Melatonin for Stroke Recovery and Prevention

Hi Art,

Thank you for your interesting and informative article on Melatonin use for stroke and stroke prevention.

Would you please list the other supplements you are using.

Also, what is HDM?

Thanks

Hello Art...

I'm sorry to say that my husband passed away from Covid in January 2021. I read this message/article late. Thank you so much for responding to my question. Is there a place to start when researching remedies for TIAs. I'm sort of stuck on a panic button now. My doctor is pleased with my last visit. I am on Eliquis and Cozaar and trying to lose weight. How do I approach my doctor about these regimens? When I have done so in the past, he says he doesn't know anything about the supplements or whether they would interfere with my meds. Once again, thank you for your kind response.

Hello Sheila.

I am very sorry to hear of your husband and partner's passing. Covid-19 is without a heart and takes lives like they are nothing!

Melatonin, based on the many studies that are available using it for stroke and stroke recovery appears to be an excellent starting point. There are other supplements that can be useful also, but it is better to start one at a time in case you have a bad response to one, you will know which one is causing the problem. Melatonin has also proved its worth as a cardiovascular disease treatment in case you missed this post :

https://www.earthclinic.com/cures/melatonin-for-cardiovascular-disease.html

NAC is another useful supplement as outlined in the following study. It is not as broad of a response as melatonin, but it offers benefits.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7244239/

Another useful supplement for stroke recovery is Hesperidin via its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities as shown here:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31478148/

All three of these supplements have very good safety profiles.

Unfortunately, doctors are generally only familiar with prescription medications and this can be a problem for patients who want to include supplements, vitamins, TCM, minerals, herbs, and other alternative options as part of their treatment plan. The only way I think that is practical is to go to a doctor who is also trained in alternative treatment options in order to have someone who should have very good potential to help you. The downside with these doctors is that insurance generally does not cover them so they would be an out of pocket expense and they may charge more because of their extended training in natural and alternative remedies.

Finding out what supplements may be compatible with the prescription meds you are already taking may be better answered by your pharmacist than your doctor because they seem to have more experience than doctors at determining supplement contraindications.

Another option to consider is calling someone like Dr. Shallenberger to see if he might take you on as a remote patient with regular phone or zoom visits. He is in Nevada, but with many people having remote doctor visits now, he may be willing to do it. Here is his contact information :

Dr. Frank Shallenberger

Address: 1231 Country Club Dr, Carson City, NV 89703Hours: Closed ⋅ Opens 9AM WedPhone: (775) 884-3990

It's just a phone call to find out if he can help you or not or possibly recommend a doctor in your area who does similar work. Good luck!

Art

Hi Rebecca,

The article was just an idea based on the significant positivity of the studies I linked to regarding melatonin and stroke and should be discussed with your doctor for anyone who is seriously considering melatonin for this purpose.

There are certainly anecdotal reports of pain related to use of melatonin, however there are also scientific studies showing that melatonin can be useful for neuropathic pain as well as inflammatory pain such as these studies show:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30306528/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7012243/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4912970/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26692007/

Another consideration is that in the studies I linked to in the article about melatonin and stroke, exacerbation of pain was not a reported issue in the human or animal studies.

I have said it many times in the past on EC and elsewhere that some people simply can not tolerate melatonin and that fact remains. I consider myself fortunate that I am able to tolerate melatonin at all dosage levels I have tested up to 180 mg/day.

It often comes down to trial and error whether it be melatonin, another supplement, prescription meds or alternatives.

Based on that, as well as melatonin's well established safety profile, I experiment with melatonin at many dose levels and am currently at 106 mg/night for the past 3 months+. I have severe psoriatic arthritis that I have kept in remission for over 12 years using borax via Ted's recipe. This is an autoimmune disease and melatonin is suggested not to be used in autoimmune diseases, but it has not presented a problem for me. So trial and error testing has shown me that I do tolerate melatonin very well and so I use it to try and get as many health benefits as it has shown to offer in other studies for multiple health issues aside from stroke.

If the fear of getting joint pain for you is too great, it may be better for you to consider your other options to deal with stroke prevention and treatment. In the anecdotal reports I have read, it appeared that the pain reported was reversed with stoppage of melatonin.

That does not mean that it will be the same for others, I can only report how melatonin affects me and the people I know who use it, based on what they tell me.

Art

Reference your 01/04/2021 comment...the part about arthritis - using borax via Ted's recipe. Would you please send me link or something about this?

Cfitz,

Ted's suggested use of Borax for arthritis:

https://ted.earthclinic.com/cures/arthritis.html

I have been using it for well over a decade to keep my psoriatic arthritis in remission. Ted gives different dosing for different arthritic conditions as you will read in the link above.

I chose his dosing schedule of 1/4 teaspoon of borax, dissolved in a quart of water, to be sipped throughout the day for a delayed release equivalent. Repeat this dosing for 4 days maximum per week is Ted's maximum dose recommendation. I take Friday, Saturday and Sunday off in order to clear any excess borax from the system.

Art

Hello again Art, I'm following you ;) lol!!

I want to order Melatonin, and see on Amazon that it comes in 10mg capsules, mainly, and then there is a "timed release" type. Do you have info on whether the timed-released might be a good choice, rather than the other type? Also, the timed-release says 3 mg, 6 hours, which I don't understand. Does that mean it releases over a 6-hour period only, and does it mean it releases 3 mg total, or 3 mg every 6 hours? Here's the link to the brand I usually buy, that or NOW brand (of supplements, haven't purchased Melatonin in years). https://www.amazon.com/Life-Extension-Melatonin-Release-Vegetarian/dp/B0044JXB40/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=life+extension+melatonin&qid=1623768703&rdc=1&sr=8-5 All your info (and studies) lead me to want to try melatonin, and just hoping I can avoid drowsiness during the day. I had my cardio tell me one time that every issue I have seems to stem from my nervous system, so thinking one benefit might be helping with Essential Tremor, while the main thing is to help prevent Covid 19. I have had the 2-shot vaccine, Maderna, but who knows with this insidious "plague".

Denise/PCL

Okay, I guess this is your post that you were talking about.

Yes, time released would be a steady release over a 6 hour period. Regular melatonin is released much much quicker and the dose all at once. Timed release will release the 3 mg or whatever dose you have chosen, over the 6 hours. Melatonin from the pineal gland is supposed to peak around 1:00 am and then slowly decline from there until daylight starts to reduce that melatonin level significantly.

If you run into next day tiredness again, you can try taking your evening dose earlier. I had the melatonin hangover initially, but it went away with continued use. Not everyone can tolerate melatonin.

In studies giving melatonin by injection and via suppository seems to avoid the melatonin hangover, but those two pathways are not practical for most people.

Regarding ET, taurine as magnesium taurate may be better than taurine alone. Magnesium Taurate is noted for being able to cross the blood brain barrier(BBB) and both are said to have a mild calming effect on the brain.

Here is a study link suggesting the use of high dose B1 for ET. B1 is known to lower neuroinflammation which may exacerbate ET.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5884259/​

Art

To further update this Melatonin/Stroke article, I found a new RCT study. In this new RCT study (October 2022) melatonin was shown to offer positive effects in people who had had a stroke :

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36270095/

Here is a relevant quote from the RCT :

' All patients completed the 5-day treatment period, and no serious adverse event was observed. While on day 5, the neurological status and stroke-related functional disability were comparable in both groups, on days 30 and 90, melatonin treatment resulted in a higher reduction in the median NIHSS and mRS score than placebo. Moreover, the overall changes in the NIHSS and mRS scores through a three-month follow-up assessment were significantly greater in the melatonin group than in the placebo group. The analysis of NIHSS scores distribution on day 90 showed a significant difference between the study groups in favor of the melatonin treatment. '

In this study, they only used 20 mg /day of melatonin for the first 5 days of the 90 day study and saw benefit in stroke patients at 30 and 90 days, but to me it begs the question of what would the results have looked like had they given the melatonin for the full study period and or 5 times the daily dose.

The main point that I think this study suggests is that giving melatonin early, after a stroke, is a worthwhile consideration in order to improve outcomes. I would have loved to see this study using 200 mg/day for the full study period of 90 days.

If you think 200 mg/day is way too much for a person to take, look at this study where they used 3000 mg/day of melatonin in women for 6 months :

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27910708/

In any case, I am happy to see another human study showing the benefit of melatonin in stroke survivors.

Art