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and myalgic
encephalomyelitis are all modern disorders. And
all have been associated with exposure to
electromagnetic fields ("EMFs").
Many scientists believe that these afflictions
are connected with exposure to the weak but
ubiquitous EMF and radiations inevitably
accompanying our new electro-technologies. Ever
since 1979, when Nancy Wertheimer and Ed Leeper
found doubled incidence of childhood leukaemia
in the Denver homes nearest pole-mounted
electricity transformers, there has been a
steady stream of studies reporting similar
effects. A handful of negative studies, by
contrast, (funded unsurprisingly by the UK and
US power utilities), were later found to be
seriously flawed in their design.
Finally, this year, a major study of all
British children living
near powerlines confirmed yet
again that EMF is associated with a nearly
doubled cancer level. The International Agency
for Cancer Research ("IARC") has belatedly
classified EMF as a possible human carcinogen,
but only the magnetic component: - they don't
know what to say about the electric component
also coming from powerlines. More disturbingly,
however, over half our exposure to
EMF comes from appliances
within the home, so those living
far from such lines are also at risk. At last a
new Dept of Health initiative, "SAGE", has
assembled a committee of experts (of which I am
a member) to devise precautionary measures to
minimize exposure to power frequency electric
and magnetic fields.
"The adverse
effects of EMF exposure also extend to the
higher
frequenciesClose quotes"
The adverse effects of EMF exposure, catalogued
in over a hundred studies now, also extend to
the higher frequencies. Folk unable to sleep
after the installation of a nearby cellphone
mast are finding some relief by enveloping their
bedrooms in expensive screening, but what about
during the day? Some put faith in curious
buttons attached to their cellphone, or the
small army of claimed
electroprotective devices
now on the market, but these are
hardly underpinned by scientific evaluation.
Fescue To The Rescue
By contrast, there is strong evidence that a
hormone we make ourselves in the brain's pineal
gland, and is also present in some plants like
tall fescue, may provide an answer to the
problem of electro pollution. It is called
melatonin, and was hardly discovered until well
after WW2. It seems likely that the adverse
effects of EMFs are connected with free radical
formation. Free radicals are an inevitable
by-product of many life processes, and to mop
them up our body makes natural antioxidants such
as catalase, superoxide dismutase and
glutathione. At night, when most cell repair
takes place and more free radicals are thereby
created, we supplement these with a far more
powerful antioxidant, melatonin, - five times
more powerful in fact than vitamin C and twice
as strong as vitamin E because it can penetrate
every cell in our body.
It seems that exposure to EMFs inhibits this
nocturnal synthesis of melatonin, thereby
increasing the likelihood of cancer. Less than
ten years ago scientists showed that
plant-derived melatonin could be equally used by
organisms to quench free radicals, and by 2004 a
review of melatonin's radio-protective qualities
was referencing over 400 studies, so great was
the scientific interest in the discovery. Even
better news was that there are virtually no side
effects, "The safest molecule of all time" was
the verdict of a vice-president of Eli Lilly.
"Even better news was that there are
virtually no side effects"
Today there are at least 20,000 studies on
melatonin in scientific literature.
Nevertheless, its benefits are still little
appreciated by the public, who are
vaguely aware that it
helps with jet lag. But few
realize that women with breast cancer have only
a tenth of normal melatonin levels, or that most
women have higher levels of the hormone than
men, and also live longer.
Lessons From The
Animals
In one animal study, when melatonin was added to
the experimental rats' drinking water they lived
12 percent longer. In another curious
experiment, old rats endowed with pineal
transplants from young rats lived significantly
longer. Cows grazing near radio masts near Bern,
Switzerland were found to have less melatonin
than they should. One enterprising UK firm has
turned this finding around and sells Night Time
Milk, collected at four in the morning, since
the cows, like ourselves, produce more melatonin
at night than during the day. Scientists have
also found that as we age we synthesize less and
less of the hormone; anyone over 50 should
seriously consider melatonin as a regular
dietary supplement.
Sleep improvement is another benefit: you will
fall asleep quicker, and sleep deeper if you
take melatonin before retiring for the night.
This is an important advantage for the nigh 30
percent of us with sleep disturbance problems,
since, unlike many proprietary sleeping pills,
there are no dangerous or addictive side
effects: melatonin is arguably the safest
bio-molecule of all time.
Melatonin And
Cancer
"Melatonin is the
most powerful natural antioxidant we make
naturally in our bodies"
But the most important of melatonin's many
virtues is its vital role in the prevention and
treatment of cancer. As the most powerful
natural antioxidant we make naturally in our
bodies, melatonin can mop up free radicals five
times more effectively than vitamin C and twice
as well as tocopherol (Vitamin E). Melatonin can
enter every cell in our body.
The UK Government Ban On Being Healthy
What has been the politico-medical response to
this astounding supermolecule? Why to ban it of
course! It interferes with the pharma companies'
growing market for sleeping pills. Since it
cannot be patented and the synthetic versions
are incredibly easy to make (Nestle even found
it was an unwanted by-product of chocolate
manufacture), few pharmaceutical companies are
prepared to research its benefits, so most of
the research has been conducted within
Universities. Consequently in Britain you cannot
buy melatonin over the counter (OTC), as you can
in some other parts of the world like Poland and
the US. The ban is fatuous: those in the know
simply order it from the US via the Internet.
Paradoxically you can legally buy its precursor
tryptophan in Britain, (though in limited
amounts, in the same way as vitamin C is now
dose-limited). Tryptophan was recently liberated
for OTC sale again after a long period of its
suppression on the false grounds that it might
be toxic, - a daft idea arising from one bad
batch which caused minor adverse effects some
decades ago.
In our lab we probably know more about melatonin
than most others in the UK. The first thing we
discovered was that synthetic melatonin pills at
pharmacological levels (in milligram doses) do
not retain their efficacy for long. They may be
fine for jet lag, but after a while their
ability to improve sleep wears off. By contrast
at physiological levels (in micro or even
nanogram doses) melatonin's effects remain
beneficial indefinitely.
"Melatonin reduced the nasty side effects of
this intervention, especially in childhood
leukemia's"
Next we reviewed the literature and found that
melatonin as made by plants could be used just
like the melatonin made in our bodies. From this
we developed a product called Asphalia based on
edible plants with high melatonin content, and
have recently filed a UK patent application to
protect the invention, now on the OTC market,
provided we do not include the word melatonin on
the pack or mention its name in articles like
this! Furthermore as an adjuvant during
chemotherapy we found that melatonin reduced the
nasty side effects of this intervention,
especially in childhood leukemia's. The 75
year-old Cancer Act (1931) prevents anyone from
making any claims that this supermolecule is
even beneficial in cancer treatment however.
Nevertheless the scientific evidence is
prodigious. A trawl of internet databases
produced some 950 studies from around the world
reporting melatonin's use in cancer prevention
and treatment.
Clearly there are grounds for not only giving
precautionary advice (including organic
melatonin supplementation at physiological
doses) regarding EMF exposures (particularly the
less well researched but more insidious
E-fields), but also there is an urgent need to
investigate further melatonin's twin
radio-protective and oncostatic roles. Without
the promise of any lucrative (i.e. patentable)
rewards for this research, however, the prospect
of pharmaceutical industry attention remains
distant.
Learn how to protect yourself from harmful radiation
emitted by your cell phone.
Click on the picture below.