Melatonin

Yes, I have.

My son takes melatonin and does very well on it. I on the other hand had horrible nightmares with melatonin starting about the third night. It took me a full week to realize it was the Melatonin.

I do take Ambien and Lunesta (nothing works long term for me so I have to alternate)

Melatonin was a life-saver for me.  Chemo & Femara totally disrupted my sleeping patterns - if I could string together 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep it was a good night.  And if a hot flash or hitting the bathroom or anything else woke me up, it would be at least an hour before I could get back to sleep.  It was horrible. 

Several women on this board recommended melatonin, so I tried it, starting with a 3mg dose. After a few weeks I realized that I was sleeping 4+ hours at a time, and now I can routinely string 6 hours together.  And when I do wake up due to a hot flash or to hit the bathroom or any other reason, I find I can return to sleep almost immediately.  What an incredible difference in my QOL to get a good night's sleep!

I had freaky dreams the first week or so - not nightmares, but just weird dreams.  My body eventually adjusted and I rarely have those anymore.  My onc and PCP are both aware I'm using it and are fine with it.  

Melatonin doesn't work for everyone, but why not give it a try for a few weeks and see how you do?

warrior - My onc PA suggested that I take 3mg melatonin and an old style sedating anti-histamine (I take chlorpheniramine 4mg) before bed to help me sleep through hot flashes.  It does help.

I tried melatonin and it didn't help me, so I guess it varies by each person. I've had excellent luck with guided imagery (free though our cancer support center) which is a type of relaxation/meditation. Part of my sleeping problems were due to post-Tx anxiety and worries about recurrence, so one session with a counselor and some journal writing helped a lot too (FYI in case that helps anyone). FWIW, there have been some threads in diff. forums of BC.org on sleeping problems so if are looking for other options, you may find something with the Search feature. I remember some people had good luck with acupuncture. Good luck! Sleeping problems can be a real drag!

Moderators - Thanks for the link - I didn't see that great set of information about supplements before either.

You're welcome Omaz! Glad we could help!

I just started taking it a month or so ago.  I have sleep issues since my diagnosis.  I sleep great on Xanax but don't want to use Xanax as a sleep aid for the rest of my life. I read about Melatonin and it possibly being good for people with cancer and that it can help sleep, so I tried it.  I do sleep better on it...still not great but better.

AA - Interesting article!  Have you started a metformin thread yet? 

Bev and I both take melatonin.  We buy a time release 3mg version from vitacost.  I think the time release works better for me, but in any event, the sleep inducing effect seems to wear off over prolonged use.  Bev took melatonin during her docetaxol phase of chemo, because she was experiencing rather severe neuropathy.  Melatonin has been studied in cancer patients on taxols, and it has been found to reduce the degree of neuropathy.

 There is certainly circumstantial evidence of a link between low melatonin levels and breast cancer.  The nurses study showed women on night shifts had higher rates of incidence of breast cancer.

There is the italian work by Lissoni that demonstrated an ability of high doses of melatonin to reverse hormone receptor positive breast cancer's resistance to anti hormonals.  Unfortunately there is no large scale follow up work to confirm their findings.

I see a recent publication on pubmed that looks interesting, and I'm hoping someone can provide me with a full text copy of the look at recent studies and patents.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22074586

Abstract

Melatonin is a natural substance ubiquitous in distribution and present in almost all species ranging from unicellular organisms to humans. In mammals, melatonin is synthesized not only in the pineal gland but also in many other parts of the body, including the eyes, bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract, skin and lymphocytes. Melatonin influences almost every cell and can be traced in membrane, cytoplasmic, mitochondrial and nuclear compartments of the cell. The decline in the production of melatonin with age has been suggested as one of the major contributors to immunosenescence and development of neoplastic diseases. Melatonin is a natural antioxidant with immunoenhancing properties. T-helper cells play an important role for protection against malignancy and melatonin has been shown to enhance T-helper cell response by releasing interleukin-2, interleukin-10 and interferon-γ. Melatonin is effective in suppressing neoplastic growth in a variety of tumors like melanoma, breast and prostate cancer, and ovarian and colorectal cancer. As an adjuvant therapy, melatonin can be beneficial in treating patients suffering from breast cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma or melanoma. In this paper, a brief review of recent patents on melatonin and cancer has also been presented.

PMID:

22074586

[PubMed - in process]

On the subject of using melatonin for assisting with sleep, I've found that if I take one after waking up in the middle of the night, it assists in having restful sleep.  This is a little different from taking it before bedtime.

I don't think there are many brands that are made from bovine pineal gland extracts, but as these are made from cows brains, and diseases can be spread by this method, it is best to ensure your melatonin supplement is synthetic.  Shoppers Drug Mart was selling a brand made from cow brains at one time within the last couple of years.

Omaz,

I found a thread about the metformin trials in the trial forum and have posted there, as the people who have heard about the trials and are actively involved in them should be able to provide some good perspective from the "inside" as bc patients while the trials are going on. So keep an eye there maybe as time passes. I hope especially that this helps out those with the most rapid cancer growth, since it seems to apply to both ER- and ER+. Very encouraging! It is especially good to have a drug that is inexpensive (that will help the most disadvantaged countries and patients too) and that has a solid history of having been studied extensively, and that is already on the market.

I wonder if the Dec 1 article in the magazine will be discussed at all at SABCS.

A.A.

Just so you know, lavender is high in phytoestrogens. I personally avoid it due to ER+.

Cheers,

PLJ