Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

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mountaineermd
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Re: Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

Post by mountaineermd »

A solution for the melatonin- diarrhea connection? I am the original author of this post which has now been read by over 30000 viewer. I am on this site because I have one copy of ApoE4 and my mother had severe AD. I have been practicing a healthy life style with diet and exercise. In hope of improving my sleep I started melatonin supplements which lead to severe watery diarrhea which stopped when I discontinued the melatonin and resumed when I started a second round, which confirmed to me that the melatonin was the cause. Several people on this post have had the same experience. I have tried other remedies to improve my sleep (blue light blocking glasses, complete darkness, magnesium, and even tried giving up my morning coffee). Lately I have started using liposomal melatonin spray, 3mg, which I spray under my tongue and spit out after a few minutes. I have done it the last three nights. It does help me get to sleep a lot faster and I have had no diarrhea so far using this technique. So it appears that I am getting the benefits of melatonin from sublingual absorption, and avoiding the diarrhea by not actually swallowing it. I think it may be worth a try if you can't tolerate oral melatonin and have trouble sleeping. Robert Johnson MD
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Re: Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

Post by mountaineermd »

Unfortunate update. After a week of sublingual melatonin spray, the benefits are waning and the watery diarrhea is stating to come on. So it's a no more melatonin in any route for me. My optimism was premature and did stand up to the test of time, Robert Johnson MD
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Re: Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

Post by mountaineermd »

A further update from my original post. As a 70 yo ApoE4/3 I have struggled with insomnia. Original I was taking an oral melatonin supplements which I eventually realized was causing persistent watery diarrhea, which resolved when I stopped the supplements. I eventually tried a melatonin sublingual spray, but that also caused diarrhea. So not being a quitter, I have for the past week been trying a 5 mg melatonin transdermal patch. The sleep benefits are not as dramatic as what I had hoped, but at least they don't seem to associated with any watery diarrhea. mountaineermd.
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Re: Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

Post by floramaria »

mountaineermd wrote:A further update from my original post. As a 70 yo ApoE4/3 I have struggled with insomnia. Original I was taking an oral melatonin supplements which I eventually realized was causing persistent watery diarrhea, which resolved when I stopped the supplements. I eventually tried a melatonin sublingual spray, but that also caused diarrhea. So not being a quitter, I have for the past week been trying a 5 mg melatonin transdermal patch. The sleep benefits are not as dramatic as what I had hoped, but at least they don't seem to associated with any watery diarrhea. mountaineermd.
Thanks for the continued updates. The idea of the transdermal patch may be a big help to others who , like you, can not tolerate oral melatonin.
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Re: Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

Post by somedude »

Okay, so, I probably will not use this website very much, given that (as far as I know, at least) I do not have the genetic issue that this website addresses. Why am I posting now? Well, I was, originally, interested in contacting Dr. Robert Johnson, the dude who started this thread. However, I was told that there would be no way to contact him without becoming a member, myself, because this site does not give out personal contact information of their members. That's understandable, and the same person who told me that said that it would be okay for me to get a membership, even though I do not have this genetic issue. (if I understood him correctly...) However, thinking about things a bit more, I thought that it might just be better to post my story for everyone to see, and Dr. Johnson can see it along with everyone else. I have been having intestinal and sleep problems for a long time, which I suspect are related. My doctor told me to start taking melatonin on the nights that I was having trouble getting to sleep. I started using melatonin supplements every night for about eight or nine days. Every morning during those eight or nine days I would wake up and my intestinal problems were worse than they usually were, with watery diarrhea as was described by Dr. Johnson. The night that I stopped using the melatonin supplements was followed by a morning where my intestinal problems were back to where they usually are - not good, but significantly better than they were when I was taking the melatonin supplements, with a lot less diarrhea. I started looking up the possibility that melatonin could be causing my diarrhea, and that's when I found this message board, as well as other parts of the internet where people were asserting the same thing. For a while, I thought that it was the melatonin, itself, that was causing my diarrhea. However, a number of months later, I started eating some sugarless candies that also seem to be causing me diarrhea. The candies used various kinds of polyols to make them sweet, or so-called "alcohol sugars." (I don't know why they use that name - they're not really sugar) It even said on the packaging that these polyols can cause digestive problems, like diarrhea. The one that was giving me trouble, specifically, was called: "maltitol." After figuring that out, I don't know what caused me to think this way, but I began to suspect that, maybe, the melatonin supplements that I was using also contained polyols. They were rather sweet and cherry-tasting, and they even had a picture of cherries on the bottle that they came in. Reading through the ingredients list, I noticed that the melatonin supplements contained a substance called: "mannitol." That sounded a lot like "maltitol," to me, so I looked it up. That's when I found out that mannitol is a polyol, as well. So, I went out and got a different melatonin supplement brand, and I was careful to make sure that this brand had no mannitol in it. I only used it for three nights in a row, but the new brand did not cause me any diarrhea problems. (or, if it did, it was so minor that I did not even notice) This sure seemed to indicate, to me, that my real problem was not the melatonin, but was the mannitol that was added to the melatonin supplement. My suggestion to Dr. Johnson, as well as everyone else who is having trouble with diarrhea and melatonin supplements, is to check the ingredients list and see if there is any mannitol, or any other polyols, that are added to the melatonin supplements that you are using. If so, try to find a brand of melatonin supplements that does not have mannitol (or, preferably, any other polyols - there may be some polyols that do not cause you problems, as there are some that do not cause me any problems, but it is probably a good idea to get a melatonin supplement without any polyols, just to be safe, if possible) in that supplement brand. Also, if you do try to use a brand of melatonin supplements that does not contain polyols, I would appreciate it if you would post about whether or not it fixed your diarrhea problem. If it fixes your problem, then the polyols are probably the cause, but if not, then it may be the melatonin, after all, that is causing your diarrhea, or, perhaps, even one of the other additives. (Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be possible to get pure melatonin. The pharmacist seemed to indicate, to me, that melatonin molecules will not bond to each other, so they need to add some other substances to make the melatonin molecules hold together.)
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Re: Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

Post by Tincup »

Thanks for posting, somedude.

I'm part of a group where people take very high doses of melatonin, not primarily for sleep, but other benefits. Some even take it in gram doses. Most take it as a powder (like this), which has nothing else in it.

Some people have had digestive issues even with the powder, but they appear to be part of some sort of cleansing reaction which ultimately resolves.

Most dose with measuring spoons:
Tad = 1/4 teaspoon, 576 mg
Dash = 1/8 teaspoon, 288 mg
Smidgen = 1/16 teaspoon, 144 mg
Pinch = 1/32 teaspoon, 72 mg
Drop = 1/64 teaspoon, 36 mg

With my scale, a Drop is 36 mg of the melatonin powder. I usually consume a Pinch (288 mg) at bedtime and 3 Pinch (72 mg) doses spaced though the day.
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Re: Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

Post by somedude »

Thank you, Mr. Tincup, for letting me know about that. That pharmacist lied to me! Or, more likely, I just misunderstood him. My fault. I think that I may try some of that pure melatonin, at some point. So, then, with what you're saying, it seems that both melatonin and polyols can cause digestive problems. Just so I understand you, when you say that you think that the cleansing reaction resolves, does that mean that it goes away entirely, at some point, or does the cleansing reaction happen every time a person takes the melatonin, then resolves, then happens again the next time the melatonin is taken?
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Re: Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

Post by Renlets »

somedude wrote:Okay, so, I probably will not use this website very much, given that (as far as I know, at least) I do not have the genetic issue that this website addresses. Why am I posting now? Well, I was, originally, interested in contacting Dr. Robert Johnson, the dude who started this thread.
Hello Somedude,

Welcome to the Apoe4.info forum. We glad that you have joined us, even though you are of the view that you may not benefit from the specific focus of our platform. I can see already that Tincup has provided some valuable information on your current primary concern, I hope that is helpful. If you still want to get in touch with Dr Robert Jonhson, I suggest you visit our How-to-guide section, to check on the best way to get your posts noticed by a particular individual, in your case Dr Robert Johson. You may also find our resource library quite insightful, its called wiki. You can use the search button for any topic of interest.

Hope you get sorted with connecting to Dr Robert Johnson and resolve your health concerns

Kind regards

Renlets
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Re: Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

Post by somedude »

Thank you, Mr. Renlets. Yes, that information that Tincup gave me was helpful. I'll keep an eye on this site to see if there is any further help that I can get, or if there is any further help that I can give to anyone else. I was concerned, at first, that it might not be appropriate for somebody who does not have the genetic issue that this website addresses to get a membership, but no one seems to have a problem with me being a member.
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Re: Unfortunate side effect from melatonin.

Post by Tincup »

somedude wrote:. Just so I understand you, when you say that you think that the cleansing reaction resolves, does that mean that it goes away entirely, at some point, or does the cleansing reaction happen every time a person takes the melatonin, then resolves, then happens again the next time the melatonin is taken?
No, it seems to resolve, though these guys may continue to step up their doses and they can have issues again at a higher dose and have that resolve at even higher doses. I think it is individual. In your case, just using the powder may solve your problem.

The group is a closed FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/OKL4Vitality. The owner/main idea guy is Raymund Edwards. If you join the group, a search on #OKLmelatonin will bring up more info. I've not had the digestive issues, so haven't delved into it. It turns out, melatonin is made in most cells in the body, not just the pineal gland. It has many functions beyond sleep. It seems that when you need/get more, then cleansing can happen. This is not a group to debate Raymund, just take what he has to offer. He's linked a lot of studies and is usually right, in my experience. I've not had the time to read them all.
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