CANCER MELATONIN - PUNA WAI ORA MIND-BODY CENTER

Melatonin is a primary regulator of the immune system and is a powerful anti-oxidant (free-radical fighter). Melatonin inhibits cancer cell growth, and can kill directly many different types of human tumor cells. 

Melatonin is produced by the human pineal gland during deep sleep and disruption to sleep patterns mainly due to chronic stress means melatonin levels are significantly lower, putting those with disrupted sleep patterns at risk of developing cancer.  Studies have revealed cancer patients have low levels of melatonin, while further studies have revealed those who meditate have low rates of cancer.  Meditation is a tool to directly increase melatonin production as well as a tool to indirectly increase melatonin production by inducing deep sleep.

Meditation for Melatonin involves meditating for 20-30 minutes twice daily, during the morning and the evening to stimulate the pineal gland of the brain. Stimulation of the pineal gland produces melatonin.

Meditating during the evening serves two purposes. Firstly, it stimulates the pineal gland production of melatonin for that evenings sleep, and secondly, it calms and quietens the mind allowing for uninterrupted sleep. Studies at the University of Texas showed that melatonin administered to rats in the evening reduced tumour size greatly over melatonin administered in the morning. Other factors that lower melatonin levels include: High protein diets, overeating, chronic stress, alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, lack of natural lighting during the day, sleep deprivation, and sleeping in a room that is not pitch black due to moonlight, streetlight or other.

World Research Shows Melatonin Improves Cancer Outcomes

"Melatonin is a potent immune-enhancing hormone produced by the human pineal gland and appears to have substantial cancer-repelling power. In addition to boosting the activity of key immune cells called T helper cells, melatonin stimulates the tumor-killing action of natural killer cells (NK) by increasing the white blood cell production of the cytokine Interleukin-2 (IL-2) [Excerpt from the Definitive Guide to Cancer, by John Diamond, M.D. and Lee Cowden, M.D]

"Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), led by Eva Schernhammer, MD, DrPH, (Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School) were among the first to report that nightshift workers may have an increased risk of developing breast cancer.  Decreased levels of melatonin - a hormone closely linked to sleep patterns - is believed to be a possible cause.  Now, in the next phase of this research, Schernhammer reports that lower melatonin levels are associated with a higher risk of breast cancer.  The findings are published in the July 20, 2005 issue of the Jounal of the National Cancer Insitute (JNCI).  The hormone melatonin is typically released from the brain during the night.  It is the reason people get sleepy.  Nightshift workers, exposed to bright light during the evenings, produce less melatonin.  Laboratory studies have shown that melatonin production can put tumor cells “to sleep” by stunting growth.  A recent report indicated that in constant light, tumors grew seven times faster than they did in the dark.  In this study, the researchers measured urinary melatonin in 147 women who developed invasive breast cancer and 291 matched women who did not develop breast cancer.  They found that women with the lowest levels of the melatonin metabolite in their urine were 70 percent more likely to develop breast cancer."  [Press Release - Brigham and Women's Hospital Research Unit]

On October 17 2001, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Vol. 93, No. 20, pp. 1557-1568) published two papers reporting a significant increase in the risk of breast cancer among women who frequently did not sleep during the period of the night, about 1:30am, when melatonin levels are typically at their highest.

Research presented recently at the 94th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C., shows evidence that the nighttime production of the hormone melatonin (produced during deep sleep) inhibits the growth of human breast cancer by blocking the tumor’s uptake of dietary linoleic acid.  [Bassett Research Institute – Preclinical Study supported by the National Cancer Institute]

Studies at the University of Texas Medical Branch showed that "melatonin significantly increased the latency period of the tumor, by delaying the appearance of the tumor"

According to the University of Maryland Medical Center: "Women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer tend to have lower levels of melatonin than those without the disease. Low levels of melatonin stimulate the growth of certain types of cancer cells and adding melatonin to these cells inhibits their growth. Meditation appears to be a valuable addition to the treatment of cancer due to a rise in levels of melatonin in the body."

According to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center: "Melatonin has been shown by a number of studies to significantly inhibit breast cancer in animals and tissue culture." In a separate study performed at the University a higher level of melatonin was found in meditators than in non-meditators.

According to the American Cancer Society: "A National Institute of Health panel found evidence that regular meditation can also reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, and increase longevity and quality of life. The same study found that those who meditated had a better immune response than those who did not meditate."

"Melatonin can kill directly many different types of tumour cells. It is a naturally produced cytotoxin, which can induce tumor cell death (apoptosis). In instances where the tumour has already established itself in the body, melatonin has been shown to inhibit the tumour’s growth rate. Melatonin exhibits natural oncostatic activity and inhibits cancer cell growth. In patients in whom cancer has become a noticeable physical burden and produces overt symptoms, melatonin has been shown to alleviate numerous cancer symptoms and to inhibit development of new tumour blood vessels (tumour angiogenesis), which in turn inhibits the cancer from spreading further (mestastasis). Radiation therapy usually induces anemia. Melatonin stimulates platelet production and has been shown to effectively treat cancer patients with low platelet counts and anemia. Melatonin reduces chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity, neurotoxicity, thrombocytopenia (reduced platelet counts), stomatitis (inflammation of mouth), and asthenia (weakness), and improves the overall response in cancer patients." [Clinical Study, The Life Extension Foundation]

“Results from a new study in laboratory mice show that nighttime exposure to artificial light stimulated the growth of human breast tumors by suppressing the levels of a key hormone called melatonin.The study also showed that extended periods of nighttime darkness greatly slowed the growth of these tumors.”  [US Department of Health and Human Services – National Institute of Health]

"Experienced meditators practicing either TM-Sidihi or another internationally well known form of yoga meditation showed significantly higher melatonin levels in the period following meditation. " [School of Psychology, La Trobe University, Australia]

By Jo Robinson (Co-Author), with Russel J. Reiter, Melatonin: Your Body's Natural Wonder Drug, Bantam 1995

Melatonin's antioxidant properties were discovered in 1993.  It's possible role in the immune system was revealed about ten years earlier. Georges Maestroni, director of the Center for Experimental Pathology in Switzerland, has been the source of many of the significant findings.

Maestroni's first awareness that melatonin might play a role in the immune system came in the early 1980s when he learned that animals that had been deprived of their pineal glands -- the gland the produces melatonin -- had shrunken thymus glands.  Thymus glands are key to the body's ability to mount an effective immune response.  If a lack of melatonin caused the thymus to atrophy (waste away), then melatonin must be just as fundamental to immunity.

One of melatonin's roles is to counteract the effect of stress on the immune system, whether that stress is caused by viral infiltration,emotional stress, drug-induced immunosuppression, or aging. For example, animals studies have shown that melatonin is very effective in reversing the effects of psychic stress.  In a key experiment, rodents were injected with a sub-lethal dose of a virus.(EMCV virus)  Half of the mice were then injected with melatonin. Finally, both groups were subjected to restraint stress, a procedure known to inhibit the immune response.  At the end of 10 days, 82% of the melatonin-treated rodents were still alive, compared to only 6 percent of the controls.  [Maestroni, Annals of the NY Academy of Sciences 1988; 521: 140-48.]

Melatonin has also been shown to reverse the decline in immunity that accompanies aging. In a 1995 experiment, young and old mice were injected with a virus that causes encephalitis, an often fatal brain infection.  Half of both groups were then treated with melatonin.  In the mice not given melatonin, not one of the old mice and only 6% of the young mice survived.  In the melatonin groups, 39% of the young group and a surprising 56% of the old mice survived.  In other words, melatonin had an even greater protective effect on the immune system of the aged mice than the young mice. [Archives of Virology; 1995; 140:223-30.]

Melatonin has also reversed the immunsuppressive effect of steroids on the immune system, as well as chemotherapy drugs.  [International Journal of Neuroscience 1991; 61:289-98.]

Recent studies (conducted in 1993, 1994, 1995) have given new clues as to melatonin's specific mode of action.  A recent finding is that there is a melatonin receptor on a key immune cell called the T-helper cell.  ["T-Helper-2 lymphocytes as peripheral target of melatonin signalling." J. of Pineal Research 1995; 18:84-89.]  Once linked with the cell, melatonin increases production of key cytokines (signalling cells).

Clinical trials involving melatonin are in the early stages. However, so far, melatonin administration has enhanced production of a number of important cytokines, including a 51% increase in IL-2 (necessary for inhibiting cancer cell growth), a 28% increase in tumor necrosis factor alpha, and a 41 percent increase in interferon-gamma. [Oncology Reports 1995; 2:45-7.]

Immune cells that have been enhanced by melatonin administration include natural killer cells, T-helper cells, eosinophils, and null cells.  Salivary IgA, an important immunoglobulin, has also been enhanced (IgA helps protect the mucous membranes from virus and infections.)


Electro-Magnetic Field (EMF) Radiation Avoidance


EMFs are a type of low-frequency radiation emitted from everything electrical around us: power lines, transformers, electrical wiring, computers, TVs, lights, clocks, appliances, etc. Recent studies have linked EMFs to increased leukemia, lymphoma, brain cancer, melanoma, breast cancer, miscarriage, birth defects, suicide, and most recently, Alzheimer's disease.