I won't go as deep as Art does on Melatonin, but am picking up on a point Art makes often: Dosing!
I read all these papers and frankly skim over a lot. Today somebody on FB reposted one of my favorites: 2021 - Melatonin as a Chronobiotic and Cytoprotective Agent in Parkinson’s Disease ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
So I take 10 mg of melatonin, but this re-post made me read the report closer (every time you read one of these you take in more). I went through all of the tables.
I guess Table 1 is the table that got me thinking of dosing. It's the animal studies:
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 1991 - 12 and 120 mg - Reduced apomorphine-induced rotational behavior.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 1996 - 60 mg - Reduced lipid peroxidation and TH-positive neuronal loss in striatum after MPP+
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 1998 - 120 mg - Reduced lipid peroxidation and protected against DA neuronal loss induced by MPP+
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 1998 - 36 and 120 mg - Increased striatal DA synthesis and levels.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 1998 - 36 and 120 mg - Reduced motor deficit and improved dopaminergic neurons survival.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2001 - 15 mg - Prevented apomorphine-induced rotational behavior and mitochondrial damage.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2002 - 24–300 mg - Prevented apomorphine-induced rotational behavior and depletion of striatal DA and serotonin levels.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2002 - 120 mg - Decreased MPP+-induced toxicity and recovered GSH levels.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2003 - 30 and 60 mg - Increase in mitochondrial complex I activity in nigrostriatal neurons.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2006 - 6 mg - Normalized motor deficits and augmented TH immunoreactivity.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2006 - 6 mg - Prevented apomorphine-induced rotational behavior.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2007 - 120, 240 and 360 mg - Reduced levels of hydroxyl radicals in mitochondria and increased GSH levels and antioxidant enzymes activities in SNc.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2009 - 120 mg - Reduced DA neurons apoptosis.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2009 - 120 mg - Reduced mitochondrial NO levels, reduced lipid peroxidation and improved complex I activity in striatum and SNc.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2001 - 30 mg - Reduced DA neurons loss and locomotor activity deficits. Improved mitochondrial respiration, ATP production, and antioxidant enzyme levels in SNc.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2011 - 180 mg - Reduced lipid peroxidation, TH-positive neurons death, and apoptosis.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2012 - 120 mg - Improved motor performance without causing dyskinesia. Improved DA neurons survival.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2013 - 120 mg - Improved DA neurons survival.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2013 - 30 and 60 mg - Improved motor performance, striatal DA level, GSH, and antioxidant enzyme activities, and reduced lipid peroxidation. Improved motor response to l-DOPA.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2014 - 120 mg - Improved DA neurons survival and increased DA levels.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2014 - 120 mg - Reduced oxidative damage and apoptosis of DA neurons.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2015 - 60, 120 and 180 mg - Improved DA neurons survival and enhanced the therapeutic effect of l-DOPA.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2015 - 120 mg - Improved DA neurons against antioxidant enzyme activities and reduced lipid peroxidation.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2016 - 6 mg - Reduced motor deficit and DA neurons loss.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2017 - 60 mg - Reduced DA neuronal damage.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2017 - 60 mg - Preserved mitochondrial oxygen consumption, increased NOS activity and reduced locomotor activity.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2018 - 120, 240 and 360 mg - Reduced DA loss and improved mitochondrial complex-I activity in SN.
Melatonin equivalent dose for a 75 kg adult patient: 2018 - 240 mg - Improved motor function by upregulation of tyrosine hydroxylase in striatum. Reduced DA neuron damage.
ON THE FLIP SIDE, IF YOU LOOK AT TABLE 2 - Clinical trials with melatonin in Parkinson’s disease:
You will see the dosages were much lower for humans and the best result looks to be for the trial where they used 10 mg (2020): Melatonin supplementation significantly reduced UPDRS part I score, PSQI, BDI and Bai. It also resulted in an increase in antioxidant capacity, and reduced serum insulin levels, HOMA-IR, total and LDL-cholesterol as well as gene expression of TNF-α, PPAR-γ and LDLR.
The 50 mg (25x2) trial in 2017 also had good results: Melatonin decreased COX-2 activity and improved some antioxidant markers. UPDRS score decreased in the melatonin-treated patients but no in the placebo group.
I'll dig into the individual reports later. It sure seems like I should try to get my melatonin at least up to 40 mg at night.
Melatonin Facts
Systemic Oxidative Stress during Parkinson’s Disease
