I have seen this really interesting video. Not saying I understand everything, but think I at least get the gist of it: Melatonin is important for our bodies - not just related to sleep. It is a very potent ANTIOXIDANT, which helps our bodies fight inflammation (from sugar, stress etc).
Happy watching - and Happy New Year to all
We know it’s used in the US often as I believe you can’t buy it over the counter in the U.K. we also know that Pharma companies use a combination of medicinal plants and Melatonin to create sleep aid solutions. @pamelaspence have you come across this much as I know you practice in the U.K. and I think Melatonin is not available over the counter here?
Morning all!
@laurent.rossier apologies I missed this entirely when you posted it originally.
@Kaveh yes melatonin is not available over the counter in the UK. However I have a lot of patients who use it to manage their sleep, particularly if they travel a lot.
What is really interesting about this video is that it is looking at the other benefits of melatonin and how it affects us, particularly in terms of it’s relationship with vitamin d. I really l ike his explanation - which is saying something given that I was expecting to hate it 
He doesn’t advocate supplementing with melatonin, or vitamin d either. He’s pointing out that when we derive our vitamin d from sunlight, i.e. straight from the natural source, the way we were built to receive vitamin d, more things happen than we can currently understand. And part of that is that levels of melatonin, a light activated hormone, increase and become an extremely important antioxidant. He notes that studies have shown supplementing with vitamin d is not as effective as getting more sun. Music to my ears and very contrary to the ‘stay out of the sun’ message we have all had these last 20 years. Don’t get me wrong, we must protect against skin cancer of course BUT we also need sunlight on our bare skin for a little time in order to process the vitamin d we need. It is about balance - as always.
He talks about the top three causes of death (and part of me thinks - we all know there’s only one way out of this experience so something is going to get us - I guess he really is talking about premature death) being caused by conditions that can be controlled, or delayed if we have enough antioxidants present in our body. And he’s saying that melatonin is an important part of that, which we can get by being in the sun. Or taking a red light bath (which some studies show increases melatonin production).
The key takeaway for me, is simple. Rather than supplementing here and there, if we go back to nature, interact with it in the simplest ways as we would have before modern society, there are more complex interchanges going on than we may ever understand. Supplementing is a blunt tool, allowing the natural process to happen is infinitely more complex.
Thanks for the share!
Perfectly said Pamelaspence .let mother nature do her job they way she intended to do. Xxx