Word: melatonin
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...study is also looking at the use of melatonin, a hormone produced in the brain, to ease sleeping disorders. While Mukai participated in this part of the experiment, Glenn was disqualified for reasons NASA would not disclose. Although melatonin is currently used by millions of Americans looking to improve their sleep, its effectiveness is uncertain. Mukai was given a placebo on some nights and melatonin on others. Besides studying the effects on her sleep, Czeisler will test its effects on Mukai's cognitive performance and short-term memory...
...back in August that Glenn was told he wouldn't be taking part in a test of melatonin, the natural sleep hormone, because he "did not meet one of the medical criteria for participation," Dr. Charles Czeisler, the surgeon who disqualified Glenn, told the New York Times Wednesday. For two months, NASA endeavored to keep the news quiet -- ostensibly because it was a private medical matter. Evidently, it didn't fit the mold of a feisty American hero blasting back into orbit. Neither does the prospect of delaying the launch, with Clinton and hundreds of congressmen, celebrities and network anchormen...
...human beings, the sea change in aging has been a long time in coming. In the past decade or two, there has been an explosion in new therapies designed to slow the senescence process--from melatonin to antioxidants to hormone-replacement therapy to the intriguing hormonal precursor DHEA...
DHEA, by comparison, is the modern equivalent of a patent medicine--an interesting compound being sold as a cure-all on the basis of the flimsiest scientific evidence. Like human-growth hormone and melatonin, two other drugs being promoted as antiaging compounds, DHEA is a medically active chemical with real value that has piqued the interest of mainstream scientists. But the claims that surround DHEA--that it can restore sexual vigor, prevent cancer and heart disease, and add decades to your life--run far ahead of the science...
...that end, research is also under way to see if low doses of hormones or high doses of vitamins can reduce the effects of oxygen radicals. The nia is supporting limited research into the risks and benefits of boosting the levels of three hormones that decrease as people age: melatonin, which affects sleep cycles; dehydroepiandrosterone, a product of the adrenal glands that converts to estrogen and testosterone; and human-growth hormone, which affects bone and organ development, as well as metabolic rate. Limited lab tests on animals suggest to some investigators that melatonin may serve as an antioxidant, wiping...