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Pancreatitis can be a devastating disease, but there are some natural options that may help in controlling pancreatitis.
One of those natural options is melatonin which is one of my favorite supplements! Melatonin is typically thought of as a non- prescription sleep aid, but it is so much more than just a sleep aid! I would like to get into those other potential health benefits, but will stick to pancreatitis for this post to keep it simple and to the point.
Melatonin has a very good safety profile, but even so, some people do not tolerate melatonin well even though it is produced in multiple areas of the human body everyday. Fortunately the majority of people do tolerate melatonin.
In this first study from 2014, it is found that in pancreatitis patients there is a tendency toward reduced melatonin type 2 receptors suggesting that this lack of MTR2 receptors may play a role in pancreatitis especially the acute form :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25055509
In this next full study it is shown that melatonin, ghrelin, and leptin may help in controlling the inflammatory process associated with acute pancreatitis and all three are naturally produced in the body :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4258559/
This next full study (2016) illustrates how a melatonin metabolite, N(1)-acetyl-N(1)-formyl-5-methoxykynuramine (AFMK), can attenuate acute pancreatitis in a rodent model, both in vitro and in vivo:
https://www.jpp.krakow.pl/journal/archive/06_16/pdf/411_06_16_article.pdf
In this next study it is shown that melatonin is protective in a rat model of acute pancreatitis that was induced with arginine and the melatonin was said to exhibit strong therapeutic effects in the course of acute pancreatitis in this rat model of AP. :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27830885
This next study is another study of acute pancreatitis in a rat model and it is shown that melatonin induces anti-inflammatory effects via endoplasmic reticulum stress in acute pancreatitis to play a protective role.
This next full and newer study (2017) goes into multiple details about how melatonin goes about its business when it comes to pancreatitis:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5454927/
This next and newer 2018 study delves further into how and what melatonin may be doing in pancreatitis to help alleviate symptoms and calm the excess inflammation associated with this condition :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2948439
This next study (2018) attempts to further elucidate the method of action of melatonin in pancreatitis and implies that these findings suggest that melatonin protects AR42J cells and Sprague-Dawley rats against AP-associated injury, probably through downregulation of IRE1α-mediated JNK/NF-κB pathways.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29912856
This next study from December 2018 continues in the search for the mechanism of action in how melatonin is working in these rodent models to modify the course of the disease:
This last study is new this month and goes a step further to try and determine how melatonin attenuates pancreatitis induced liver damage! Well I did say that melatonin was one of my favorite supplements!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30694771
So what is lacking here are the actual human studies, but there are hundreds of human studies which have more than established melatonin as having a very good safety profile at multiple dosing ranges while being highly protective of the liver which is a very important factor when it comes to pancreatitis! Based on the above it is worth discussing the use of melatonin with your doctor as a potential means of helping to deal with pancreatitis effectively.
There are several natural supplements that have shown benefit in dealing with pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer such as Inositol and inositol hexakisphosphate. If you are willing to look, you will find other supplements and herbs which are likely to be quite beneficial in dealing with pancreatitis, but melatonin is a good starting point and may be as far as you have to go! Here is a typical study suggesting as much :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28965010
Obviously because of the serious and sometimes deadly nature of pancreatitis, your doctor's permission and supervision are an absolute must if you consider melatonin or anything else and the very good safety profile of melatonin will go a long way in that conversation with your doctor!
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