Sleep Hormone Melatonin may Aggravate Bowel Inflammation

Melatonin hormone that regulates sleep cycles, can worsen the inflammation of the intestine, and impair the action of gut microbiota, suggests a new study published in the journal Microorganisms.

This community of bacteria and other microbes present in the gut is important to health by helping to control digestion and benefiting the immune system. An imbalance of unhealthy and healthy microbes in the intestines may contribute to weight gain, high blood sugar, above-normal cholesterol, and other disorders.

Melatonin
Melatonin is the body’s master hormone with several significant functions, including the monitoring of other hormones and regulating the sleep-wake cycle.

‘Taking melatonin hormone supplements without a doctor’s prescription can cause adverse effects on gut health.’

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Melatonin is popularly known as the “sleep hormone” and is often taken as a so-called food supplement without a doctor’s prescription by people with sleep problems. However, this study shows that people should be careful about taking hormone supplements and that the ingestion of melatonin supplements can have adverse effects on health.

Does Melatonin Affect Gut Microbiome?

Inflammatory bowel disorders, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. These disorders are immune-mediated, resulting from abnormal activity of the immune cells in overreacting to a pathogen, with destructive effects on the gut microbiome and severe clinical symptoms, such as abdominal pain, constant diarrhea, bleeding, and fatigue ().

Treatment entails suppressing or inhibiting the immune response to reduce the excessive inflammation that damages the intestine. Besides corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, treatment may involve immunobiological medications, which are more effective for moderate and severe cases but unaffordable for most patients.

Besides the problem of affordability, many patients do not respond well even to the most advanced treatments and must undergo surgery for the removal of parts of the intestine. These invasive procedures have a highly negative effect on their quality of life.

Melatonin Helps Treat Sleep Disorders in Neuro-Developmentally Challenged Children
Sleep disturbances are generally chronic and lead to behavioral and learning problems. Children having developmental and neurological ailments show high prevalence of sleep disturbances.

Melatonin can indeed act as an antioxidant and improve several physiological or pathological conditions. The study involved an experiment in which colitis was induced in mice, and they were treated with melatonin.

Their condition became worse instead of improving. The animals’ bowel inflammation became much, much worse. Later, they found that melatonin had a positive effect on the disease if the effect on gut microbiota was ignored and the mice were treated with wide-spectrum antibiotics to eliminate all the bacteria ().

Melatonin Holds Potential as New COVID-19 Treatment
Results from a Cleveland Clinic-led study suggest that melatonin, a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and is commonly used as an over-the-counter sleep aid, may be a viable treatment option for COVID-19.

The negative effect of melatonin, therefore, depends on the bacteria that live in the intestine and are also associated with inflammatory diseases of the region. Certain features of gut microbiota increase inflammation and dysregulate the immune system in response to treatment with melatonin, damaging the digestive system.

These findings highlight that people should take great care with medications, hormone supplements, or hormones offered as food supplements.

Protect Your Gut by Consuming Psyllium Fiber
A new study conducted in mice suggests that psyllium fiber can protect against ulcerative colitis by activating bile acid nuclear receptor.

References:

Melatonin in the colon modulates intestinal microbiota in response to stress and sleep deprivation - (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7385569/)
The Microbiota-Dependent Worsening Effects of Melatonin on Gut Inflammation - (https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/11/2/460)

Source-Eurekalert