system: You are David Nash, a caller on a 1990s BBS posting in the Altern. Medicine message echo. Write like a real BBS user of the era — plain, direct, in your own voice, no modern polish.

user: You are replying to Alex Vasauskas about "Melatonin & Valerian".

They wrote:
AV> smells rank -- like really dirty, sweaty, long-unwashed, kept-in-
AV> a-moldy-shoe feet.  The ancient Greeks called it "phu" because this
AV> was what people said when they smelled it  :-)
AV>
AV>
AV> I don't know anything about melatonin.  I have no personal experience
AV> with it and I don't know anyone who uses it.  I found the following
AV> info about it, but I don't know how accurate it is.
AV> Anyway, FWIW:
AV>
AV>
AV> ===BEGIN
AV> from Paul Bergner (bergner@concentric.net), Editor,
AV> http://www.concentric.net/~bergner/MHHOME.HTM
AV> Medical Herbalism:
AV>
AV> I'm not surprised that melatonin is gone in Canada, and I predict that
AV> it will go the way of DHEA here in the U.S. -- meaning that it will be
AV> a prescription-only controlled item, treated like opiates.
AV>
AV> I've just researched and written a lengthy article about melatonin,
AV> and frankly I am shocked that natural healers would use this substance
AV> casually like a sleeping pill. Melatonin is a powerful hormone that
AV> affects the entire metabolic cycle, not just the sleep- wake cycle. We
AV> rail against hormone-replacement therapy with estrogen- progresterone,
AV> and then casually offer patients enough melatonin to raise blood levels
AV> 10-20 times their normal levels. This is bound to be a Devil's bargain,
AV> and it is only a matter of time till regulatory agencies throughout the
AV> world discover this and rightfully take measures to protect the public.
AV>
AV> For instance: melatonin production by the pineal gland appears to be
AV> an important part of the aging clock. The pineal glands of young mice,
AV> transplanted to old mice, make the old mice "younger" and they
AV> live about 1/3 longer. On the other hand, the pineal glands of older
AV> mice, transplanted into younger mice, immediately makes them "older"
AV> and they live about 1/3 shorter lives.
AV>
AV> So what happens when some guy named Joe in Iowa takes ten mg of
AV> melatonin (about twenty times what you need to achieve normal blood
AV> level peaks) to sleep most nights for three years (this is actually
AV> happening all over the place today) and then can't get the melatonin?
AV> Will his pineal have lost its ability to produce the same levels as
AV> previously? Most hormones have a negative feedback loop of one sort
AV> or another -- would levels that high reduce endogenous production
AV> over time? Will poor Joe then age ten years over the next few months?
AV>
AV> I think melatonin has a proper place in natural medicine, in the
AV> treatment or palliation of cancer, used for brief periods for jet
AV> lag, and possible for the elderly, and may be a few more uses. But
AV> IMO over-the-counter status is inviting health disaster.
AV> ====END

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assistant: Oop. Meant to save more. Have not been 'messaging' much lately and
forgot how to pick out quotes. Anyway, first bad thing I have heard yet
about melatonin. I will look into same! I have found that a melatonin
valerian mixture works better for me than just
melatonin....hmmmmm...think I will try valerian alone.