is actually doing there, but this is my theory. I think that from an evolutionary perspective, through prokaryotes into membrane-bound eukaryotes, what we see is that melatonin is ancient, it’ s been around for a really long time. And I think that it became part of the cellular organelle in an antioxidant defence system process. And that’ s where we most probably need melatonin: within the mitochondria, because of the oxidative bursts, all of the reactive oxygen species. So, I think that just through the finetuning of our physiology over time, it just came to be a protective molecule. I think that there’ s more to unpack there.
Adrian: When people think about melatonin, it’ s associated with sleep. But it sounds like there’ s a lot more for us to learn about melatonin and its potential role in the body.
Deanna: Absolutely. And one of the emerging areas is its role in the glymphatic fluid exchange. This is really piquing my interest. I think of melatonin in six ways. Number one, it’ s an antioxidant that can flex to water or fat. Number two, it’ s anti-inflammatory, so that’ s why it attracted a lot of attention during the pandemic, because it was seen as an agent to quell the cytokine storm. Number three, which I’ ll go through, is what I find exciting, which is more the neural growth factor effect and its role in mediating the exit of toxic metabolites from the brain into the glymphatic fluid, which is active at night. So that’ s like a brain detoxification. Number four: some cell biologists are really nerding out into its role in what’ s called phase separation. And this is not known widely in clinical medicine, but in a cell, viruses, amyloid, just even healthy things, can start to build up autonomously, without a membrane. So, these entities kind of set up a factory, and it looks like melatonin may stop this process. That’ s why it’ s being seen as an agent in conditions like dementia. And then, of course there’ s number five- circadian rhythm, the sleep-wake cycle. And then, finally, there’ s mitochondrial regulation. So, if melatonin plays a part in all these mechanisms- if it works as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, mitochondrial regulator- it must play a role in chronic diseases of various types, extending beyond its known role in sleep.
Adrian: I’ ve even seen some work or some literature recently talking about this kind of role, and as an anti-aging agent. Do you think that it plays a role there too?
Deanna: Yes, Because of all those things that I’ ve mentioned. If we look at aging as“ inflammageing”, and recognise that there’ s a connection to inflammation, to toxic load, to hormone levels, and to antioxidant defence enzymes. People with high glutathione are going to fare better than those with low glutathione. There’ s even a relationship between melatonin and glutathione. Melatonin is actually five times more potent than glutathione, and it can also help regulate glutathione, and seems to sync up with it.
What is aging? It’ s a lot of free radicals. It’ s an overabundance of oxidative stress. It’ s inflammation. It’ s when we don’ t