I haven’t been feeling well lately. Lightheadedness, tiredness, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, severe headaches. You name it. I’ve got it. Yet blood work, an EKG, and even a brain MRI haven’t shown anything wrong. Is it all psychosomatic? Anxiety induced? Possibly. I certainly can’t rule it out since we now live in a post apocalyptic society. But my latest theory offers an alternative possibility: a reaction to taking the popular over the counter sleep aid Melatonin since that’s the only new thing I’ve introduced to my system over the last year. If that’s true then that would really suck for me since new research seems to indicate that in addition to helping your anxiety riddled body fall asleep Melatonin could help prevent you from getting COVID-19!
Very Wealth Health explains:
“It’s easy to forget that COVID-19 is still a relatively new virus. And, with that, scientists are still trying to discover ways to treat it. Now, a new study suggests that one potential treatment for the virus could be found at your local pharmacy: the common sleep aid melatonin.
The November study, which was published in the journal PLOS Biology, analyzed patient data from Cleveland Clinic’s COVID-19 registry.1 The researchers discovered that melatonin usage was linked to a nearly 30% reduced likelihood of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, after scientists adjusted for age, race, smoking history, and comorbidities. The numbers were even higher among people in certain groups: African-Americans had a 52% reduced likelihood of testing positive, while people with diabetes had a 48% lower risk.
The researchers then analyzed large-scale electronic health records from Cleveland Clinic patients to find similarities between COVID-19 and other diseases. They specifically measured the proximity between host genes and proteins, and those that are linked with 64 other diseases across several disease categories, including malignant cancer and autoimmune, cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological, and pulmonary diseases, to try to find similarities.
The researchers discovered that proteins linked with respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis, which are two main causes of death in patients with severe COVID-19, had connections with multiple SARS-CoV-2 proteins. This suggested that a drug that has already been developed to help treat those conditions may also help with COVID-19.
As a whole, the researchers found that autoimmune, pulmonary, and neurological diseases had the biggest proximity to SARS-CoV-2 genes and proteins. They flagged 34 drugs for possible ‘repurposing’ use—which entails using them for a reason outside of their original intended use. Melatonin was the top contender.”
Hopefully, my theory thought Melatonin use is causing my symptoms isn’t true because I sure would like to start taking it again if it can indeed help prevent COVID-19 as well as help me fall asleep sooner. Something that any anxious person certainly needs help with.
Can Melatonin help prevent COVID-19?
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