whygetfat on Nostr: Irene Lyon: "Let's talk melatonin, my dear. Give a little crash course on what that ...
Irene Lyon: "Let's talk melatonin, my dear. Give a little crash course on what that is, why it's best to probably not take the supplements, and how we want that melatonin to be released naturally during the day."
31:41
Carrie Bennett: "Yeah, it's a great question. So yes, melatonin is a hormone. And we actually make it in two places, and most people don't recognize that. We make it in our pineal gland, so deep in our brain we make it. And then we also make it inside of our cells, it's called subcellular melatonin.
"And so we think of melatonin as just the hormone that puts us to sleep. But it's actually responsible for so much repair. It's very much one of our most potent anti-aging repair hormones.
"And so if you think about it, and if we were to test someone's melatonin, […] we see the pineal melatonin […] start to rise around sunset, and then peak right in the middle of the night. And then as the sun would start to be rising above the horizon, dawn, it starts to go down again. So we have this circadian peak when we're sleeping. And that makes sense, because yes, […] that pineal melatonin puts us to sleep.
"But then it's responsible for running all of our cellular repair programs when we are asleep. Something called autophagy, which is like our internal repair, recycling programming. Apoptosis, kills off cells that don't function, don't serve us anymore. And so we need enough melatonin to not only put us to sleep but to run those programs.
"Here's why you don't necessarily want to take it. Melatonin is a hormone. I have a hard time recommending blanketly that it's always safe to supplement a hormone, because hormones work in feedback loops. They work in these beautiful systems, tightly coupled systems.
"And so the coupled system with melatonin is actually the fact that when you are outside in morning sunlight, those wavelengths that you capture in the morning through your eyes turn a chemical called tryptophan, which we think of at Thanksgiving. 'Oh, I've eaten too much tryptophan. I'm tired. Turkey. Yeah, yeah.'
"So we've got tons of tryptophan in the morning just kind of swimming in the backs of our eyes. That tryptophan, as soon as it receives the light frequency, the ultraviolet light frequency, it takes that tryptophan and it makes it into serotonin.
"So it actually sets us up to feel good, energized, focused. It sets up our brain to be productive for the day. And then that serotonin, as soon as we sense the light is waning and darkness is coming, that serotonin then gets converted into melatonin. That melatonin gets used up, broken back down, and the tryptophan gets recycled back in the morning.
"And it's this beautiful cycle. Tryptophan gets the light, becomes serotonin, feeling good, doing my thing. Day goes, day wanes, melatonin. And that's how it's meant to be.
"When you insert it just artificially here, it's really confusing to your body, because it's like, 'Well, wait. We didn't have the stores to lead up to it. How did that happen?'
"And so you're more likely to have tons of tryptophan in the morning that makes you just feel groggy as heck, gives you a hard time waking up. You have a hard time getting out of bed. You start to feel worse, especially then if you're not converting that tryptophan back to serotonin with morning sunlight, and linking the whole process together." —Carrie Bennett with Irene Lyon @ 31:21–34:53 https://youtu.be/_rGxeExQYjs&t=1883
31:41
Carrie Bennett: "Yeah, it's a great question. So yes, melatonin is a hormone. And we actually make it in two places, and most people don't recognize that. We make it in our pineal gland, so deep in our brain we make it. And then we also make it inside of our cells, it's called subcellular melatonin.
"And so we think of melatonin as just the hormone that puts us to sleep. But it's actually responsible for so much repair. It's very much one of our most potent anti-aging repair hormones.
"And so if you think about it, and if we were to test someone's melatonin, […] we see the pineal melatonin […] start to rise around sunset, and then peak right in the middle of the night. And then as the sun would start to be rising above the horizon, dawn, it starts to go down again. So we have this circadian peak when we're sleeping. And that makes sense, because yes, […] that pineal melatonin puts us to sleep.
"But then it's responsible for running all of our cellular repair programs when we are asleep. Something called autophagy, which is like our internal repair, recycling programming. Apoptosis, kills off cells that don't function, don't serve us anymore. And so we need enough melatonin to not only put us to sleep but to run those programs.
"Here's why you don't necessarily want to take it. Melatonin is a hormone. I have a hard time recommending blanketly that it's always safe to supplement a hormone, because hormones work in feedback loops. They work in these beautiful systems, tightly coupled systems.
"And so the coupled system with melatonin is actually the fact that when you are outside in morning sunlight, those wavelengths that you capture in the morning through your eyes turn a chemical called tryptophan, which we think of at Thanksgiving. 'Oh, I've eaten too much tryptophan. I'm tired. Turkey. Yeah, yeah.'
"So we've got tons of tryptophan in the morning just kind of swimming in the backs of our eyes. That tryptophan, as soon as it receives the light frequency, the ultraviolet light frequency, it takes that tryptophan and it makes it into serotonin.
"So it actually sets us up to feel good, energized, focused. It sets up our brain to be productive for the day. And then that serotonin, as soon as we sense the light is waning and darkness is coming, that serotonin then gets converted into melatonin. That melatonin gets used up, broken back down, and the tryptophan gets recycled back in the morning.
"And it's this beautiful cycle. Tryptophan gets the light, becomes serotonin, feeling good, doing my thing. Day goes, day wanes, melatonin. And that's how it's meant to be.
"When you insert it just artificially here, it's really confusing to your body, because it's like, 'Well, wait. We didn't have the stores to lead up to it. How did that happen?'
"And so you're more likely to have tons of tryptophan in the morning that makes you just feel groggy as heck, gives you a hard time waking up. You have a hard time getting out of bed. You start to feel worse, especially then if you're not converting that tryptophan back to serotonin with morning sunlight, and linking the whole process together." —Carrie Bennett with Irene Lyon @ 31:21–34:53 https://youtu.be/_rGxeExQYjs&t=1883