Sophie Messager (messager at jouy.inra.fr) wrote:
: Sorry, I do not know which are synthetized with high quality controls or not.
: What I can say is:
: -First: I went to a congress last month, and one researcher told us that he
: has measured the amount of melatonin contained in three different capsules
: from the US. I some of them, he was'nt able to detect any melatonin, in the
: other, he found 8 fold the amount claimed by the firm. I must add that some of
: the capsules sold seems to contains no chemically synthetized melatonin
: ,but only bovine pineal extracts (the pineal gland is the gland that secrete
: melatonin), and it seems to me very dangerous as we still not know if the
: bovine encephalopathy ( the illness called the "crazy cow") can develop or not
: in human beings.
Sophie,
Overall I agree with the content of your message, taking melatonin
is a risky bet at this stage in the game (which some people are willing to
take). The problem comes in from all the overmarketing of the substance,
pushing it on people who have no idea how or why their bodies work.
BUT, where do you see evidence that little furries are being
ground up for their pineal glands? I have heard the term "bovine pineal
extract" floating around for some time, as if there was a "natural"
(bovine) form of melatonin, and a synthetic one. No one has come through
with any evidence, other than hearsay.
Have you?
...Rodney
PS: If anyone can find me a cheap consumer source of "bovine pineal
extract", I've love to hear about it, cos as far as I know, it would take
many many thousands of unfortunate cattle to get me even a couple pills
worth of melatonin (there is a recent thread on sci.life-extension dealing
with this same topic).
