Melatonin a "cure" for the middle aged middle?

Came across this while on another one of my trips around the internet looking for something totally unrelated ... funny how that happens sometimes?

Anyway, thought I would "bookmark" it here with a little comment:

Daily Melatonin Administration at Middle Age Suppresses Male Rate Visceral Fat, Plasma Leptin, and Plasma Insulin to Youthful Levels

Yes, it is a rat study, but as the intro states, endogenous melatonin production decreases with age in both humans and rats.  Basically regular melatonin supplementation reversed the increases in  insulin and visceral fat associated with aging.

I don't know about any of you, but this middle aged (well I guess technically not yet, but ...) chick is going to look into this further!

In addition, if you scroll down the page, there's a list of articles that cite this study. I plan to check out a few of these.

Comments

LeonRover said…
Nice find! - the refs have potential to be researched further.

So far I have looked at mel as modulating sleep, and particularly jet-lag.
Mike said…
Interesting stuff; I look forward to reading more on this. Great blog!
CarbSane said…
Hi Mike! Welcome to my blog and thanks for your nice comment :) Life has thrown me a few loops in the past couple of days, so I'll have to remember to revisit this topic at a later date. The way I see it, this is not an expensive supplement, so it probably can't hurt much to give it a try and see.
Kindke said…
Comment on old post for the win!

I use melatonin supplementation to help cope with my shift work because if you take it earlier in the day its suppose to advance the circadian clock, however I have noticed it tends to make me massively glucose intolerant and seems to result in weight gain around the waist.

just my personal experience