One possible problem for moderate to severe Covid-19 patients is the potential for significant damage to the lungs and possibly other organs like the liver based on what is being seen in patients. At this point, treatment options to try and prevent, repair or ameliorate this damage is very limited and not necessarily a very high priority for doctors yet, but still important to the patient in the long run to maintain good health quality overall. Toward that end, I would like to talk about one of my favorite supplements that I have previously mentioned on this forum that may have benefit to help these patients have a more complete recovery of the lungs and possibly other organs. The aftermath for patients with Covid-19 has not been discussed at length yet because it is not currently the highest priority for doctor's treating these patients. Keeping them alive is obviously a primary concern right now, but preventing or ameliorating the significant amount of collateral and direct damage caused by Covid-19 is very important also. That subject, in time, will be quite popular as more people reach the recovery phase of Covid-19. For many people who fall into the "high risk groups", this information may be useful and timely to reduce your chances of succumbing to the disease if infected and if some scientists are right in their thinking that the virus can potentially mutate and return seasonally, similarly to the seasonal flu, then melatonin certainly seems like a very useful adjuvant treatment to keep in mind from this point forward! If you survive the virus once and develop antibodies to it that will be very good, but if the virus mutates extensively, there is a chance that those antibodies may not be effective against the new strain similarly to vaccines for the flu, which sometimes work against the new strain and sometimes don't as witnessed by people who have gotten the flu shot and still got the flu.
Melatonin, has shown itself to be protective of the major organs of the body in many studies, which includes the lungs among its many potential health benefits. There are several forum members currently using melatonin including myself so this could be useful information for them as well as other members who are trying to be as prepared as possible to deal with Covid-19. Below is a link to a recent article that discusses the potential utility of melatonin as it would relate to Covid-19. Melatonin is just at the beginning of testing in Covid-19 patients with initial positive results. This article mainly discusses the effects of melatonin as it might relate to Covid-19 and includes its antiviral and anti-ARDS qualities among many other qualities. The article describes melatonin as "having a high safety profile" and suggests it might be useful before, during and after the disease process has ended. Doctors may have a bit more latitude in using melatonin compared to all of the prescription drugs that have been mentioned on this forum and across the internet since melatonin is an OTC supplement sold at drug stores and big box item stores and almost all online supplement suppliers. I will copy and paste the link to the complete article from PubMed first and then copy and paste the abstract below that link :
Published online 2020 Mar 23. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2020.117583
PMCID: PMC7102583
PMID: 32217117
COVID-19: Melatonin as a potential adjuvant treatment
Rui Zhang,a Xuebin Wang,a Leng Ni,a Xiao Di,a Baitao Ma,a Shuai Niu,a Changwei Liu,a,⁎ and Russel J. Reiterb,⁎⁎
Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer
Go to:
Abstract
This article summarizes the likely benefits of melatonin in the attenuation of COVID-19 based on its putative pathogenesis. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has become a pandemic with tens of thousands of infected patients. Based on clinical features, pathology, the pathogenesis of acute respiratory disorder induced by either highly homogenous coronaviruses or other pathogens, the evidence suggests that excessive inflammation, oxidation, and an exaggerated immune response very likely contribute to COVID-19 pathology. This leads to a cytokine storm and subsequent progression to acute lung injury (ALI)/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and often death. Melatonin, a well-known anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative molecule, is protective against ALI/ARDS caused by viral and other pathogens. Melatonin is effective in critical care patients by reducing vessel permeability, anxiety, sedation use, and improving sleeping quality, which might also be beneficial for better clinical outcomes for COVID-19 patients. Notably, melatonin has a high safety profile. There is significant data showing that melatonin limits virus-related diseases and would also likely be beneficial in COVID-19 patients. Additional experiments and clinical studies are required to confirm this speculation.
Here is a link to an article that gives an idea of which organs can be impacted by Covid-19 which further illustrates why melatonin might be a very useful adjuvant treatment option which doctors can add to their arsenal against Covid-19. That arsenal is relatively small at this point, but hopefully will continue to expand.
Since the multiple health benefits associated with melatonin may apply in the case of this disease in multiple ways, it may be worth saving this post for future reference for yourself or a family member or friend to show to their doctor to see if it is something that will be compatible with all that they are taking and safe for you to take. ""I can not recommend melatonin to anyone as I am not a doctor"", but your doctor can. I do use it daily myself as I have previously stated on the forum for multiple reasons. Melatonin is mainly thought of as an over the counter sleep aid, but its abilities go far beyond being a common sleep aid for some people. Not everyone can tolerate melatonin and that is another good reason to include your doctor in that decision making process. The majority of people do tolerate melatonin well and it is naturally produced in the body by the pineal gland as daylight turns to night time. There are melatonin receptors found throughout the body suggesting that the body does have uses for it. Unfortunately melatonin production declines very significantly as we age and that may possibly be one contributing factor as to why older people do not fair as well as younger people with Covid-19. Here is another article that discusses the potential for melatonin in respiratory diseases. If you want to read the full article, you will have to click on the blue rectangular button that says "Download full-text PDF" once you follow this link :
This very recent (March 20, 2020), brief and interesting link takes you to an opinion page where a doctor is discussing how melatonin might be used as adjunctive treatment for Covid-19 in patients with and without pneumonia and is relatively short and straight forward. He is advocating for use of melatonin "now" in Covid-19 patients. He feels that melatonin also would be an effective antiviral and antibacterial, but that is not yet known in Covid-19. This is worth reading!
The same doctor from the article just above, Dr. Richard L. Neel M.D., MPH., has actually
started treating Covid-19 patients with melatonin and vitamin C as the following link explains.I like what he is doing by practicing what he is preaching. His treated patient count is low at this point, but you have to start somewhere and a hospital seems a safe place to do that if you are already infected with Covid-19! A quick mention to the fact that there are a couple of ads at the 1/3 point and 2/3 point in the following article so please scroll past each ad to make sure you read the whole article, its interesting. This is a good read.
One more update about Dr. Neel. He says he has treated 10 patients now giving them 80 mgs of melatonin per day. One of my supplement experiments involved taking 70 mgs of melatonin per day so I already have an idea of what 80 mgs will be like for me. Another good read and not long.
The following article highlights a lot of the known health benefits and effects in the human body of melatonin and then illustrates how these would apply toward treatment of Covid-19 patients and mentions that melatonin may go a long way in ameliorating or preventing the cytokine storm, pneumonia and damage to other organs. It is an easy read and is written in an easy to understand and follow way. Once you click on the link, it will show you the abstract and there will be a small rectangular blue button that says, "Download full-text PDF". Once you download the PDF, you can read the entire article for free. It's a good read!
The following abstract suggests that the combination of Melatonin and Quercetin may help reduce inflammation related to hypoxia (oxygen deprivation to the tissues ) and modulate the measured parameters of the study to near normal levels, possibly helping to ameliorate or prevent the cytokine storm which has shown itself to be deadly in many people. Hypoxia can also cause damage to other organs that are starved of oxygen and this is seen in Covid-19 patients so it is very important in understanding the value of melatonin in Covid-19 patients!
The following very recent article (March 2020) goes into greater detail on the role of melatonin as it relates to Covid-19, inflammation and pneumonia :
The following article explains how Covid-19 can negatively affect the liver in a fairly high percentage of cases. Melatonin has shown itself to be a liver protectant.
The following article discusses many facets of melatonin as it applies to Covid -19 and also discusses concomitant use with hydroxychloroquine as well as whether melatonin may preclude the need for mechanical ventilation and other relevant points. An important point that it covers is fibrosis as seen in the wake of Covid-19 and how melatonin may also ameliorate this growing problem. After reaching the abstract page, you will have to download the PDF by selecting the black rectangular button that says, "Download PDF" to read the entire article which gives some insight as to the multiple reasons why melatonin may be of great value in the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The following article discusses a hospital in the Philippines that is using melatonin in their Covid-19 patients with apparently good results. They are using a lower dose than Dr. Neel with dosing in the 36 to 72 mg range. This may be because Filipinos are generally smaller people. Dr. Neel is using an 80 mg dose for the adults he has treated. The article is a little long and covers other topics related to Covid-19, but here is a quote from the article :
' One of the young cardiologists we’re mentoring texted me the good news about her father, a prominent physician in one of the teaching universities in the country, who has just been discharged after battling COVID-19. He was already about to be intubated and hooked to a breathing machine because all drugs given him didn’t seem to work and his pneumonia was getting worse. After three days on high-dose melatonin, he turned around, and nine days later, he was sent home.
We’re reporting our experience in a scientific journal, so hopefully, it could help save some COVID-19 patients, especially the elderly, who are reportedly left to die in some cities in Italy and Spain, so that doctors could allocate their resources to younger patients. If this information could save a few of these lives, it shall have been worth all that we’ve gone through convincing our local colleagues about it. '
The following link discusses repurposing of existing drugs including melatonin. It is quite lengthy if you are pressed for time and don't have time to read it, here is a quote from the article :
Inflammatory pathways play essential roles in viral infections56,57. As a biogenic amine, melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) (Z = –1.72 and GSEA score = 2) plays a key role in various biological processes, and offers a potential strategy in the management of viral infections58,59. Viral infections are often associated with immune-inflammatory injury, in which the level of oxidative stress increases significantly and leaves negative effects on the function of multiple organs60. The antioxidant effect of melatonin makes it a putative candidate drug to relieve patients’ clinical symptoms in antiviral treatment, even though melatonin cannot eradicate or even curb the viral replication or transcription61,62. In addition, the application of melatonin may prolong patients’ survival time, which may provide a chance for patients’ immune systems to recover and eventually eradicate the virus. As shown in Fig. 5e, melatonin indirectly targets several HCoV cellular targets, including ACE2, BCL2L1, JUN, and IKBKB. Eplerenone (Z = –1.59), an aldosterone receptor antagonist, is reported to have a similar anti-inflammatory effect as melatonin. By inhibiting mast-cell-derived proteinases and suppressing fibrosis, eplerenone can improve survival of mice infected with encephalomyocarditis virus63.
The following 2 links, while not related to Covid-19, takes you to two abstracts of a study where melatonin was used at a dose of 70 mg per day in children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy for 9 months to good effect. I'm adding this one just to show that melatonin is relatively safe in children who might get Covid-19, even at 70 mg/day. They used it everyday for 9 months, whereas it may only have to be used for a much shorter time period in Covid-19 patients.
I am not recommending melatonin, just putting the information out on the forum so anyone interested can discuss it with their doctor or health care professional and to also make sure it is compatible with everything you may be taking. I hope that you will be able to get enough information from this post to see that what Dr. Neel is suggesting is a non-invasive way to assist in the treatment of Covid-19 and possibly in the interim period where you might be told to stay home and rest and then go to the emergency room if you have trouble breathing. Remember, there are drugs which are working to various degrees, but will we be able to get them and how long will we have to wait before we are tested and accepted as a patient in the hospital to receive those treatments if they are available? If melatonin is as effective as Dr. Neel and the Philippines have seen so far, melatonin may be a consideration between you and your doctor during that period while you are waiting for your breathing to become difficult enough to be allowed into the hospital. If it works as they have seen so far, perhaps that trip to the hospital may never be needed! Dr. Neel is talking about positive effects in as little as one day.
Some of the drugs that are being tested for Covid-19 have significant side effects and judging by what is already known about melatonin, it may even help to ameliorate the severity of some of those effects while also helping to alleviate symptoms of the disease itself. His hope, as he mentioned is that melatonin may prevent a patient from ever needing to go on a ventilator in the first place. Given that some hospitals don't want to accept you in until you are having a hard time breathing, to me, if I feel I am getting sick in any way, I will continue to take the melatonin that I am already taking plus the difference to get up to his dosing schedule in the hope that I never even have to go to the hospital!
These are just more reasons why I refer to melatonin as one of my favorites! I would also like to mention that I recently restocked my melatonin supply and they came very quickly compared to my zinc picolinate order and my vitamin D and C orders! Since I have been taking melatonin for years, much of this is information about melatonin I was aware of and why I looked for a possible connection in the first place. I was not aware of its potential use as adjuvant treatment for Covid-19. Melatonin's ability to help protect the lungs and other major organs could be a very useful adjuvant treatment in trying to protect the body as a whole from most of the potential damage which Covid-19 has shown the ability to inflict on people infected with SARS CoV-2 and act as a potent antioxidant and also act as a potent antiinflammatory,all well known melatonin attributes and this is a very big thing for Covid-19 patients to help protect almost all of the organs that Covid-19 is now thought to involve in addition to the lungs. A drug that can safely destroy the virus is extremely important, but ameliorating or preventing the damage caused by the virus is important now and later for the patient!
I am sorry for the length of this post, but since melatonin has not previously been discussed for this purpose on this forum, I wanted to include as much relevant information as possible to give some background.
This post will be easy to search for if you ever want to draw on this information again by searching for "Melatonin" or you can click on my icon and select it from the few posts listed. I think there is also an option to "follow post" in which case you will be notified anytime the post is added to or replied to.
Art
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Interesting! Why is it some people can’t tolerate melatonin? I seem to be one of those people. I’ve tried it a few times to try to get a better sleep — It starts to make me feel sleepy but after a couple hours it makes me feel jittery and keeps me awake even more! I’m feel like I’m missing out on a great supplement.
Yes, It is like many other supplements and drugs, some you can tolerate and some you can't, but if it only causes you to be jittery, that might mean that you can tolerate it long enough to be useful against Covid-19 . The doctor who is using it and the hospital in the Philippines who are using it on their C-19 patients are talking about a relatively short course.
If the doctor and the hospital are correct about how Melatonin seems to be working against C-19, it takes some of the fear away to me of the idea that this virus may come back each year. It makes me feel like the at risk groups, may not be so at risk any more.
What is good about this is that since melatonin is an over the counter supplement here in the US, doctors do not have to wait for trials and FDA approval if they opt to offer it to their patients and that will be a tremendous time saver. Dr. Neel is an example of this. He just chose to offer this option to his C-19 patients and did it with good results. I'm sure one of his main concerns was the safety of melatonin at that dose, but since he has studied melatonin for years, he was already aware of its safety profile. I'm really interested in how the hospital does because they said they are in the process of publishing their report on the use of melatonin for C-19!
I worry about the availability of any drug that proves out in their respective trials and ultimately gets FDA approval. Availability to the masses is going to be an issue. At least melatonin is available right now if doctors want to recommend it to their patients. It just seems like doctors should have something to offer you in that period where they will not accept you into the hospital until you have difficulty breathing. The period when you first show symptoms. It seems like melatonin would be ideal during that period before the disease gets a foothold.
Yes I feel so badly for the people who didn’t make it and didn’t have access to information like this! This is a lifesaver! Yes who wants to wait around and get in critical condition
Thank you Art. This is valuable information. You are such a gifted man and very patient to go through all that information and post & send it (and understand it). Very much appreciated.
I really wanted to make it a much shorter post so more people would read it, because melatonin has not been previously discussed on this forum for Covid-19, I wanted to give more background information. Nothing right now has a ton of information when it comes to Covid-19, but data is being reported daily to update what is out there. Melatonin just happens to be one that has not been reported much and is definitely new for this purpose.
Well, I will need to read your post from 2 months ago a little closer. My dad, who is in a nursing home, was just diagnosed yesterday with covid-19, he's asymptomatic but they still need to isolate him.
Have your thoughts or research changed any from 2 months ago? He had neck surgery about 7 months ago, he was in pretty bad shape but has worked hard to be able to walk with no assistance, except a walker, just getting ready to go back to assisted living. I would hate for him to have a setback. I read only 30% of asymptomatic end up never having symptoms. I pray he's one of the 30%.🙏😷
First, because he is asymptomatic and the testing is not close to 100% accurate, there is the slight possibility that he is a false positive. Dr. Costantini was tested 3 times and two were negative while one test was positive. If Dr. Neel is correct, the melatonin should help tremendously if he does develop symptoms, but will they allow you in to see him?
One change I see from two months ago is that it is now known melatonin can potentially deplete vitamin D and vitamin D can potentially deplete melatonin and it turns out the two are likely synergistic against Covid-19.
At last report, Dr. Neel has 20 or more patients and he reports that they are all doing well and some are down to a low maintenance dose of melatonin.
Dr. Neel only stated 80 mg in divided doses and that was it. They do make 20 mg capsules, but the 10 mg caps are generally less expensive. So that would be 2, ten milligram caps 4 times per day. I haven't checked the sublingual versions, but I don't think they make those in 20 mg and I am not sure about 10 mg sublinguals. The largest sublingual melatonin I have seen is only 5 mg and that would mean 4 pills per dose.I saw a quick dissolve 12 mg, but it didn't say it was sublingual and the directions did not say to place it under the tongue.
As far as the hospital in the Philippines, they gave their dose range as 36 to 72 mg per day in 4 divided doses. I don't think they want to give to much of their information right now because they mentioned that they are going to be putting their data into a scientific paper with an as yet unnamed journal.
“I think this could help a lot of people a lot faster, and it has a great safety profile. Melatonin is sublingual so it will dissolve on the tongue, and that is another great thing about it.”
Might it be that when dosing with the sublingual version you need to take less as it passes straight into the bloodstream, while, when swallowing capsules, some gets lost travelling through the digestive system? This definitely happens with sublingual B1 as apposed to B1 capsules
I finally found out why Dr. Neel was using sublingual melatonin. It is because he was thinking that the sublingual form may work for a patient who is on a ventilator, but as far as I know he has not had to put any of his patients on a ventilator.
I was the" doctor. " I am a retired RN, though .My husband ended up in the emergency room with hypothermia after laying outside all night in the dirt when he wandered off. It had gotten so bad we tried to lock him in his room but the even the cat who could open levered doors, let him out. As we were leaving the hospital, the emergency room doctor said," You want to keep him out of a home , he's more likely to start sun downing. there." I went home and looked up sun
downing and realized that's exactly what he was doing. I decided to start giving him 10 mg at 4pm and 6-10 mg at 10 pm.He had been on melatonin just at bed time. I don't think anyone has ever had a melatonin overdose.
He didn't sun down again (he died in February) except once, when my son was taking care of him and he got it late ,after the sun went down.
I remember your sundowning story, albeit incorrectly, but I did remember the earlier dose being the important aspect! I have seen nurses that are very impressive in their medical knowledge and it sounds like you could be one of those. I had a cousin who was a head nurse, and while she could be bossy at times, doctors were willing to listen to her ideas. She had been a nurse longer than some of the doctors were old, so I guess she picked up a lot of knowledge along the way! Thank you for the correction and for the sundowning information and melatonin that it seems like you may have posted about two months ago? It confirms what the studies show regarding sundowning and melatonin.
Yes, I did post it several months ago, I thought it was very interesting that it worked. His sun downing was ruining our lives, I really thought he would have to go into a care home (at least $5000 a month here in California). I like medical stuff and enjoy sleuthing around for ways to "fix" things. Thanks for your compliments!
I still read the Health Unlocked to see if I can help others with what worked for me, from the Veilight 810, to drugs that worked for psychosis and hallucinations.
Hi Arte, I started Melatonin for a few days: 5 mg. in the morning and 5mg. the night before going to bed. The problem with Melatonin is that it makes me very tired and it becomes very complicated with physical activity. What do you think about that? Thanks Arte.
Generally speaking, I only take it at night, because that is when melatonin is naturally deployed by the body. Daylight diminishes melatonin production levels and as daylight turns to early evening, melatonin production and excretion by the pineal gland starts. Melatonin is supposed to make you sleepy and that is why I do not take it before 6 pm.
I mainly intend to use the high dose if I get Covid-19.
Yes, I will try to exclude the morning dose and I will take 5mg before going to bed. As well as improving sleep quality, what other effects does Melatonin on Parkinson's disesase? Thank Arte
This is what melatonin is likely to do in PD. First it up regulates the gene expression of the bodies own potent antioxidant system which includes Glutathione Peroxidase(GPx), Catalase (Cat), Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) and Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase(G6PD).
Next it will act as a potent scavenger of multiple radicals such as Reactive Oxygen Species(ROS), hydroxyl radicals, Reactive Nitrogen Species (RNS), Peroxynitrite and Hydrogen Peroxide(H2O2).
It will cross the blood brain barrier(BBB) to neutralize radicals in the brain and lower inflammation. Both of these entities are known to be elevated in PD and cause damage to neurons. Melatonin can readily enter all tissues of the body including the brain.
A forum member posted in the last two weeks to say that they have been taking high dose melatonin (HDM) in place of meds and have had no apparent symptoms or progression for years, but unfortunately it does not seem to work this way for everyone and you also have to consider that some can not tolerate HDM.
Melatonin is known to be brain protective as well as protective of all major organs of the body including the heart which is sometimes compromised in PWP. As part of this protective process, melatonin is protective of endothelial cells which can also be damaged in cases such as atherosclerosis which is commonly seen in senior citizens. Melatonin can help to alleviate atherosclerosis through its potent antiinflammatory and antioxidative activities. Melatonin is a 5-Lipoxygenase inhibitor which is inflammatory.
Melatonin protects the mitochondria function through its potent antioxidant activities and increases the efficacy of mitochondrial electron transport chain and reduces electron leakage. Through its potent antioxidative actions, it prevents tissue damage and blocks transcriptional factors of proinflammatory cytokines. Melatonin can help to lower the chronic neuroinflammation and oxidative stress that is seen in PD and other neurodegenerative disorders.
Here is a link to a very brief abstract that outlines some of the actions of melatonin in the brain :
There are quite a few studies now which suggest potential benefit from melatonin in neurodegenerative disorders including PD.
In more recent studies it is suggested that excess artificial lighting at night may be a pro-PD factor that can cause further damage to the substantia nigra. This same type of light pollution is known to also lower melatonin levels which are already in decline from puberty forward.
Current research is working on detection of melatonin in the brain using electromechanical methods which when improved should be able to accurately detect melatonin concentrations in many areas of the brain which will be highly useful in determining optimum dosing and its effects in the brain.
This last abstract gives an idea that melatonin is likely to be useful in multiple neurodegenerative disorders :
Hi Arte and thanks again. I don't know what it means to open a worm worm, the truth is that, thanks to your posts, I am increasingly interested in knowing the seems, from a lot of studies that I have read, more and more suitable for PWPs. There is talk of taking high doses of Melatonin to obtain good results (I refer to Parkinson's not to Covid19), which do you think could be an effective and tolerable dose? In Italy there are no products that exceed 3mg. otherwise you need a prescription. Arte excuse me if I still take advantage of your availability, I promise not to bother you for a long time. Best regards
Sorry about that, it is a common US term. Here is what it means :
'Metaphorically speaking, to open a can of worms is to examine or attempt to solve some problem, only to inadvertently complicate it and create even more trouble. Literally speaking, opening a can of worms, as most fishermen can attest, can also mean more trouble than you bargained for.'
No problem with questions.😊
As far as taking melatonin for PD, "in theory", it looks like it could be useful, but actual human studies are lacking to give a definitive answer. A forum member recently posted something about taking 80 mg/day of melatonin and no meds with very good results as far as PD symptoms if I remember correctly, but they did not give a lot of details and I did not see a follow up post from that forum member. The post caught my attention because he/she happened to be taking 80 mg/day which is the same dose that Dr. Neel recommends and gives to his Covid-19 patients.
Amazing information, thank you for this. Think it’s on prescription only in U.K. but we have an amazing GP who is really supportive with my husbands treatment and is willing to listen and help with PD.
Listening as I type this to Professor Sarah Gilbert, a vaccinologist, from Oxford University who has a vaccine for Covid 19 starting trials at the moment in U.K. she’s saying it should be available by September! Please God.
This is an amazing amount of material and really interesting. Thank you so much! I feel it is very relevant to me as I have asthma which is not very well controlled and another inflammatory autoimmune condition as well as Parkinson’s, so I feel very at risk and will certainly be giving this a try. I have only read the first article so far. The only slight note of caution I can see is when the therapy should be started. The first paper seems to suggest using melatonin when the infection is more severe rather than the early stages (mouse model):
“There is probably a balance of the protective and damaging actions of NLRP3 in the lung. Thus, in a mouse experiment, inhibition of NLRP3 in the early phase of infection increased mortality, whereas suppression of NLRP3 at the peak of infection allowed for a protective effect [51]. This supports the use of melatonin in ALI/ARDS when inflammation is most severe.”
I don’t currently take melatonin and was just wondering if you have come across any information about timing, detailing when the best time to start this would be for those of us who are not presently taking melatonin?
For those on other medications, please check out side effects and interactions.
In the articles below where you currently are, Dr. Neel is giving it to his patients as soon as they call and report symptoms to him. It sounds like he tests them and if they are positive he starts them right away on melatonin and he reports the beginning of improvement in 24 hours.
It's very long. I read to the end of COVID-19: Melatonin as a potential adjuvant treatment, which was speculation.
My caution (alarm?) is that Melatonin is an anti-inflammatory. Whilst it might be helpful in post-infection recovery, I am concerned about its use as a prophylactic and during infection. The body's natural response to infection is inflammation. Suppressing that inflammation weakens the body's resistance.
In France , the government has issued a warning about using ibuprofen (the most commonly available OTC NSAID) because it is linked to higher mortality in Covid 19 patients. In the UK patients with rheumatoid arthritis are required to self-isolate as a high risk group due to their anti-inflammatory medication.
When you get to the links below where you currently are, the doctor describes using it on his patients as soon as they report symptoms and test positive. He is hopeful that it reduces inflammation enough to prevent a cytokine storm and pneumonia. In one of the links it takes you to an article that describes where the virus goes once it is in the body and it pretty much is found throughout the body, but it is damaging the liver, lungs, kidneys and heart from what they have seen in autopsies of Covid-19 patients. I was not aware of just how much damage this virus is doing to the major organs and Dr. Neel is trying to prevent or ameliorate as much of that damage as possible by starting his patients as soon as symptoms appear and they test positive. He is reporting continued improvement after 24 hours on melatonin and that sounds similar to what the Philippine hospital is reporting in their patients.
I had read about the potential utility of HBOT in Covid-19, but the problem was that the chamber has to be thoroughly sanitized after each use and there is a problem for the worker who is transferring the patient to the chamber of increased risk of infection, so though HBOT has great potential for patients, that issue will need to be worked out.
As far as Dr. Fauci's predictions on cases, that will probably change even further if they open the economy backup and that will be even harder to estimate since Trump is putting the decision on individual governors. With that decision by Trump, it will be even harder to make any predictions, because nobody knows which governor will open back up and when. It would be my guess that as soon as individual states start to open, both the cases and the deaths will start to rise again. It may speed the herd immunity process up, but what good is herd immunity if the virus mutates extensively and the antibodies created by the initial infection are not effective against the new strain? In any case, it is senior citizens who are going to account for the majority of the increased death rate.
This article covers a lot of ground! The part discussing vitamin C and D as well as other supplements like zinc and selenium is useful, but many of those supplements are sold out until further notice. Melatonin is still available.
So many X factors, Art, for the right approach and successful outcome! In the meanwhile, my husband and I stay home as much as we can and take precautionary measures when we go to the grocery store (our only entertainment now a days ) We also take vitamins/supplements/minerals, but most importantly we have not panicked and try to live our lives as normal as possible. We don't watch daily updates on TV either as they add to our already bad psychology. Figure if there is breaking news, we will hear about it.
Husband will start Ozone therapy on April 22 for PD not COVID-19. Guess with one stone two birds.
PS. Better order more Melatonin before it becomes unavailable, too.
I gave that melatonin post to a friend of mine who is going to put it up on her site so there may be a temporary demand for it, but it is not talked about the way that zinc, vitamin D and C are, so it should not be a problem. Let us know how the ozone therapy goes! What concerns me a lot is the way that C-19 goes after other major organs as outlined here :
I found this article on melatonin being both inflammatory and anti-inflammatory in different moments of disease or different situations. Admittedly I didn’t understand it all, but if those of you who are more scientifically inclined find it useful, please share what you find.
In the main post above, I mentioned that melatonin declines with age and in one of the links in the post is a graph which clearly illustrates this. This may be a very important point because it can potentially explain 4 things about melatonin and Covid-19. 1. Is that it can possibly explain why young children seem to be resistant to catching C-19 and two, it may explain why the oldest are much more susceptible to catching and being killed by C-19, 3, why bats which are considered to be a possible carrier of SARS CoV-2, are not apparently affected by it and 4, why Dr. Neel and the hospital in the Philippines are having success giving it to their C-19 patients.
Bats have much higher levels of melatonin (up to 500 pg/ml) which may protect them, senior citizens contain way less melatonin (15 pg/ml) than young children ( up to 125 pg/ml) as the graph link below will clearly illustrate.
This quote from the following study may be of interest to those who are concerned about any potential negative effects from Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine.
' At the same time, even the research on the anti-malaria effect of melatonin antagonists noticed that high doses of melatonin are beneficial for malaria treatment because they inhibit programmed cell death and oxidative stress. Thus, applying melatonin as an adjuvant to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine treatments of Covid-19 may reduce the necessary doses, and thus toxicity, of these agents. '
Here is another recent article showing that melatonin is likely to be helpful in the treatment of Covid-19 and it goes on to describe how melatonin can reduce the chance of or diminish any potential cytokine storm! Further it goes on to discuss how melatonin may be useful for many other deadly infectious viruses in limiting the damage they may cause while buying time for the body to mount a strong, but controlled immune response to kill the virus itself and likely generating many antibodies to the virus along the way. This tends to confirm what Dr. Neel is seeing in his C-19/melatonin patients that in just one day he is seeing noticeably reduced symptomatology in his patients. This is likely what they are describing in saying that melatonin can attenuate symptoms to a manageable and safer level, allowing the body to mount a safer and measured response instead of a cytokine storm which has shown itself to be deadly in some patients.
Overall, the article is long, but informative and does tend to confirm what Dr. Neel is seeing in his C-19/melatonin patients! It tends to show that melatonin can be a gentle way to help the body to do what it is supposed to do in terms of dealing with C-19 and other similar viruses.
I feel with this information I can finally take a breath. I’ve been under such stress like everyone is about this virus. We all worry about our loved ones and ourselves and this is lifesaving and I’m very grateful
Thank you for saying so! Stress is not good for us!
I was thinking about Dr. Neel and his background in determining counter measures for biological weapons. That job is what got him to find melatonin and his knowledge of melatonin is what got him to think of using it for Covid-19! Without that previous training, he may never had even considered melatonin for C-19!
' For the hosts, melatonin improves the defense system by upregulating the expression of antioxidant enzymes such as SOD, CAT, and glutathione peroxidase(163), effects that reduce the oxidative tissue damage caused by the pathogens. Most importantly, melatonin redirects the host immune response, i.e., by controlling the potentially over reactive innate response and promoting the adaptive immune response. ' (as in less chance of the potentially deadly cytokine storm)
You know I think experts are freely sharing what they know because they realize the stakes for humanity I’ve never seen the scientific community and medical community come together like this, they want to save as many as they can. Bless them for letting us know and bless you for bringing to everyone here
Speaking of anti-inflammatories, here is something that was recently discovered here in Italy by an authoritative cardiologist: “In a period in which the news overlap and hope is placed deep in the heart of all of us, in the Coronavirus emergency we have sought to avoid both alarmism and news that were not linked to a reality at least concrete. We report a news that has been circulating for a couple of days on social media and that to us, despite the delicacy of the moment, it seemed appropriate to read it with the utmost caution. (The editorial staff).
Bologna - From social media comes good news about the Coronavirus, perhaps a solution, which has scientific foundations and is spread by an authoritative doctor from Rizzoli of Bologna, Sandro Giannini. His is a highly qualified curriculum: Full Professor of Orthopedics and Traumatology and of Physical Medicine at the University of Bologna since 1989, director of Clinic I at the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute and of the Gait Analysis Laboratory, partner in European projects and in national and international research programs, author of more than 600 presentations at national and international conferences and more than 400 articles in Science Citation Index journals. His message gives great hope. Let's read:
“I don't want to seem overwhelming to you, but I think I've demonstrated the cause of coronavirus lethality. Only at Blessed Matthew are there 2 cardiologists who turn over 150 beds to do echocardium with enormous effort and one is me. Terrible fatigue! However, of what some supposed, but could not be sure, we now have the first data. People go to resuscitation for generalized venous thromboembolism, especially pulmonary. If this were the case, resuscitations and intubations are of no use because first of all you have to dissolve, or rather prevent these thromboembolisms. If you ventilate a lung where blood does not reach, it is not needed! In fact 9 out of 10 die. Because the problem is cardiovascular, not respiratory! It is venous microthrombosis, not pneumonia that determines fatality!
And why are thrombi formed? Because inflammation, as per school text, induces thrombosis through a complex but well-known pathophysiological mechanism. Then? Contrary to what scientific literature, especially Chinese, said until mid-March, it was that anti-inflammatories should not be used. Now in Italy anti-inflammatories and antibiotics are used (as in the influences) and the number of inpatients collapses. Many deaths, even 40 years old, had a history of high fever for 10-15 days that was not treated properly. Here inflammation has destroyed everything and prepared the ground for thrombi formation. Because the main problem is not the virus, but the immune reaction that destroys the cells where the virus enters. In fact, our COVID departments have never entered patients with rheumatoid arthritis! Because they make cortisone, a powerful anti-inflammatory!
Therefore, hospitalizations in Italy are decreasing and it is becoming a disease that is treated at home. By taking care of it well at home, you avoid not only hospitalization, but also the thrombotic risk. It was not easy to understand it because the signs of microembolism have faded, even at the echocardium. But this weekend I compared the data of the first 50 patients between those who breathe badly and those who don't and the situation appeared very clear. For me you can go back to playing and reopen the business. Quarantine street. Not now. But time to publish this data. Vaccine can arrive calmly. In America and other states that follow the scientific literature that calls for NOT to use anti-inflammatories is a disaster! Worse than in Italy. And they are old and cheap drugs. "
I do not, I have only cited a study which, if confirmed, seems interesting for the most serious cases which, if canceled by a cure, would give another aspect to this disease.
Nsaids are generally used to lower fever, but there is some evidence to show the benefit of the fever in helping to defeat the virus. So if the fever is mild, nsaids may not be needed. If the fever is high you should be in the hospital and the doctor may choose another method to lower the fever or not.
I remember when I was a kid and my mom always put a cold cloth on my head to help keep my head cool during the fever. Aspirin was more of a last resort if the fever was too high. Fever is a natural mechanism to help fight some pathogens, so it has a purpose.
Fortunately melatonin seems to help in respect to fevers. Here is a quote from Dr. Neel about one of his patients :
“The third patient who began treatment last Thursday, April 9th, has no more fever or body aches, and only a slight cough left,” Dr. Neel said.
I never really understood why there was the period of not recommending anti inflammatories. They knew early on that the potent IL-6 inhibitor, Tocilizumab/Actemra would likely be useful to stifle the cytokine storm and it does, as does melatonin apparently.
Melatonin seems to modulate the immune system to not be as reactive to the virus and instead allows the immune system to mount a more controlled and productive response in a timely manner while significantly reducing symptoms for the patient. Melatonin is well know for its antiinflammatory qualities as well as its potent antioxidative abilities which are both needed in order to minimize viral damage to the human organism. Dr. Neel is reporting that melatonin takes to that roll very quickly in his Covid-19 patients. Melatonin looks likely to help establish herd immunity with less deaths as it seems to effectively limit the possibility of a cytokine storm, pneumonia and intubation/ventilation, three things about Covid-19 that have sometimes led to death.
I know it is early days and not enough experience with melatonin in patients yet, but if it continues to show the benefit that Dr. Neel has reported, perhaps it will offer a way to more safely open the economy back up and offer a means for the at risk groups to survive any potential attack from Covid-19? More time and testing will be needed to know for sure, but this is the case for everything that is being tried on the virus right now, but melatonin does seem to offer a glimmer of hope so far.
Doctors can suggest melatonin to their patients now if they choose to as the current options seem less than optimal. Hopefully since Dr. Neel is just west of San Antonio, other local doctors will take his lead and start using melatonin on their Covid-19 patients given the very good safety profile of melatonin.
A basic update on Dr. Neel suggests other doctors are now considering use of high dose melatonin(HDM) for their Covid-19 patients and one Florida doctor who started a Covid-19 patient on HDM with initial good results!
For adults, he is using 80 mg per day in 4 divided doses of 20 mg each dose. For vitamin C, I don't think he has stated the dose. I had a feeling that the use of vitamin C was based on the possibility that one of his first patients was already taking it so he had them just continue since vitamin C is likely to have synergy with melatonin just as quercetin does!
In the Doctors Hospital in the Philippines who is also using melatonin, they are not using any vitamins, just melatonin by itself or melatonin with Tocilizumab which is a very potent IL-6 inhibitor used for arthritis and to help fight a cytokine storm, but melatonin does that on its own and more!
Thank you. From what I have been reading is that hydroxychloroquine is working also. It's working better with zinc added to it and the dosage isn't the highest dosage. Also they do add z-pack to it, but some of them did not add z pack. Mary
Mary, for some of the best information on hydroxychloroquine that is up to date as of a couple of days ago, I added a MedCram video to my covid-19 information post yesterday, that gives, at least to me, an unbiased opinion of how it has done in various trials. Here is a link, it is the very last post in the thread and it is the bottom video :
It seems there are issues with some of the trial designs and I'm not sure if the trial that rescuema has discussed was mentioned in his discussion, but he does discuss the other post that is up on the forum where it said it hurt more than it helped and again this could be at least partially due to poor trial design.
Dr. Neel is recommending adult patients take 80 mg of melatonin every 24 hours and has seen improvement in each of his patients in just 24 hours with a reduction in symptoms. Since that is his suggestion and it is my intention to use melatonin if I were to get Covid-19, assuming I have not already had it, I tried taking 80 mgs last night in 4 divided doses. I took 20 mgs at 7:00 pm, 20 mg at 8:30 pm, 20 mg at 10 pm and 20 mg at 11:30 pm. I woke up this morning expecting the "melatonin hangover" that I initially felt in a previous months long test of melatonin at 70 mg, but to my surprise, there was no melatonin hangover! I actually felt quite rested and not sluggish at all! I did not include vitamin C even though he has mentioned its use with the melatonin because in the Doctor's Hospital trial of melatonin, they didn't use vitamin C and they got rapid results with melatonin, so I just thought I would keep it simple for now. Well that and my vitamin C order has not arrived yet!
To be fair, I do take 30 mg of melatonin a night in 3 divided doses as what I have previously described as melatonin 123, almost every night, so I'm sure that is a contributing factor to why going from 30 mg to 80 mg didn't produce the hangover or have any other obvious effect on me. So now I know that 80 mg / day of melatonin should not be a problem for me and again I reiterate that I am not recommending that anyone else do what I am doing, I am only describing my own experience. If anyone chooses to utilize Dr. Neels melatonin protocol it should be done under a doctor's supervision in order to be safe and make sure melatonin is compatible with everything you are taking.
I have an idea (speculation at this time) about melatonin and Covid-19 that is based on the available literature about melatonin and Dr. Neel's results in his small group of patients as well as the little information that the Doctors Hospital in Manila has shared so far. I think that melatonin may alter the immune environment in such a way that the virus can not cause a cytokine storm or allow pneumonia to get started because melatonin's potent reactive oxygen species scavenging abilities as well as its reactive nitrogen species scavenging abilities in conjunction with its potent antiinflammatory qualities including inhibition of IL-6 and other inflammatory mediators and inhibition of lung inflammation by way of modulated expression of Apelin 13 as well as inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome, very effectively seems to reduce lung inflammation and damage to a level that is no longer dangerous and it does it very quickly based on Dr. Neels results. In the Philippines, it even seems to work fast and well with patients who already have pneumonia.
Three main things attributed to Covid-19 that has shown the ability to kill patients are severe Covid-19 induced pneumonia, the now famous cytokine storm and the addition of a ventilator. Melatonin seems to be able to prevent or ameliorate the first two items which automatically ends the need for a ventilator! Melatonin is also protective of all major organs which is important since autopsies are showing liver, lung, kidneys and heart damage that is attributed to Covid-19. Viral particles are also found in the brain, so it is felt that it is possible that Covid-19 could also cause damage to the brain if not checked early enough.
So if you eliminate or greatly limit the 3 ways that Covid-19 has shown the ability to kill patients, then how much of a threat is Covid-19 once melatonin is introduced? My speculative answer to that question is very minimal. All of these actions of melatonin that work contrary to the normal disease process can allow the body to do what it is naturally supposed to do, destroy invaders to the system which in this case is the SARS CoV-2 virus. The body can now defend itself without the deadly cytokine storm, against the now marginalized virus. This is what studies suggest as possible and what Dr. Neel is showing in his patients which means that the studies tend to confirm Dr. Neels results and those results tend to confirm the studies.
Given the above, melatonin seems to convert the killer virus into something that is not deadly at all. If the virus mutates as it has already with the known A strain, B strain and C strains that are already seen in different areas, there is a chance that by the time a vaccine is developed it may not be effective against the current strain if that strain has mutated extensively. These mutations have occurred fairly quickly suggesting that extensive mutation is a very real prospect when it comes to SARS CoV-2. Whereas the known actions of melatonin are likely to be able to deal with mutations of this virus.
It will take further testing of melatonin against SARS CoV-2 in Covid-19 patients to take this from speculation to fact, but if Dr. Neel's patient base continues to grow and other doctors take his lead as it appears may be likely, then that point of clarification and understanding may not be far away at all. Melatonin is showing the potential, via its ability to control and reverse the ability of Covid-19 to be so destructive within the human body, to actually take many people in the "at risk groups"off of that list! So this could make the virus more of a nuisance than a killer!
Melatonin may actually be the answer to safely controlling the virus while allowing the economy to open again because it makes the virus tolerable to humans with minimal to no deleterious effects. Yes, people will still get infected, but melatonin appears to make such infection "livable" while allowing the body to make plenty of antibodies against SARS CoV-2. Still speculation at this point, but continued positive reports on melatonin can potentially turn speculation to reality!
My other thought is, how many other practical choices do we have with what is currently known and available?
I decided to try another evening of melatonin at 80 mg as I did in the post just above.
What I noticed is that once again I slept through the night and woke up a little earlier than normal, but once again, I felt well rested. I really don't notice anything different than usual, so, so far it is a good test. I may do one more night of melatonin testing at 80 mg.
So I ended up doing three evenings of melatonin at 80 mgs per evening in four 20 mg doses per night and it seems I was able to tolerate it with no apparent problems. I didn't really notice anything while taking it except that a cough I have had since the first week of February after catching a Flu/cold the day after Superbowl, that is a choking cough when I would talk and would seem to worsen each day starting in the early evening, but more recently was starting first thing in the morning and worsening as the day went on. I was considering trying a lot of things on it, but I didn't because I figured it would just go away on its own, but I should have known better because I have had a cough like this at least five times in my life and each time it took 6 months to a year to go away on its own. It is different than the productive coughs I have had because this one is like a spasm when I talk, so I found that I kept talking softer and softer so I wouldn't get the spasm and cough to try and relieve the cough. There was no apparent phlegm at all once the cold was gone.
Well I am very happy to say that it appears that cough is now just a bad memory! The day after my melatonin experiment, I thought the cough might be gone, but now I know it's gone and I can talk at normal level again! Okay, I've always referred to melatonin as one of my favorite supplements, but it just went up a notch for me!
That flu, in hindsight, had quite a few aspects that are considered Covid-19 symptoms, but at the time, February third, I was not aware of Covid-19 so I didn't really give it much thought then. Now I realize I had a sore throat for 3 to 4 days accompanied by fatigue, headache, bodyache and fever which I didn't bother measuring and that was followed with a cold and in total it took me a month to get over everything except that horrible nagging cough! I hope eventually that my doctor can do an antibody test to determine if it was Covid-19.
It sounds like the plan is to start opening the economy soon, at least on a state by state basis. If that happens this soon, the case rate will start to rise rapidly again and the death rate will continue to climb, melatonin may be the solution to the problems as I mentioned above. To be straight forward, we may not have a choice! Although apparently some government officials feel that seniors are expendable, to that I say, "over my dead body"!
I have upped my vitamin D, vitamin A, iodine drops, and of course I've been taking magnesium for quite a while. I am also taking baking soda once in awhile and I do take only 5 mg of melatonin at night. I do have a nebulizer, that I have never used, and I do have hydrogen peroxide. I have one n95 mask, that I've been using when I go out. Well, it's going to be interesting. Mary
My husband has been working the whole time he is considered essential at his place of employment he just has to work with one other person and a couple of security guards but it has still been nerve wracking
It's good that he is able to work in a relatively safe environment! I feel bad for the people who are unable to work, but need to in order to pay their bills!
Yes my son in law works at same place and he has been layed off luckily my daughter works from home teaching Chinese children English so they aren’t doing too badly and of course we help them out
Yes, I got a feeling we're going to be doing over, after the number of cases climbs. It could have been so much different, if only we had PPE and the test from the beginning. So far, we see no Rhyme or Reason to this virus. So many people escape it unscathed and so many people have such horrible, debilitating conditions. Mary
Mary, my feeling is that melatonin can allow a safer reopening of the economy while affording protection for the at risk groups and saving an endless number of lives.
A friend of mine owns a health discussion site and she put it up there and I am trying to get a lady who has a fairly good size audience for her podcasts, but she hasn't responded so I will just have to keep trying wherever I think it can help!
It's a tough choice when you are living from paycheck to paycheck. Do you stay home and lose what you have and possibly become homeless or do you go back to work and risk getting sick and possibly dying? Tough choices to be sure!
I've tried to keep up with as much information about Covid-19 as possible and from everything I have read to date, it looks like melatonin is one of the best things I have seen in terms of treatment results, practicality, cost, availability, comprehensiveness of treating symptoms, safety and if done at the first symptoms with a confirmed positive test is showing the capability to reverse the disease process quickly! It does not destroy the virus directly, but rather modulates the bodies response to SARS CoV-2 by multiple methods and pathways including significant reduction of lung inflammation and oxidation which seems to put the potential for the sometimes deadly cytokine storm in check. It seems to work well at preventing, reversing or ameliorating Covid-19 pneumonia. These two actions of melatonin means that a ventilator may never be needed. Those are the three things that are associated with death from C-19. I feel that the elimination or alleviation of those three things makes C-19 a much different disease that the body should be able to destroy on its own with a more controlled and appropriate immune response and antibody production, exactly as it should. These actions of melatonin may negate the need for an antiviral medication that is likely to have potential for significant side effects.
Another benefit of melatonin is that it is also working to prevent damage to the organs that C-19 has shown in autopsies to also attack such as the heart, kidneys, liver and lungs and possibly even the brain!
If you were looking for a perfect drug to treat Covid-19, melatonin seems to check most of the boxes and will not require lengthy studies or government approval before it can be implemented! It only requires doctors who are willing to offer it to their Covid-19 patients the same way that Dr. Neel is doing.
Melatonin could offer a safer way to open the economy back up, because once that happens, increased cases of infection and death will occur, but melatonin seems to offer a way to treat those new infections in a safe and rapid manner which is likely to take a huge bite out of any death toll.
Based on today's MedCram video, there is a lot of C-19 related damage to cells throughout the body including endothelial damage plus blood clotting which is resulting in hyper elevated levels of reactive oxygen species and inflammation and ultimately stroke or heart attack in C-19 patients of relatively young age who may also be symptomless right up to the stroke or heart attack.
Among all of the things that melatonin is known for, increaser of the bodies own potent antioxidant system , oxidant neutralization and radical scavenging, cardiovascular protectant, antiinflammatory, anti-clotting/anticoagulating, anti-ARDS activity, anti-ALI activity, endothelial protectant and blood thinning are part of its healthful effects. Imo this video adds to the case for melatonin in multiple ways to help ameliorate many of these viral related activities that are resulting in stroke and heart attacks in the relatively young, sometimes before any symptoms are apparent!
His comments on hydroxychloroquine did not sound very promising.
This really different MedCram video from yesterday pointed out something that has been mentioned about Covid-19 that is unusual and that is the fact that more men seem to get the disease than women. They don't offer a reason for this difference, but they do point out that in the context of the video, 60% of the patients were men and 40% of the patients were women. Just speculation on my part, but I think it is worth noting that women seem to have significantly higher melatonin levels than men as outlined in this study :
I read something about this, I don’t remember where. Said that the double X chromosomes that women have has something to do with it. That much of the immune related genes are in the X chromosomes.
More things are pointing at the idea that higher melatonin levels are associated with diminished viral infectiveness and severity!
1. Bats are known to carry these viruses yet don't seem to be affected by them. Bats have approximately 4 times the melatonin levels of young children.
2. Melatonin level seems to peak around age 7 to 12 and this group of children seems to be almost unaffected by the virus.
3. Seniors over 65 are clearly more prone to getting the virus and having the poorest outcomes. Their melatonin levels are almost nil with the sharp decline in melatonin seen at almost any time point after puberty.
4. Dr. Neel is having very positive results in just one day of giving his Covid-19 patients high dose melatonin (HDM).
5. Women appear to be less likely than men to get Covid-19 and women have significantly higher levels of melatonin than men.
6. Night shift workers are thought to have lower melatonin levels. It would be interesting to see how that group is fairing against Covid-19 compared to similar daytime workers.
Another stat that would be very interesting under the circumstances, is the melatonin level of every patient to see if there is any correlation between melatonin level and disease outcome.
In yesterday's MedCram video (62) as well as today's video (63), Dr. Seheult goes into greater detail about the damage being done to the endothelium as well as the effects of this damage at same and downstream points, one of which is the reduction of Angiotensin 1,7 and the runaway oxidation that ensues. Today's video goes into more detail about the downstream effects of the damage to the endothelium as well as the massive generation of ROS.
Melatonin is also a signaling molecule that upregulates gene expression of antioxidant enzymes while itself being a potent ROS, RNS and hydroxyl radical scavenger while having antiinflammatory effects when systemic inflammation becomes elevated. Melatonin has shown itself to be a protector of the endothelium which this video shows is damaged as part of the disease process resulting in downstream damage in this cascade of events. Melatonin also helps prevent reduction of Angiotensin 1,7 which would be useful in diminishing disease progression. Dr. Seheult describes how Covid-19 greatly reduces angiotensin 1,7. If that isn't enough, melatonin is also an inhibitor of NADPH Oxidase!
This video series is continuing to show how melatonin has shown many pathways by which it can negatively impact the disease process of Covid-19.
Dr. Seheult and MedCram are generating a very lengthy list about known aspects of the method of action of this disease. What would make a great video at this point is one that compares their list to the known activities of melatonin! MELATONIN VS COVID-19!
I've done more digging to get a better idea of what exactly melatonin may be doing to help Covid-19 patients and I am using Dr. Seheults video series to point me in the right directions to get a better understanding of what C-19 is doing in the body, especially in light of the fairly recent news that it is causing heart attack and stroke in younger patients who appear to be asymptomatic.
Covid-19 appears to affect almost every major organ of the body such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and skin!
Given what is currently known about the virus, it is easier to see the utility of melatonin in trying to ameliorate the negative effects on the body of Covid-19, of which there are many.
Here is a compilation of anti-Covid-19 effects that melatonin potentially delivers against the virus in the human body.
Art
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Ways Melatonin Can Fight Viruses Including SARS CoV-2
The following items would be of great use in trying to effectively neutralize many of the adverse effects caused by Covid-19 in humans and are known effects of melatonin as well illustrated in the literature.
1. Melatonin has a potent anti-inflammatory action, especially in the lungs. Melatonin has shown the ability to break the ROS/inflammation vicious cycle.
2. Melatonin is a potent scavenger of many radicals, including reactive oxygen species(ROS), reactive nitrogen species(RNS), hydroxyl radicals, hydrogen peroxide and peroxynitrite.
3. Melatonin is a protector of major organs, including heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, skin and brain that are now known to be injured or damaged by Covid-19. Melatonin or its metabolites can cross the blood-brain barrier(BBB).
4. Melatonin upregulates gene expression of the body's potent antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase(SOD), glutathione peroxidase(GPx), catalase, and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD). These can all go a long way in improving the damage induced by Covid-19.
5. Melatonin protects the mitochondria function through its potent antioxidant activities and increases the efficacy of mitochondrial electron transport chain and reduces electron leakage. Through its potent antioxidative actions, it prevents tissue damage and blocks transcriptional factors of proinflammatory cytokines. These are all crucial points relating to Covid-19 and the damage it is known to cause.
6. Melatonin reduces free radical damage to DNA. Melatonin receptors are found throughout the body suggesting that the body has many uses for it.
7. Melatonin is an inhibitor of NADPH Oxidase, which becomes significantly elevated in Covid-19 patients and can do very significant damage to the epithelium via elevated superoxide level if left unchecked as outlined in the MedCram video series.
8. Melatonin and its metabolites are neuroprotectant and can cross the BBB, which is vital since Covid-19 is known to enter the brain and do damage.
9. Melatonin is an endothelial protectant, which is important because Covid-19 is now known to damage the endothelium, which is a significant part of a cascade of damage that Covid-19 leaves in its wake.
10. Melatonin exerts a direct antioxidant effect on tissues/organs and antiapoptotic effects on cells. Melatonin inhibits neutrophil activation and reduces the damage they cause to endothelial cells, which is thought to occur in Covid-19 patients.
11. Melatonin can improve sleep, which can be crucial in keeping the immune system in good operating order.
12. Melatonin increases very significantly from birth to around age 7 to 12 years (a specific age group that seems very resistant to Covid-19) and then declines slightly until puberty, at which point its production and secretion by the pineal gland reduces sharply by age 60/65.
From that point on, melatonin levels are negligible. This 65+ age group with the lowest melatonin levels is also the group that seems to be most susceptible to the adverse health effects of Covid-19.
Obviously, with age, in general, comes multiple health issues that can account for part of the problem. Still, you can see where a lack of melatonin could be an additional factor that can be resolved through appropriate supplementation of melatonin. Add in the fact that many pre-existing conditions have shown to lower native melatonin levels in this already higher risk group and melatonin starts to take on even more significance for this high risk group.
Melatonin Graph
- Sorry, the graph would not copy into this post.
13. Melatonin in bats is approximately four times that found in humans at its highest levels for each. Bats are believed to be carriers of SARS CoV-2, yet bats seem unaffected by the virus. Is melatonin a contributing factor for this feature of bats? Melatonin may be causing the more controlled innate immune response seen in bats, but this is as yet not proven that melatonin is the reason for this process in bats.
14. Melatonin in women is generally at significantly higher levels than men. In the study that Dr. Seheult refers to in one of his videos, he mentions that out of the 100% of patients admitted to the hospital for Covid-19, 60% were men, and 40% were women. Could the significant difference in melatonin levels be a contributing factor to this phenomenon? Another possible contributing factor is that women are thought to have more ACE-2 than men. The virus can exhaust or destroy ACE-2 once it binds or docks to it to manufacture more viruses. Since melatonin has shown that it can increase ACE-2, is the higher melatonin in women the reason that they are thought to have more ACE-2?
15. Melatonin is released in the blood and can penetrate all body tissues, which suggests it can probably get to every place that the virus does within the body. Melatonin and Catalase reduce the cytotoxicity of Neutrophils in a dose dependent manner and this is important because this is a potential reason for the Endothelial damage that is likely occurring in Covid-19 patients. Melatonin up regulates gene expression of Catalase.
16. Melatonin can down-regulate the innate immunity overreaction response to SARS CoV-2, limiting the potential for the cytokine storm that has been seen in Covid-19 patients and has resulted in death. While doing this, it is promoting the adaptive immune response, which can aid in the production of antibodies to SARS CoV-2.
17. Melatonin at higher dosing, such as used by Dr. Neel, can down regulate NLRP3 inflammasome activation to help protect the lungs. The anti-inflammatory effect of melatonin can be enhanced by higher-dose vitamin C, just as Dr. Neel is using in his Covid-19 patients. Quercetin is also likely to have synergy with melatonin in terms of being anti-inflammatory. On the other hand, high dose vitamin D (4,300 IU+/day) reduces melatonin production. Bats have little vitamin D. Vitamin C is useful and likely synergistic with melatonin, but pales in comparison to the potential broad ranging utility of melatonin in Covid-19 patients.
18. Melatonin acts to ameliorate atherosclerosis through inflammation reduction, radical scavenging and mitophagy activation. Covid-19 may rapidly add to existing atherosclerosis and contribute to these vascular complications seen in patients with Covid-19. Melatonin reduces vascular permeability.
19. Melatonin has been shown to increase ACE2, and this is important because the virus pretty much exhausts or destroys ACE2 as its primary means of virus replication and this is an early point in the infection process that ultimately results in further damage to the cardiovascular system and other parts of the body.
20. Melatonin, through its potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities, ameliorates the very significant levels of ROS that damage the lungs and contribute to pneumonia. If you can eliminate pneumonia and the cytokine storm, then a ventilator will never be needed. Those three things have shown themselves to be three main things associated with death in Covid-19.
21. Melatonin, through its anticoagulation effects, can reduce thrombosis. Covid-19 is showing the ability to induce thrombosis that can lead to stroke and heart attack in patients with Covid-19. Melatonin's potent antioxidant actions reduce oxidative stress to reduce the potential for thrombosis. Melatonin also reduces edema that can be caused by blood clotting.
22. Melatonin lowers C-Reactive Protein (CRP), which is a marker for inflammation which is elevated in the presence of inflammation and at elevated levels in Covid-19 patients. CRP is a known target in many diseases in which CRP is significantly elevated, including Covid-19. Higher levels of CRP are associated with non-survivors in Wuhan, China.
23. Melatonin lowers Interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels. IL-6 is a cytokine and another inflammatory mediator that is at significantly elevated levels in Covid-19 patients and is known to be a significant contributing factor to the "cytokine storm." Melatonin also inhibits the chemokine IL-8, an upstream inflammatory mediator which draws other inflammatory cytokines and other inflammatory mediators into the fray.
24. Melatonin is useful before, during and after a stroke. This is important because of the increased reporting of strokes and heart attacks caused by Covid-19 disease. Melatonin is heart protective. Melatonin lowers homocysteine and increase nitric oxide. It is good to keep in mind that multiple disease states can diminish native melatonin levels and if you combine that, with the fact that the elderly are already at the very low end of the human melatonin scale, the importance of melatonin starts to become clearer as people with certain pre-existing health conditions are more likely to succumb to the disease and melatonin may help to level the playing field and improve patient outcome and mortality.
25. Melatonin is also available in cream and suppository forms, which may make it an option for patients already on a ventilator. If you are a senior citizen on a ventilator and aware of the survival rate for same, would you want melatonin cream applied or a melatonin suppository or both? Covid-19 increases the cytokine IL-1b which is known to suppress melatonin production. If this is the case, the little melatonin that senior citizen patients have is likely to be depleted even further.
Based on Dr. Neels clinical experience with his Covid-19 patients and their apparent excellent response to his use of high dose melatonin(HDM) in them, all of the above may start to give an idea of what melatonin is doing in those patients to achieve the very beneficial responses Dr. Neel is reporting !
Potential Side Effects of Melatonin
The above is an incomplete list of potential health benefits of melatonin as they might apply to Covid-19 infection in patients.
After going through this list, you may feel that melatonin checks many of the boxes as a molecule to be used against Covid-19, but like anything else, melatonin can have its downsides. Here is a list of known melatonin side effects :
Melatonin use has been associated with drowsiness, alterations in sleep patterns, altered mental status, disorientation, tachycardia, flushing, pruritus, abdominal cramps, headaches, trouble sleeping, bad dreams, and hypothermia.
So this adds further evidence to the idea that your doctor needs to be involved in your decision to use melatonin for Covid-19. Although this side effect list is significant, the drugs currently being tested for Covid-19 are very likely to have more side effects, more severe side effects and adverse events.
Side Effects of two Drugs Currently Being Tested for COVID-19
Here is a link describing the side effects of Remdesivir, one of the drugs currently being tested that is showing modest result against Covid-19 while still allowing a certain percentage of deaths (8 % in the five-day treatment group and 11% in the ten-day treatment group).
The effects of melatonin supplementation on inflammatory markers among patients with metabolic syndrome or related disorders: a systematic review a... - PubMed - NCBI
Effects of melatonin on enzyme activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase from human erythrocytes in vitro and from rat erythrocytes in vivo. - PubMed - NCBI
Melatonin and its relation to the immune system and inflammation. - PubMed - NCBI
Cardiovascular Benefits of Dietary Melatonin: A Myth or a Reality?
(PDF) Therapeutic effects of melatonin and quercetin on carbon tetrachloride-induced cardiac damage in rats /Sicanlarda karbon tetraklorur ile induklenen kardiyak hasar uzerine melatonin ve quercetin'in tedavi edici etkileri
Melatonin alleviates brain and peripheral tissue edema in a neonatal rat model of hypoxic-ischemic brain damage: the involvement of edema related proteins
Yes, it appears to be a balancing act. I think HDM is just a temporary use item, so probably not much of a problem in the short term as far as temporary alteration of that balance!
Here is a link to a brief article about a biomedical scientist who agrees on the use of melatonin for Covid-19 and the latest update on Dr. Neel showing that he is now treating 14 patients successfully with high dose melatonin (HDM) and vitamin C!
Let's discuss the bad first 😩😩😩 and the good second!
Covid-19 was originally thought to zero in on the lungs and the ACE-2 receptors located there. More recently it has been found that C-19 is attracted to ACE-2 receptors in other areas of the body and the virus is now known to attack much more than the lungs!
C-19 autopsied patients are showing that it is attacking the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, brain, skin, endothelium and is causing blood clotting which is causing heart attacks and strokes in patients who are otherwise asymptomatic and not considered to be in the high risk groups. Yes, the virus is causing much more damage system wide than initially thought.
C-19 is causing a 4 times increase in Kawasaki disease reports in New York. The disease is attacking the vascular system and causing very elevated oxidative stress levels as well as significantly elevated inflammation. It also seems to be causing significantly more problems in black people who are not necessarily in the at risk groups, but possibly should be.
C-19 is causing heart attacks, strokes, heart damage, pneumonia, liver damage, lung damage, organ failure, Kawasaki or Kawasaki like disease, rash up to full body coverage, blood clotting in different areas of the body that can potentially result in the need for amputation, neuronal damage, intestinal issues and death and this is an incomplete list! Yes, this disease is very serious indeed, even for those not to be considered in the high risk groups. Many of the heart attack and stroke victims are much younger than these two conditions are generally associated with, with no previous symptoms and doctors are only finding out these patients have C-19 when they start working on them and see the damage that is known to be associated with C-19 and that is when they are tested and confirmed to have C-19.
Yes, this is one f'd up disease that is considerably worse than initially thought and it seems like new troubling aspects of this disease are being discovered each week if not almost daily !!!
Now let's discuss the good! 😂😂😂
The good news is that melatonin works against this disease process at multiple levels of disease progression and at every place in the body where the disease has been found because melatonin can readily penetrate body tissues (including its metabolites) and easily cross the BBB to express its very potent antioxidant and antiinflammatory effects as well as other positive effects.
Melatonin is a protector of all major organs and is protective of endothelial cells as well as the skin. Melatonin has anti-clotting abilities. Melatonin has shown itself to "upregulate the gene expression" of some of the bodies own very potent antioxidants such as Catalase(CAT), Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) and this aspect of melatonin is very important because it is very likely that all of these natural antioxidant defense mechanisms of the body are being depleted very significantly trying to fight this disease because of the multiple areas of the body being affected simultaneously, so melatonin boosting their production can help to level the playing field giving the body more than a fighting chance to defeat this virus.
Since it has been proven in autopsy that C-19 is attacking multiple areas of the body simultaneously, it is as though the body is fighting multiple diseases all at the same time!Never show up to a gang fight with just yourself! Melatonin's boosting of the body's potent antioxidant system is absolutely needed to deal with something worse than it would normally ever have to deal with in moderate and severe patients. Add to this melatonin's potent and broad antiinflammatory abilities and things are starting to look hopeful!
To add a little more brightness to that light at the end of the tunnel, melatonin itself is a highly potent scavenger of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), Reactive Nitrogen Species(RNS), hydroxyl radicals, Hydrogen Peroxide(H2O2) and Peroxynitrite (ONOO). All of these radicals are thought to be highly active in C-19 and doing a lot of damage. One melatonin molecule can scavenge up to 10 oxygen radicals while many other antioxidants can only scavenge and neutralize one oxygen radical 1:1. Melatonin inhibits NADPH Oxidase which is a very bad player that ends up generating ROS in large amounts and damaging almost all cells in its path.
Now let's add in the vitamin C that Dr. Neel is using alongside melatonin in his C-19 patients. Vitamin C is synergistic with the antioxidant and antiinflammatory aspects of melatonin! Together they are better than either one alone and vitamin C pales in comparison to the broad ranging effects that are melatonin, but adding it to melatonin makes melatonin more potent. That light at the end of the tunnel is looking brighter! 💡🔦💡🔦💡🔦💡
A couple of points I would like to make. Originally some people thought that inhalation of food grade hydrogen peroxide via a nebulizer or ultrasonic vaporizer would be sufficient to kill the virus and it likely will in the lungs if you use HP as early as possible, but HP is an oxidant and Catalase will come along and neutralize it soon enough, turning it into water and oxygen, which means HP will not have staying power and more importantly, it suggests that HP will never make it past the lungs to other areas of the body where the virus may be thriving. So I would not want to rely on HP alone.
Though I am a believer and user of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), although inhaled AgNPs are likely to have staying power in the lungs before being absorbed into the blood I do not believe that by itself it will be enough. It will require drinking the AgNPs also and that combination with melatonin and vitamin C, may just be what it will take to put this virus down as quickly as possible, in my opinion. Although I think melatonin and vitamin C may be sufficient, I think that the addition of AgNPs will speed the process considerably!
In my post just above this post, I listed many of the known bad health effects of Covid-19 to areas of the body that were previously not thought to be affected by SARS CoV-2 / Covid-19, but this new article suggests that we can add the eyes to this growing list (16 items so far)! As if this disease is not already bad enough!
Dr. Neel is currently at 14 patients and according to him, all are doing very well. This is a far cry from what the reports are saying about the drugs that are currently being tested for Covid-19. With any of those drugs, people still die!
It just seems odd that they will not even consider testing melatonin when they already know that none of the current drugs being tested are showing as good results or even just fair results. Melatonin, from hundreds of previous studies has already shown that its multiple methods of action are very likely to have a very significant impact against Covid-19, but the direction seems to remain testing drugs that are not doing much of anything against this virus. In the meantime, people continue to die. Melatonin has a better safety profile than any of the drugs being tested. Melatonin is available over the counter here in the US and production can be ramped up quickly if it proves to work because there are multiple manufacturers already making it. Here is an incomplete list of everything that they currently know Covid-19 can do to humans:
1. Heart attacks
2. Strokes
3. Neuronal damage
4. Liver damage
5. Kidney damage
6. Damage to the spleen
7. Skin damage
8. Heart damage
9. Lung damage
10. Pneumonia
11. Loss of taste and smell
12. Kawasaki or Kawasaki like disease
13. Seizures
14. Death
15. Damage to the eyes
16. Blood clots
17. Damage to the endothelium
18. Oxygen deprivation to tissues and organs
19. Fibrosis
20. Damage to the brain
21. Cytokine storm
22. Covid-19 toes
23. Tissue damage throughout the body
24. Organ failure
25. Fever and oxidative stress
Just about any of the above items would require significant treatment, but with Covid-19, you are almost guaranteed to get at least 5 of these symptoms, which means that it is like your body is fighting multiple diseases all at one time! Melatonin is known through studies to ameliorate symptoms related to this whole list. Furthermore, it is one of the most potent antioxidants in the human body and it upregulates gene expression of the most potent antioxidants of the body and has potent antiinflammatory qualities which are thought to potentially prevent the potential for a cytokine storm.
Given the above, it seems like melatonin would be high on the list for potential drug candidates to treat and test against Covid-19, but such is not the case. I wonder why that is? There is only one study scheduled to use melatonin in Covid-19, but that study is only going to use two milligrams/day. That's not a study, it's a joke and a waste of time and money! Dr. Neel is using 40 times that dose!
Dr. Neel is now at 17 Covid-19 patients as of 5/13/2020, that he has treated with high dose melatonin and vitamin C and all are doing well! The article also mentions that the doctor in Florida who conferred with him has had similar results in her two Covid-19 patients who are both doing well after starting HDM. Here is a link to the article:
Here is the latest from Dr. Neel and he is now up to at least 20 patients who are all doing well with rapid response to the combination of high dose melatonin and vitamin C. This latest update sounds very promising and now he reports that patients are now calling him from across the country including New York, Boston and Chicago and they are also doing well with similar results to what he has been reporting!
I often mention that melatonin is one of my favorite supplements and people often look at me funny when I say that because the majority of people only know it as an over the counter sleep aid, but if they knew everything that melatonin can do, they would also call it one of their favorite supplements! In the first video, Dr. Shallenberger mentions a researcher named Pierpaoli who dedicated at least a decade of his life to melatonin research in cancer. I read his studies in the late 90's and that is when I realized that melatonin is so much more than the majority of people realize.
What I like about Dr. Shallenberger is that he pulls no punches when it comes to dosing and this is so very important! The great majority of people would think you were crazy to ever consider such dosing of melatonin, but here he is telling us it is no problem for the majority of people!
Okay, I am just going to blurt it out here, but when you look at all that melatonin does and that does not mean that all is known about what melatonin does in the body, but just based on what is known, melatonin should be an excellent treatment for many neurodegenerative diseases including PD! Melatonin and its metabolites can easily cross the blood brain barrier while also exhibiting the ability to repair it, easily enter body tissues, is one of the most potent antioxidants in the human body, upregulates gene expression of the bodies own potent antioxidants such as Catalase, Superoxide Dismutase and Glutathione Peroxidase while itself being a potent scavenger of Reactive Nitrogen Species, Reactive Oxygen Species/ Hydroxyl Radicals and Peroxynitrite. It is protective of all major organs and that is a critical aspect for Covid-19, but protecting the brain and gut is extremely important in PD and that is what melatonin does!
Melatonin is a potent antiinflammatory and inhibits IL-6, TNF- alpha, IL-8, IL-17, IL-1b and NF- kappa b to name just a few. Melatonin can enter the cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) and if you remember from a post I did about elevated IL-8 in PD patients CSF, that is a very important point about melatonin because reducing IL-8 levels means that other downstream cytokines and inflammatory mediators are also going to be reduced and that is huge!
Melatonin is a mitochondria protector also and again this is very important in PD! There is much more, but the human studies in PD are lacking, so I can't even suggest it to anyone. Listen to what he says about melatonin vs glutathione. PWP are always looking for a way to boost glutathione, especially in the brain, but he knows that melatonin is clearly the superior antioxidant and this is what studies show!!! Sadly, Dr. Shallenberger is the exception and not the rule, but I feel he is doing what should have been done over 30 years ago regarding melatonin!!!
I can only speak for myself and am DEFINITELY NOT RECOMMENDING THAT ANYONE ELSE TRY THIS OR DO WHAT I DO, but if I had PD, I would definitely try melatonin at high dose for 3 months minimum at the type of dosing that Dr. Shallenberger uses for cancer. For me, I don't mind self experimenting, but I would never recommend others try or do what I do!!! He says side effects are minimal to non-existent in his patients and I am currently doing a 1 to 2 month self experiment at 80 mg / day. I already did my initial 3 day experiment at that dose and that went fine as I expected it would because I had previously done a 90 day experiment at 70 mg/day. I am so far not seeing any problems and will continue.
I said it earlier in this thread that any pharmaceutical company would be more than happy to have melatonin as a drug in their catalog and they would make a fortune off of it!
The doctor in the second video, Dr Reitter is well known as a melatonin proponent and also a proponent of the use of melatonin to treat Covid-19!
I watched the videos and I was and am a big melatonin fan and I do not think Dr. Shallenberger covered everything it is likely to help, just some big ones other than cancer, but the studies are steadily pointing out more and more benefits to melatonin in humans with each passing week! I guess you can tell I'm passionate about melatonin by what I wrote to you in my first reply! Just the cancer and Covid-19 benefits are huge and then you add in the other known benefits and it is.....!
That information is not yet known about melatonin and PD. Many people on this forum have gotten good results with HDT/B-1 if you haven't already tested it. The study that I referenced in the original post to this thread only came out this month, so it is way too early to say how melatonin will work out over time for PWP, but that initial study sounded very promising and they did use a relatively low dose compared to other melatonin studies such as the 300 mg/day study referenced higher up in this thread.
Here is a link to another study suggesting that the known mechanisms of melatonin are likely to be useful against Covid-19. They also include andrographolide derived from andrographis paniculata (well known as an antiviral herb), a very popular and multifaceted herb for its known metabolic activities that are likely to work against Covid-19.
Hi again. I have tried to read thru everything on this post but there is so much to read. Since you are so understanding of this, will you give me your opinion on what my dad should start on tomorrow? He doesn't have PD, I do. He's pretty healthy, no high BP, no high cholesterol, etc. I understand you are not a Dr but you seem highly educated and you care.
I would say that Dr. Neel has the experience and success with his protocol, so it seems worth considering his protocol because compared to everything else, he has had the best results that I have heard of.
Dr Shallenberger has stated that he feels about 5% of his patients can not tolerate melatonin, so it makes sense to consider an initial low dose for a person to determine if they tolerate melatonin or not. Once it is established that that person can tolerate melatonin, then his protocol seems worth considering.
Another consideration is that he has reported patients and doctors from around the country and world have contacted him to get more information on implementing his protocol and maybe this is something you might consider. It seems pretty straightforward, but as far as I know, he has not mentioned the vitamin C dose he is using with melatonin, just that he has used it. I think it is worth considering the addition of vitamin D since melatonin and vitamin D have recently shown synergy against Covid-19.
The study link below suggests that melatonin also reduces the risk of testing positive for Covid-19!
What will it take for mainstream medicine to consider melatonin as a potential drug candidate for Covid-19? In very limited testing has so far shown itself to be superior to Remedesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Ritonavir, Favipiravir, Lopinavir and many more.
It turns out the hospital in Manila had 10 patients treated with HDM who recovered and now they are funding a trial of 350 patients who they will treat with melatonin, but this time they are only going to take patients who have Covid-19 and pneumonia! Pretty confident on their part to take on 350 of what are some of the worst cases!
Dr. Neel has also clarified the dosing for other doctors who want to use HDM for their Covid-19 patients. It is 1 mg per kilogram, that's it! He no longer makes mention of the use of Vitamin C.
The dose that Dr. Neel has determined as effective for his Covid-19 patients is one (1) mg of melatonin per kilogram that the patient weighs. Here is a converter to convert kilograms to pounds or pounds to kilograms :
When you combine Dr. Neels 50 patient melatonin recovery experience with what the Philippine hospital in Manila has reported about the 10 patients they used melatonin on along with their new trial to treat 350 more covid-19 patients who have pneumonia, it is very hopeful! I have not seen anything comparable to what Dr. Neel is reporting in other trials.
I haven't seen any other trial where the researchers have said they only want to treat Covid-19 patients who also have pneumonia. That is a huge challenge to try and take on because Covid-19 patients with pneumonia have a significantly higher chance of dying than non pneumonia Covid-19 patients. With Covid-19 pneumonia, it is probable that the patient had Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) leading up to the pneumonia. Currently it appears that patients who got ARDS had a 50% higher death rate than those who didn't! Doctors Hospital of Manila may have their work cut out for them.
So glad you found and shared this hopeful information, it will be interesting to see how the patients with pneumonia do once treated with melatonin. I will definitely be watching for any new information! Thank you again Art!
Here is the latest update from Dr. Neel. It appears that he now has 100 patients which makes sense since Texas is one of the states that are getting cases at an increased rate. He also reiterates about the synergy between melatonin and vitamin D. His patients continue to respond very well to HDM and he has had no deaths. Here is a link to his update :
This is a July update of one of Dr. Neel's patients with Covid-19. This is quite interesting from the patients perspective of what they are actually going through and how HDM is affecting disease progression.
Also of interest in this update is that Dr. Neel is now showing his willingness to escalate the dose toward the very high dose levels that Dr. Shallenberger and Dr. Reiter discuss. In this particular patient, he pushed the dose up to 180 mg/day to very good effect! Here is a link to the article:
Dr . Neel has now treated over 400 Covid-19 patients, as of July 22, 2020!
Since his patient load has increased very considerably, so has his knowledge and understanding of the use of HDM in Covid-19 patients. This seems like one of his most informative updates so far!
Dr. Neel is now seeing patients who are in multiple higher risk categories and treating some of them is no walk in the park. Dr Neel is now using even higher doses of melatonin in these harder to treat patients at dosing that is closer to what Dr. Shallenberger uses in almost all of his non cancer patients and similar to what Dr. Reiter has used in some of his studies. Dr. Shallenberger uses much higher dosing in his cancer patients though.
Dr. Neel also mentions that he is now seeing many more young patients than in the previous 3 months. He also mentions that people with asthma are having a harder time with Covid-19 than his patients who don't have asthma. He is also seeing more young patients who are developing gastrointestinal issues. He does not mention any deaths in this latest update.
He also mentions that he is seeing at least one strain of virus that seems to be more virulent. The information he includes with this latest update does not seem to bode too well for the supposedly soon to be available vaccinations, if the virus is mutating significantly. Here is the link to this latest update:
The State University of New York at Buffalo is going to be conducting a trial of melatonin as a potential treatment for Covid-19 in outpatients. Well that would be almost exactly what I was hoping for except that like the only other study using melatonin for Covid-19 that I posted recently, the dose is such that the study is most likely to fail. In the previous study they will be using a whopping 2 mg/night! Int this study they will be using 10 mg three times per day for a total daily intake of just 30 mg. Now that may be enough melatonin to likely make a measurable improvement, but this is a far cry from the dosages that Dr. Neel is using effectively to treat Covid-19. So when both of these studies fail, the chances for using dosing similar to what Dr. Neel is using becomes even less! Here is a link to the 30 mg study on clinicaltrials.gov :
It's like the hydroxychloroquine study they gave them 2200 mg per day. Of course down the road, months later Lancet withdrew the study and apologized. What a waste of time.
Here is another upcoming melatonin / Covid-19 study that is going to be done in Spain using 60 mg / day and what makes this study somewhat different is that they are injecting those 60 mgs of melatonin and this will be a randomized, placebo controlled, double blind study which is also a first when it comes to melatonin / Covid-19. I don't think hydroxychloroquine has a randomized, placebo controlled, double blind study for Covid-19 yet:
Since it appears that Covid-19 is going to be here longer than anticipated by the administration, I am continuing to update this thread as I find relevant information regarding this infection. It is worth noting that overall, since the administration has taken over keeping track of Covid-19, from the CDC, in mid July, the number of new cases for the US have been declining steadily. On July 24th, there were 78,586 new cases that day and it has steadily declined from that day forward. Can this even be correct considering the elevated new cases in California, Texas, Florida and New York?
This recent study(June/2020) is in agreement with the idea of using melatonin against Covid-19, but their hypothesized dose rate is approximately 8 times greater than what Dr. Neel is using on average (1mg per kilogram/day) at 8 mg/kg/day and higher for severe cases! To put that in perspective, if you weigh about 175 lbs or 80 kilos, you would have to take about 640 mg of melatonin per day for severe Covid-19 infection!!!
I'm a fan of melatonin, but that is the highest dosing I have ever heard of in humans and even greater than what Dr. Shallenberger is using in his stage 4 cancer patients!!
Here is the latest very promising report on Dr. Neels melatonin / Covid-19 protocol as used in a Texas convalescent facility. As many of you already know, these convalescent facilities are fairing very poorly with many patient deaths being the norm! This convalescent facility didn't waste anytime implementing Dr. Neels protocol once they had their first two cases die from Covid-19. They started using HDM right away after those two deaths and had no more deaths from Covid-19! One patient died afterward from another health issue. This is very important because this is a senior population with health issues and age that put them at increased risk of succumbing to Covid-19.The rest lived. Here is a link to the latest article.
This recent report (August 26, 2020) of an 87 year old who was treated with HDM and treated early, survived with no complications! Here is a link to the brief article :
Although it is just one case, 87 years old is a definite high risk case and he survived with HDM with vitamin D, zinc and vitamin C. Melatonin has shown synergy with both vitamins in recent studies. These four supplements are noted for having very good safety profiles and are all commonly available over the counter and are inexpensive. Simple, easy and effective and can be started earlier than the drugs being prescribed for Covid-19 in most cases.
With time, studies are revealing the multiple reactions and benefits that melatonin has against the SARS CoV-2 virus and Covid-19 disease. In this recent melatonin study, it is shown that melatonin is a main protease inhibitor of SARS CoV-2 and was the standout among 59 candidates in this study.
Add in the anti-flu effects of melatonin and it may be very useful to fight both Covid-19 and the flu at the same time as may be needed in the near future to fight the so called "CovaFlu". The following full study goes into detail about how melatonin may be useful against both. Here is a quote from the study :
>>> ' Given the common viral suppression of melatonin, coupled to melatonin's positive modulation of processes inhibited by most viruses, it is not unreasonable to propose melatonin to have utility in limiting the symptomatology and fatality associated with viral infection, including influenza and covid‐19. Melatonin may also have prophylactic utility, especially in people with preexisting medical conditions associated with suppressed pineal melatonin synthesis. ' <<<
This study also points out that melatonin is under appreciated for the purpose if not suppressed!
If the study is too long to read, please read the 1 paragraph "conclusion" as it is very enlightening!
The link below describes another method by which melatonin works against Covid-19 and one way in which it is also heart protective. It mentions the potential of melatonin to inhibit the cytokine storm, reduce symptom severity and recommends its use for Covid-19.
All the drama over testing that our government is going through when they could have been training dogs to test more accurately than our current testing system that seems to consistently give erroneous results. The test takes about a minute and the dog can make the determination in just 11 seconds!
Doctors complain about the length of time to get Covid-19 test results, which can be days or they could have more accurate results in just one minute using this method. The training takes time, but it is worth the wait if this trial proves out the accuracy. Every hospital should have at least one!
This new abstract adds a bit more confirmation to the idea of using melatonin for Covid-19, but also seems to suggest that certain effects of melatonin may be useful to have in place before infection and possibly more so in health conditions with perturbed mitochondrial function! I think I've heard that perturbed mitochondrial function is typical in certain diseases.😉😉😉
It is already established that melatonin is produced in the mitochondria, is protective of the mitochondria and can also be absorbed by the mitochondria when mitochondria production of melatonin is insufficient to protect the mitochondria. If there is not enough melatonin available to be absorbed by the mitochondria, well let's just say that wouldn't be good at all. Here is a link to the abstract :
Everyone is now aware of the fact that the president and his wife have Covid-19 and apparently there are several of his staff who also have it.
Trump always talked about how hydroxychloroquine was the solution to the problem, but he is not taking it! Nope, he's taking melatonin! ABC news just reported that.
Does anyone besides me find it odd that his administration never once mentioned that melatonin might be useful to fight Covid-19 and yet it is what they are giving him???
Yes, I was surprise he is not taking hydroxychloroquine! But he is not only taking melatonin:
"Trump is being treated for COVID-19 with an experimental drug cocktail. The president’s physician, Sean P. Conley, released a memo Friday afternoon saying the president has received a single 8-gram dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibody cocktail, “as a precautionary measure.”
"Trump is also taking zinc, vitamin D, famotidine (the medication in Pepcid, for heartburn or acid reflux), melatonin and a daily aspirin."
Yes the monoclonal antibody they are giving him are antibodies taken from patients or cloned from those antibodies, who have had Covid-19. This is not generally ever offered to Covid-19 patients, but is being given to him on a "compassionate use" basis according to news reports. It sounds like they are throwing everything and the kitchen sink at his case. The good thing is they started treating him very early, right after testing and they have said on the news that he gets tested 3 times a day everyday, so that is about as early as you can get to start treating Covid-19 and early treatment has shown much better responses overall.
This new study (Oct./2020) suggests that the combination of melatonin and pirfenidone may be useful as adjunctive treatment for Covid-19. Pirfenidone is a drug used for treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Coincidentally, melatonin acts against IPF also, as discussed in this study :
This new study abstract goes a very long way in confirming the value of melatonin in Covid-19 patients who receive melatonin after intubation. It shows that melatonin applied after intubation is significantly associated with patient survival. This is very good news because it shows that even when melatonin is applied late in the disease process, it can be effective. Dr. Neel has shown in over 400 patients that early treatment with melatonin can resolve the disease process fairly quickly. So this piece of the puzzle is quite useful in further showing the effectiveness of melatonin for Covid-19!
The full study is not available yet, but this is very good news because currently, 35% of Covid-19 patients who are put on a ventilator, die! Melatonin looks likely to bring that number down even more!
I just wanted to add this brief post to this thread specifically discussing Covid-19 and PwP.
Not having PD myself, I can't really speak to what goes through a PwPs mind when it comes to Covid-19 and how it may affect them, their symptoms and disease progression. I do think it is very important to be prepared and ready to act quickly for anyone who gets Covid-19 and this is why I continue to write about melatonin for this purpose. It is already established that 10 mg of melatonin / day is beneficial for PwPs and HDM is beneficial in the fight against Covid-19, so in that sense it seems almost ideal for the purpose.
The very good safety profile is a plus, but quick action at the first sign of C-19 symptoms may be the key to making your experience with C-19 minimal and of relatively short duration which could equate to minimal exacerbation to the PD. Dr. Neel's experience in his many C-19 patients is that melatonin given very early on at diagnosis or the first sign of symptoms or preferably both, can quickly reverse the course of C-19 and keep symptoms minimal and speed the recovery time, which imo can go a long way toward minimizing any potential for PD progression or exacerbation of symptoms.
Given the continuously increasing rate of spread of Covid-19, as the months pass, it makes plenty of sense to be prepared as is practical and possible. To do less could be counterproductive.
Yes, it would be nice to be able to avoid C-19 altogether and masks with social distancing seem to go a long way toward that end, but they are not a guarantee of not getting the virus, so having a workable plan for if you do get Covid-19 seems appropriate. From my point of view, I feel that melatonin is a relatively safe and reasonable option for PwP to deal with Covid-19, quickly and effectively while minimizing any potential for Covid-19 to have any effect on PD progression or symptoms.
When it comes to Covid-19 all current treatments seem to have the potential for side effects, some of which can be serious, but melatonin seems to have the best safety profile of all potential treatments.
On that note, I am still at 104 mgs of melatonin per night.
As usual, just my opinion and always include your doctor or medical professional in these critical medical decisions.
I would agree with your suggestion 10 mg Melatonin per night. And would top up my coverage with 5,000 IU Vitamin D per day.
The guy with the helicopter in his back yard took both these supplements. Yes he took other stuff. But this is what I can lay my hands on. Don’t see why I would not take them 🌺
Multiple news agencies have been discussing the value of melatonin for Covid since April as have we here on HU!
I'm stocked up on melatonin.
I will soon be writing a post on friends of mine who contracted Covid-19 and how melatonin affected their household of 5 people as they all got sick! I will also discuss the family of a friend of mine who had 7 members in their household who all contracted Covid-19.
Earlier this year a friend of mine's family of 7 contracted Covid-19 and all 7 household members died. I would have told them about melatonin, but they live out of state and I did not become aware of the situation until they had died.
More recently another friend of mine and his family as well as their grandson contracted Covid-19. My friends son and his son were currently living with his dad because he was having his entire house remodeled. My friend's wife and daughter are also living in this house so there are 5 altogether.
I had of course mentioned melatonin to them, but it was back when I had thought that 80 mg of melatonin per night was the appropriate dose for everyone, but I later found out that the appropriate dose for Covid-19 was at least 1 mg per kilogram of body weight, so the dose is dependent on your weight.
In any case, my friend's son was working with a skeleton crew at work with masks. A lady at his work contracted Covid-19 and he got it from her and took it home to the other 4 members of the household and they all got Covid-19. My friend's son thought he was just catching a cold or the flu and didn't mention it to anyone, but then the lady from his work died of Covid-19 and he realized that he likely had Covid-19 also and went to the hospital and they immediately admitted him because he was having difficulty breathing. The other 4 members of the household soon realized that they were likely infected and went and got tested for Covid. In the meantime they were not eligible to be accepted into the hospital.
During this time period, I had not heard from them, but another friend texted me to let me know what was going on and once I got that news I called my friend and his wife answered and I asked how they were doing. She was pretty casual about the situation and said the doctor said that her son would probably be released from the hospital in about 5 days and she was very happy about that.
I asked her if they were taking melatonin to help deal with the virus and she said they were, but that her son had only taken a total of 60 mg over the past week which is roughly equivalent to nothing. I told her that the new dosing recommendation by Dr. Neel was 1 mg per kilogram of body weight and she was surprised to hear it and said that she was not taking nearly enough. Her daughter on the other hand was taking that dosage and her husband was taking just under that dosing level, but she herself was only taking about half of the correct dose. She said her husband and her daughter were doing pretty good as was their 12 year old grandson who was also doing well at his correct dose of melatonin. She said she herself was feeling exhausted and weak and was starting to have a little difficulty breathing.
I asked her if there was any way that she could get melatonin to her son in the hospital and she said no, they wouldn't let her in to see him. I asked her to ask her son to ask the doctor if he would give him HDM. He texted her back saying that when he asked the doctor about melatonin, the doctor told him not to worry because they were already giving him some. I told his mom to have her son ask the doctor how much melatonin they were giving him, and if it wasn't at least one mg per kg, to ask the doctor if he would boost the dose up to reach that level. It turned out they were only giving him 5 mg of melatonin to help with sleep. My friend's son asked if they would boost his dose up if he would sign a waiver to protect the doctor and the hospital against a lawsuit and the doctor said no.
A day later my friend's wife called me crying because the hospital had just told them that their son had taken a turn for the worse and it was now touch and go. She said that the doctor told her that her son was now requiring 85 to 90% oxygen support and it was looking like they would have to place him on a ventilator if he did not improve very soon. I asked her again about the possibility of sneaking melatonin to her son and she said it was impossible. I reminded her to bring her own melatonin dose up to the correct dose. I asked her how her husband, daughter and grandson were doing and she said they all seemed to be doing pretty well, but she was feeling pretty bad. I told her to keep me posted and to take melatonin with her if she had to go to the hospital and she said she would figure out a way to hide it.
The next day I got a text from her daughter telling me that her mom was in the hospital with double pneumonia! I asked her if her mom was able to take melatonin with her to the hospital and she said yes. I asked the daughter how she was doing and she told me she had started taking melatonin as soon as she started to feel a symptom since she already knew her brother had it and had exposed her. Her test later confirmed that she was positive for Covid-19, but she told me it was like she had a very mild flu and she felt like she was over the virus , but just feeling tired as she usually did after the regular flu. She said her brother's son was similar to her as was her dad with all three presenting with mild flu like symptoms , but in less than a week being almost back to normal except for the tired feeling.
My friend called me the same day and was very concerned about his son because the doctor had just told him that his son was now requiring 75% oxygen and if he did not improve from this point quickly, his son was going to have serious health issues for the rest of his life and that was assuming that he survived. He told my friend that if he does survive, he will require oxygen for the rest of his life and he may have significant cognitive issues as well as other health issues.
I texted my friend's wife in the hospital the next day and she confirmed that she had brought melatonin to the hospital with her and was taking the correct dose. She was released from the hospital 3 days later and recuperating at home now. A few days later, the hospital released her son as they said he was only requiring 15 % oxygen assistance and said he could recuperate at home with oxygen support. As soon as he got home, he started on the correct dose of melatonin and I suggested that he stay on it for months to try to assist the healing process and he said he would.
I'm glad to know that they all made it past covid-19 safely, but the wife and son are going to have a significant amount of healing to do.
My thinking on melatonin as relates to Covid-19 is unchanged. Have it on hand and I and my family will start at 1 mg per kg/day at the first sign of Covid-19 and even before being tested as the results took days for my friends to get them back. If no improvement is seen the following day after initiating melatonin, I will consider increasing the dose further given the very good safety profile of melatonin at even higher dosing.
Just when we thought that we knew all of the problems that Covid-19 can cause in the human body something new seems to keep coming along from this horrible disease! In the following article it is discussed how Covid-19 is now thought to cause damage to the teeth and gums that shows up a little ways down the road :
This new review goes into considerable detail of how melatonin is likely to not only be useful for the treatment of Covid-19 but also discusses its neuroprotective effects as well as how it maybe useful for adjuvant use with C-19 vaccines to improve their efficacy. They further discuss how and why melatonin maybe the "silver bullet" against Covid-19. Melatonin seems to check most if not all of the necessary boxes of a drug designed specifically to fight Covid-19, but receives almost no mention in the general public for this purpose. Add in the very good safety profile and the case for melatonin against Covid-19 only improves with each new study and article.
I believe that for many people the combination of melatonin and Xlear Nasal Spray may be a fairly effective one, two punch against Covid-19!
After reading this review, it seems like there should be plenty of testing of melatonin against Covid-19, but such is not the case and one can only wonder why not!
Here is the latest update from Dr. Neel (over 1,000 patients treated with HDM), Dr. Reiter, Dr. Castillo of Manila and Dr. Brown of Canada. This is easily the best and most promising update yet! Dr. Neel says that in his over 1,000 patients he has treated for Covid-19 with HDM, only a handful needed to go to the hospital! Another interesting report from Dr. Castillo is that they have gone as high as 6 mg / kg of bw! That's 6x higher than where Dr. Neel starts the majority of his patients at and tends to illustrate the wide margin of safety of melatonin for the treatment of Covid-19! Here is a link to the update:
This is a copy and paste from another website about melatonin use in a person with newly diagnosed Covid-19 :.........................................................
>>>>>Ever since I read about Dr. Neel's success with melatonin on this site, I began taking bigger doses of melatonin every night at bedtime and kept a large reserve of different melatonin brands for myself and my friends and family. So when I contracted covid at the beginning of December and I found out I had it I immediately started taking about 30mg 5 or 6 times a day.
I also increased my vitamin d, c, and zinc intake daily as well.
Before I knew I had the virus, I had a pretty bad headache, a bit of a fever, and had some chills and heat flashes. My stomach was slightly bubbly as well. That was the first 2 days. By the afternoon of the second day I found out I had covid. So that is when I started taking megadoses of melatonin. My headache and fever started to leave.
The next morning, I woke up virtually symptom free. I could feel it just a little bit in my lungs and would occasionally cough up a little bit of phlegm but that was it. I continued with megadosing melatonin and taking extra c, d, and zinc for the next 2 weeks or maybe a little bit longer.
Then I tapered everything down gradually until I got back to my normal routine. Now I just take 20-30 mg a night before bed. I really believe that the melatonin increase basically made me asymptomatic almost immediately.
I used several different brands of dissolvable lozenges that were between 2.5 and 12 mgs a lozenge.<<<<<
This person is reporting almost exactly what Dr. Neel is reporting in the over 1,000 Covid-19 patients he has treated. Once full dose HDM + vitamin C + vitamin D is initiated, very significant symptom relief begins the next day! Nothing like a real life experience to illustrate the effects of melatonin on Covid-19! Note the dosing schedule that was used by the person reporting about this treatment.
This may not seem important to some, but getting over Covid-19 as fast as possible may be quite useful in reducing or preventing exacerbation of PD symptoms!
Here is an upcoming RCT for melatonin to treat Covid-19. What is interesting about their study is that they plan to use an astounding 5 mg/kg/bw via injection. Compared to oral dosing that Dr. Neel is using of just 1 mg/kg/bw , this is much more than 5 times greater than what Dr. Neel is using.
In oral dosing of melatonin, only 3% to 15% has been found to be absorbed by people. With injected melatonin, the amount absorbed is much much greater than the oral route. So in this study, the dose will be 5 times higher that the dose used by Dr. Neel, but the absorption rate will also be much greater! They are using 500 mg /kg intravenous dose as the maximum dose for any patient and that is higher than I have ever seen in a melatonin study. This study is being done in Spain.
This new study explains how melatonin can be active in the treatment of some viruses and also gives clues at how it may be able to prevent or ameliorate the longer term effects of some viruses which may be important in dealing with some of the after effects of Covid-19 that seem to be appearing in patients months after being clear of the virus.
Here is a recent article (December 2020) that gives updated information on the how and why of melatonin for severe Covid-19 as well as how melatonin may be useful for making the vaccine work more effectively! Here is a quote from the article :
>>>A team of researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada has found that melatonin can be an adjuvant to augment the efficacy of anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. They believe that the drug is a potential “silver bullet” to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.<<<
Results from a new Cleveland Clinic-led study suggest that melatonin, a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and is commonly used as an over-the-counter sleep aid, may be a viable treatment option for COVID-19.
This recent report suggests that the majority healthcare workers at this hospital who were given the option to participate in a Covid-19 prophylaxis treatment using either melatonin vs. placebo or EPICOS (tenofovir disoproxil/emtricitabine vs hydroxychloroquine vs the combination of both vs placebo), opted to enter the melatonin vs. placebo group on the basis of the very good safety profile of melatonin over the drug groups. Here is a link to that report :
The link below is to a new abstract that shows that one of the reasons why melatonin works against Covid-19 is because of melatonin's mitochondrial protective effects as well as its ability to inhibit mitochondrial fission.
These are also important points for PwP because of the mitochondrial damage inherent in PD.
I mentioned in another thread that I would report if I got Covid-19 because that would indicate that melatonin does not work as a prophylactic as I am taking 106 mg+ per evening.
Well, last night at 8:00pm I started feeling off with pain in my chest, shoulders, back and upper legs. By 9:00pm, I was having severe chills and decided to take my daily melatonin a little earlier than normal, but I also decided to bump my dose up to around 125 mg and immediately went to bed. I put 4 blankets on and still felt cold so I pulled the blankets over my head to try and warm up faster, but when I put my face under the covers, it felt sort of like when you open up an oven door when you have had a turkey cooking for hours and that heat hits your face, so I pulled the blankets back down to uncover my head as I clearly had a fever , but was too cold to get up and take my temperature. I slept restlessly and each time I woke up, I felt worse with more pain in my joints, shoulders, legs and my hands and fingers felt like I had severe arthritis. My chest and back hurt even more than earlier and I could not take a deep breath without significant pain. I can say with complete certainty, I have never felt anything like this before. I also noticed I was getting little indications that my legs wanted to cramp up, but I could not get myself to get up and get the mag oil spray from the bathroom, I was just too cold!
I woke up at 8:00 am and with the time change, that would have been 10 hours since I first noticed I was sick. In all of my life, I have never had a cold or flu come on so quickly as I felt perfectly normal at 7:00 pm last night. I finally got up at 9:00 am and had a lot of congestion in my chest and surprisingly, for me, was able to cough most or all of it up. Usually when I have that amount of congestion, it means I am going to be coughing for a month or longer. I decided to take a long shower and during the shower I noticed that I felt almost normal except for the chest pain when I would try and take a deep breath. By the time I got out of the shower, I felt really good, but I decided it might be better for me to go back to bed rather than go for my walk.
I don't know for sure that this was covid as I had no test, but I feel as certain as I can that it was. I've never had symptoms quite like these before and the arthritic feeling hands is an absolute first. Sitting here typing, I also notice that it no longer hurts to take a deep breath and I feel normal! No more pain in my joints, no more chest pain, no more back pain and no more congestion!
If this is covid, I will say that melatonin does not seem to prevent it, but neither does the vaccine. My understanding of the vaccine is that you can still get covid except it is supposed to be milder and not life threatening or very similar to melatonin. I am taking 20 mg doses throughout today and will likely continue that for possibly a week and then go back to my regular night dosing. I had previously mentioned that you should not throw your melatonin away just because you get a vaccine and I still feel that way because if you do get covid after being vaccinated, melatonin, if used right away, looks likely to make that covid infection even milder.
I am glad I found Dr. Neel and his melatonin protocol because only having to put up with covid symptoms for 12 hours is wonderful! I think it is worth mentioning that I was not taking vitamin C or D, lysine, iodine or quercetin. I was taking zinc though.
I will update things if they change as I know I will carry this virus for at least a week or more so I will stay on top of my melatonin dosing. Dr. Neel did mention that melatonin could work as a stand alone treatment for covid and my experience tends to confirm his statement.
So to update on my recent illness, I did go get tested yesterday morning (Tuesday 3/16/21) for Covid-19. The doctor's office called with the results this morning and said I tested negative, but they are getting more flu cases recently and although I would not need to quarantine, I should still try and avoid being around people for awhile to try and prevent spreading the flu which they think I have ! Although I am happy about the result, I am also happy because this means that melatonin may still act as a preventative against Covid-19 as mentioned as a possibility in a couple of recent articles and that would be huge because even the vaccines can't prevent you from getting and spreading Covid-19, they can only make it milder if you do get it, if they work as advertised. So don't throw your melatonin away!
Another reason I am happy is because my recent experience suggests that melatonin may be very effective at treating the flu, but not at preventing it or at least that's how it was in my case. HDM reversed my flu symptoms by 90 to 95% in just 12 hours, which is the best I have ever done against the flu and this particular flu had some pretty intense symptoms which I have not previously experienced. Even oral colloidal silver with colloidal silver nebulization has never done this well for me in terms of the flu. So this experience for me has been a learning experience with an overall very good outcome!
The following editorial suggests that melatonin may be useful for RNA viruses such as Covid-19 and the flu :
So I will definitely keep melatonin in mind next time I get the flu, but of course I plan to keep taking at least the 106 mg/night I have been for over 5months now to try and avail myself of the many health benefits of melatonin!
I have used probably about 6 or 7 different brands and am currently using a combination of 3 brands mainly because I bought so much that I have a lot of these. My understanding is that there are some brands that are consistent at delivering what is on the label and there are some brands that don't. You would need a service like the one that reviews supplements and gives a report on which ones are most consistent at delivering what they say on the label in order to have a better idea.
Previously I said that the main reason that Dr. Neel used sublingual melatonin was so that he could give it to Covid-19 patients already on a ventilator, but now I think he may also have felt that sublingual melatonin can deliver more melatonin per dose, but it would take a study to determine if that is true or not. One of the supplements I use is a sublingual type and I find I am using it more and more.
Some of Dr. Neel's patients have reported little to no relief once starting on melatonin, but followed that up with the fact that they switched to another brand and it was like flipping a switch for them with relief in hours after starting the new brand, so apparently there are some questionable products on the market and when it comes to melatonin, this is a critical point because melatonin is so poorly absorbed to the tune of only 3 ~ 15%. Think about that, if you take 200 mg of melatonin, you may absorb as little as 6 mg to 30 mg! So having a product that delivers what the label says is very important when it comes to melatonin!
Previously in a study done in November of 2020 involving 62,000 patients, it was reported that 1 in 5 or 20% of Covid-19 patients suffered some forms of mental illness within 90 days.
In a new study (April 6, 2021) involving 230,000 Covid-19 patients, it was discovered that the number is even higher within 6 months. This new study shows that a third of patients were diagnosed with a brain or psychiatric disorder within six months after getting Covid-19.
One of melatonin's many known protective effects is to the brain. Dr. Neel has established that melatonin speeds recovery from Covid-19 and helps to prevent worsening of the disease to the point where, out of the over 1,000 Covid-19 patients he has treated, only a handful required hospitalization. The great majority were able to treat themselves with melatonin at home with the great majority of these seeing symptom reversal within 24 hours of starting on high dose melatonin at 1 mg/kg/bw.
Given the above studies, the brain and lung protective effects of melatonin become even more important and relevant in trying to prevent the mentioned neurological or mental disorders that Covid-19 leaves in its wake and I believe this to be especially important for PwP in general. Melatonin appears to have a constraining or limiting effect on the virus and this could be very important in terms of limiting the damage that Covid-19 is well known to cause to the brain and lungs among others.
If you were wondering how Covid-19 might affect PwP in comparison to non PD people, the link in my reply above should answer many of your questions. Don't throw your melatonin away even if you have been vaccinated!
Here is a link to the article regarding the virtual symposium that Dr. Neel attended where the 20 mg minimum preventative dose was mentioned, but remains unproven.
Here is a link to an article that discusses studies and research regarding melatonin for Covid-19 with a link to the Cleveland Clinic Study that also suggests a possible preventative effect as well as links to other studies and articles :
The vaccine is also thought to lessen your chances for getting Covid-19, but researchers say you can still get it and in my opinion, that makes the vaccine and melatonin similar in that respect. The vaccine is supposed to make the virus not deadly and Dr. Neel's results in his over 1,000 patients treated as of last December, 2020, also suggests that melatonin makes the virus not deadly.
On a related note and as I have written extensively about on the forum, melatonin can help prevent stroke or treat it. Melatonin can also help prevent cardiovascular disease or treat it. Melatonin can help prevent osteoporosis. Melatonin can also be helpful in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus at high dose. Melatonin can also be useful for PD. Melatonin can also be helpful for memory decline among many many other health benefits and this is where I feel that the vaccine and melatonin diverge in their effects as the vaccines effects are strictly limited to Covid-19 use. Here is another article and doctor discussing the use of melatonin for Covid-19 prevention and treatment :
This 2020 study discusses some interesting interplay between Covid-19, melatonin and butyrate. Apparently Covid-19, certain other viral infections and flu suppress pineal release of melatonin. This causes disinhibition of neutrophil attraction which in turn can potentially lead to a cytokine storm. A cytokine storm can lead to ARDS, Covid pneumonia and potentially death as well as deregulation of other immune cells. This sets off an intricate cascade of events that leads to gut permeability and dysbiosis suppressing the Short Chain Fatty Acid (SCFA) level of Butyrate resulting in increased circulating levels of Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and this can promote viral replication and lead to increased symptom severity. Butyrate suppression has shown to increase inflammatory levels in previous studies and add to gut dysbiosis. This of course is an oversimplification of a very complex series of events to help give a general idea of why high dose melatonin supplementation has worked out as well as it has for Dr. Neel in his Covid-19 patients.
Seeing as this scenario starts with suppression of pineal melatonin secretion, it makes more sense why Dr. Neel has found that supplementing with high dose melatonin in over 1,000 Covid-19 patients has had such impressive results. I'm very glad to see that Dr. Reiter was involved in this study.
>>> ' It is also noteworthy that increased gut dysbiosis/permeability is frequently associated with the preexisting health conditions that increase the risk of fatality from viral infections. Preexisting health conditions that increase fatality risk from influenza and covid‐19 include cardiovascular and lung disorders, diabetes, and cancer. 65 Many of the specific medical conditions that are included within these groups of disorders are linked to an elevation in gut dysbiosis/permeability,66, 67 mitochondrial dysfunction, 68 and circadian dysregulation,69, 70 with melatonin showing utility in their management. ' <<<
As per the recent FMT study, I think it is clear that gut dysbiosis is a very important factor in PD. Please don't throw your melatonin away, even if you've already been fully vaccinated because if a vaccine resistant strain comes along, which seems quite possible, you can now see why melatonin is likely to still be effective!
Unfortunately, Dr. Neel's results have been largely ignored by the medical and scientific communities other than by other doctors or patients looking for something better than what you will get at the hospital if you end up there after getting Covid-19. The Manila trial has not reported yet as they barely finished recruiting in April, I think it was.
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The same can be said for all branches of medicine...thanks to Rockerfeller and Carnegie who were hell bent on giving big pharma every advantage...these two billionaires managed to infere with medical training curriculums and remove any refernce to holistic and naturopathic cures that actually worked....even today the average doctor is brainwashed into believing that only drugs and the knife can fix whatever is wrong...and anyone who suggests otherwise is round the twist.
Here is another new study showing more ways that melatonin works against Covid-19. I still feel that if you were trying to develop a drug to fight Covid-19 in as many ways as possible, melatonin would check most of the boxes and come with an excellent safety profile to boot! Add in Dr. Neel's experience in his practice with well over a 1000 Covid-19 patients and I'll take it! Oh wait, I already do take it! I'm still at 106 mg or more per night.
I have read some of the articles about him and I am pretty sure that he mentioned treating children, well, actually whole families in a home. I have also seen articles where they use melatonin in children with Autism, so it would appear to be safe. Melatonin is naturally produced throughout the body even though it is usually the pineal gland production that is frequently mentioned. Melatonin is produced in the gut at at least 400 times the level produced by the pineal gland and every mitochondria in the body produces melatonin. To be safe, though, you can call Dr. Neel direct at, (830) 538-3550 to verify the use of melatonin in children for Covid-19. He has previously mentioned that he will give his protocol for Covid-19 to patients and doctors who call and express an interest.
How do you divide up your dosage of melatonin? My husband already takes 40 mg at nite…..maybe I should give him another 30 or 40 mg during day but don’t want to make him sleepy.🤓
When I can, I take 10 mg at 6 pm, 10 mg at 7pm, 10 mg at 8 pm, 10 mg at 9:00 pm, 10 mg at 10 pm, 10 mg at 11:00 pm and the balance at bedtime. This seems to help me sleep well, but if I forget, I just make sure I get it all down by bedtime.
If my theory about Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs) turns out to be correct, I may stop supplementing melatonin, but Covid-19 makes me want to continue supplementing whether the theory pans out or not.
You're welcome!For people who it makes too tired, I always suggest saving it for if and when they get Covid-19, vaccinated or not. The Cleveland clinic study showed that melatonin supplementing reduced the risk of testing positive for Covid.
In terms of PD, the 10 mg/night study in PwP showed benefit in non motor symptoms while the 50 mg/night study barely started to show benefit in motor symptoms during off time. What I would love to see is a 250 mg/night study in PwP, as recently done in two diabetes/melatonin studies in people with diabetes! Well, I can dream about such a study anyway!
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or close to the sun going down.
) We also take vitamins/supplements/minerals, but most importantly we have not panicked and try to live our lives as normal as possible. We don't watch daily updates on TV either as they add to our already bad psychology. Figure if there is breaking news, we will hear about it.
Why do people infected with COVID-19 lose their sense of smell and taste?
