@The450Man 494 wrote:

Would supplementing with Melatonin before bed help the adrenals out? Some say its good, while others say its not. I really have no idea other then it possibly promotes sleep.

While I cannot answer this question directly, I’ll tell you this :

On the few occasions I had 1 mg melatonin before bed, the next day my libido was higher than usual. I think melatonin increases GABA among other signals, at least this is what Dr. Eric Braverman writes in his book the Edge effect.

@The450Man 507 wrote:

hrm, ive been told it hurts libido through the blunting of testosterone…… interesting.

I’ve also read it can do that as well. I’ve never taken melatonin long term, so this alone can skew my outcome. Then comes the issue of dosage, which probaly is relevant as to what it’s going to do over the long range. Also, is one deficient or in this hormone matters as well.

We all produce melatonin, and healthy endogenous physiological levels do not cause any problem. I guess problems can arise when one takes too high a dose and isn’t deficent to begin with.

@marsaday 551 wrote:

according to http://www.drmyhill.co.uk, she says there is a relationship between DHEA and melatonin.

my wife has very high levels of DHEA at night (saliva adrenal test showed this) and so to balance this up you can provide melatonin.

She has an acne problem and so we have tried this melatonin and it has almost removed the acney problem (caused i think by the high DHEA levels at night, when they should be low).

I once had 4 points saliva cortisol and DHEA. All four cortisol samples came in normal, but DHEA was off the chart. I’ve had cystic acne for years and years. I’m doing relatively ok now, but I’m nonetheless acne prone.

@The450Man 556 wrote:

interesting, i too have terrible acne. Its not entirely the type of acne thats on top, but some very deep. I get allot of it on my back and chest which develop into a sore.

Look up cystic acne, as it looks this is what you have. I had it, and it hurt a lot because of the size of the pustules.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystic_acne

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=cystic%20acne&rlz=1W1GGLL_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

@DrMariano 573 wrote:

It is the sleep, itself, that Melatonin triggers that helps restore hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function.

Melatonin, if the dose is too high, will suppress adrenal output excessively. In a person with HPA Axis Dysregulation and low cortisol output, this becomes a problem. The even lower cortisol output from the use of excessive Melatonin will cause the brain to release more norepinephrine, causing insomnia and anxiety and agitation instead of sleep. Thus, when a person has problems with cortisol output, it is best to keep Melatonin to under 1 mg a night.

Melatonin, in high doses, can suppress testosterone production. It also suppresses thyroid function. In the usual small doses used for sleep, this isn’t usually an issue since one doesn’t have sex while asleep. Once one wakes up, testosterone production would be brought back to normal by other factors including norepinephrine production that wakes one and keeps one awake in the daytime.

Melatonin at high doses (e.g. 75 mg a day) can be used as birth control in women – though I don’t know if this would work in men.

I’ve heard of melatonin used as birth control in women, but I wonder how alert one would be on 75 mg/day. Granted the dose might not be given in a single step. Unless the effect at such a high dose is reversed. I know from experience, which relfects what you wrote, that the best melatonin doses for me, my better half and my mother is 1 mg or less, as in 500 mcg. Any more than that and it wakes me up in the middle of the night–same thing for my fiance and my mother.