Sleep Aid Worsens Asthma

[Guest guest]

Melatonin Supplements May Worsen

Asthma

People With Nocturnal Asthma Cautioned to Avoid

Melatonin Supplements

Sept 2003

-- Treating jet lag or insomnia with melatonin supplements may actually make

matters worse for people with asthma.

A new

study suggests that melatonin supplements may make asthma symptoms worse in

people who already suffer from nocturnal asthma, or asthma that naturally

worsens at night.

Melatonin

is a hormone produced by the brain that helps regulate the body's circadian

rhythms, or body clock. Levels of the hormone peak at night, and this

association with sleep has lead many to use melatonin supplements as a remedy

for jet lag or insomnia.

But melatonin

has also been shown to increase inflammation of the airways in animal studies,

which can make it harder to breathe. That prompted researchers to look at

whether melatonin might play a role in worsening nocturnal asthma symptoms.

Rise in Melatonin Linked to Nocturnal Asthma

Symptoms

In the

study, published in the Journal of Allergy

and Clinical Immunology, researchers followed seven people with

nocturnal asthma, 13 with non-nocturnal asthma, and 11 healthy individuals.

After establishing a normal sleep schedule for seven days, researchers took

small blood samples every two hours from the sleeping patients on the eighth

night and analyzed their melatonin levels.

The study

showed that people with nocturnal asthma had the highest levels of melatonin and

the biggest decrease in lung function during the night. Melatonin levels peaked

at about 67.5 among nocturnal asthmatic people, 61.1 in non-nocturnal asthmatic

people, and 53.5 in healthy people.

" For

patients whose asthma worsens at night, we found that higher levels of

naturally occurring melatonin are associated with impaired lung function, "

says researcher Rand Sutherland, MD, MPH, of National Jewish Medical &

Research Center, in a news release.

" These

findings suggest that melatonin naturally produced by people with nocturnal

asthma increases inflammation in their airways, leading to worse lung

function, " says Sutherland. " Given that previous work has shown that

melatonin promotes inflammation in the cells of both nocturnal and non-nocturnal

asthmatics, any person with asthma should be cautious about taking supplements

that would further raise their melatonin blood levels. "

Much Love,

Deanna

LUPUS Serenity Prayer...

Lord,

grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to

change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of doctors I shot

when they said, You're perfectly healthy, it's all in your head "