Key Takeaways:
• Melatonin plays a significant role in metabolism and blood glucose control.
• Melatonin production can be naturally boosted by daytime exposure to bright light.
• It's important to avoid eating 2-3 hours before bedtime and 1-2 hours after waking up to maintain optimal blood glucose levels.
• Slow-release melatonin may stay in the system longer than natural melatonin, potentially affecting insulin production even after waking up.
Show Notes
Dr. Satchin Panda, a leading expert in circadian rhythm research and a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, delivers a masterclass on how to boost melatonin levels to improve sleep naturally. He also details the potential dangers of using slow-release melatonin and how to modify your eating patterns to optimize blood glucose control.
Key Quotes
"The biggest impact of melatonin and why you should think twice is its effect on metabolism, particularly blood glucose control."
"Surprisingly, they found that a mutation, changed in DNA in one of the melatonin receptors can contribute to diabetes, obesity."
"If you have high melatonin level in your blood, that means your insulin-producing cell or pancreas is kind of asleep, and it's not paying attention to glucose, and then you eat something that has glucose, then your blood glucose level is likely to remain high for a very long time, and if it continues, then you may be close to pre-diabetes or type two diabetes."
"For a regular person who is not taking exogenous melatonin, it's really hard to know when our melatonin begins to rise. But the rule of thumb is two hours before habitual bedtime, melatonin begins to rise."
