IUBio

Melatonin update

Jo Robinson jor at teleport.com
Sat Feb 3 17:10:31 EST 1996


	Hi Folks --
	I've been off line for a while, tending to family matters, 
vacationing in Mexico - poor me - researching other projects.  
	But I do have some information to report.  A number of people suggested
that I should try to determine the amount of melatonin being consumed
each night by my melatonin-treated mice.*  I measured their water
consumption for several nights, calculated the amount of melatonin in the
water, and then divided by the number of mice.  If I got all my decimal
places correct, each mouse consumed .075 mg. of melatonin per kilogram.  The
 human equivalent (for a 15o pound human) would be about 5 milligrams.
	I am using less melatonin than other people have used.  Maestroni
and Pierpaoli used ten times more.  Zizapel used four times more.
	The behavioral difference between the control mice and the melatonin-
treated mice is still pronounced.  The melatonin mice are less fearful (i.e.
they spend more time in open spaces) more inquisitive (more likely to explore
a new object placed in the cage) more clever (when challenged with food in a
hard-to-reach space, they figure out how to get to it sooner.)  I don't
know how to explain these results, because they have not been observed by
others.  It's almost as if the melatonin-treated mice have become a race
of Amazons.
	As you know, there's been a lot of negative buzz about melatonin in the
press lately, set off to some extent, I believe, by the wildly exaggerated
claims made in the Melatonin Miracle.  I want to assure you that the
research remains very promising.  SEveral studies are in the pipeline that
attest to melatonin's anti-cancer and immuno-stimulating properties.


	Jo (Yes, I'm a she.)


	* For those of you new to this list, I am a medical writer, not
a researcher.  I am doing the melatonin anti-aging experiment to satisfy
 my own curiousity and to goad legitimate researchers into replicating it.
  I only have ten mice in my "study."  They are now 16 months old.  Five of
them have been given melatonin in their drinking water (1 mg per liter) at 
night since they were 9 months old.  One control mouse died for unknown n
reasons.  I plan to continue the experiment until all the mice have died.
--
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
                       Jo Robinson    jor at teleport.com
 Co-author, with Russel J. Reiter- MELATONIN: Your Body's Natural Wonder Drug
          For a melatonin FAQ, go to: http://www.teleport.com/~jor
     (Note: I have no financial connection with any melatonin supplier.)
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+




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