Holistic Health Show

On Saturday, Dr Arlene Donar talked about melatonin as an anti-cancer hormone. Several studies suggest a connection between melatonin and cancer. Researchers at Harvard evaluated almost 150 women with invasive breast cancer and just over 290 without cancer as part of the Nurse Health Study. They measured the melatonin urine levels from morning samples and found that the women with the highest melatonin levels had the lowest risk of cancer.
In another study researchers used melatonin supplements with rats having advanced and untreated breast cancer . Given daily this significantly increased survival in the rats. They concluded that the results suggest that melatonin is beneficial in the survival with advanced breast cancer.
In a third study Mills et al at the McMasters University in Hamilton, Canada did a systematic review of randomized control trials and meta-analysis of melatonin in the treatment of cancer. They included 10 randomized controlled studies published between 1992 and 2003 that included 643 patients. and found that melatonin reduced the risk of death at 1 year and further, the effects were consistent across melatonin dose and type of cancer. No severe side effects were reported. They concluded that the substantial reduction in risk of death, low adverse events reported, and low cost related to this treatment suggests great potential for melatonin in the treatment of cancer.
These are a few of the studies published to date. Most researchers recognize the importance of further studies.