Melatonin is Not Enough for Good Sleep

by Scientific Health Staff
September 21st, 2012

Most of us start to make progress towards a better nights sleep by making small changes in our lives. For example, we may cut out coffee completely. Some of us may compromise and only drink it early in the day (it can take 6 hours for your body to get rid of a half cup of coffee). Others may choose to listen to a classical music public radio station instead of watch TV to help them calm down at night. If the lifestyle changes you have made still do not add up to a good night’s rest, then supplemental melatonin might help your insomnia.

Melatonin Ð micrograms, not milligrams

Most studies have shown that melatonin works well for sleep, but the key is to not take too much of it. Once you go over approximately 500 micrograms (half of a milligram), you start to fill up the receptor sites in your brain in a manner that prevents the melatonin supplement from having the desired effect. Try to locate melatonin that only has 300 Ð 500 micrograms per capsule or tablet. If you are only able to find 1mg tablets, you can try splitting the tablets in half with a pill splitter. Melatonin is best taken approximately 20 to 30 min. before bedtime, and can be used as needed during the night should you wake before morning.

Too much light at night?

For those who work night shifts or who have to use a computer late at night, then you are likely negatively impacting your natural melatonin production. A hundred years ago, the extent of artificial lights were gaslamps. But as computers, televisions and fluorescent bulbs become more prevalent, we’re getting more and more of the natural darkness at night stolen away from us. People who work night shifts do so under electrical lights. The problem with electrical lights and computer screens is that they emit a new spectrum light that interferes with our natural production of melatonin. If you are not able to turn off or get away from these lights at night, here are two suggestions:

  • Keep some melatonin tablets on hand to use during the latter part of your shift. This can help boost melatonin production, but make sure you know how it effects you as you don’t want to get too drowsy and not be able to perform your job. There are fruit flavored melatonin supplements that dissolve under the tongue and are convenient to take anywhere.
  • Try using specialized glasses to block the blue-spectrum light that interferes with your production of melatonin. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000USRG90/
  • If you use a computer at night, try using f.lux (mac / windows) to recalibrate the color intensity of your computer screen (it will adjust to a warmer hue at night) while using a blue light for a lamp. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001I45XL8/
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Salicylic Acid vs Benzoyl Peroxide

by Scientific Health Staff
September 20th, 2012

Benzoyl peroxide is an acne treatment that treats the actual bacteria that causes acne. It works well on red and inflamed acne. Benzoyl peroxide is available over the counter at your local drug store.

Salicylic acid works quite differently. Instead of treating bacteria, it helps your skin by accelerating its cell turnover rate, making it a great choice for those with blackheads and/or closed comedones.

Salicylic acid is also great for those sensitivity to benzoyl peroxide (such as kids).

Recommendation: Try using them both together (you can find many acne treatment products that contain both benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid).

You could use two different skin care products containing both active ingredients separately. For example, try using a cleanser with salicylic acid, followed by a benzoyl peroxide skin cream.

Pros and Cons of Salicylic Acid

Salicylic Acid Cons

  1. People may suffer skin irritation on first use.
  2. Have to repeatedly use it or else acne may revert back to the condition it was before using salicylic acid.
  3. Makes skin vulnerable to the sun.
  4. For some it can cause headaches, dizziness, tiredness or nausea.

Salicylic Acid Pros

  1. Removes dead skins cells and clears out pores while encouraging the top layer of the skin to peel (part of the normal skin replacement cycle). This helps prevent uneven shedding of your skin.
  2. Goes inside the pore to clear out the oil and reduce your chance of getting zits and blackheads.
  3. Helps open plugged hair follicles, unclog skin pores and helps to prevent skin lesions.

Pros and Cons of Benzoyl Peroxide

Benzoyl Peroxide Cons

  1. Skin dryness.
  2. Tenderness, itchiness, rashes, swelling and other skin sensitivity irritations.
  3. Hydrogen Peroxide will bleach clothing.
  4. Allergies. While allergy symptoms are uncommon with benzoyl peroxide, they can happen.

Benzoyl Peroxide Pros

  1. If you have cystic acne, marked by isolated clusters of large pimples (each large pimple with multiple tiny heads), then benzoyl peroxide should be tried first.
  2. Absorbs excess oil and prevents future breakouts.
  3. Benzoyl Peroxide is one of the best OTC treatments for killing acne bacteria.
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Mothers that Smoke – Some Hazards to Consider

by Scientific Health Staff
September 19th, 2012

Smoking has negative health effects on pregnant as well as breastfeeding women and is also hazardous to their babies. Although timing your smoke sessions can minimize these side effects when you smoke, it’s best to stop completely if you are pregnant. Nicotine patches and nicotine gum are both effective options for nicotine replacement therapy to help wean someone off of cigarettes.

The problems of smoking while pregnant or breastfeeding

  • Nicotine in Breast Milk – When a breast feeding mother smokes, she takes Nicotine into her body. This chemical winds up in her breast milk. So when the baby nurses, it will ingest not only nicotine but other chemicals found in cigarettes. Mother’s who are addicted to nicotine should consider switching to nicotine replacement therapy via a nicotine transdermal system. A 20 mg nicotine patch can deliver the nicotine equivalent of one pack of cigarettes every day. Nicotine gum is also an option for less frequent smokers. For those mothers who are unwilling or unable to quit smoking, try to only smoke after you breast-feed in order to minimize the nicotine levels that wind up in your breast milk and get transmitted to your child through your milk.
  • Smaller Supply of Milk – A child may end up without the nutrients it needs if its mother smokes. It’s been shown that breast-feeding women who smoke cigarettes do not produce as much milk when compared to non-smokers. The nutritional quality of mother’s milk is also affected by smoking. The amount of nutrients in the milk will decrease and hinder a lot of its benefits.
  • Birth Defects – The babies of pregnant women are at higher risk for birth defects when these women choose to smoke. These birth defects can include brain damage, undeveloped lungs, low birth weight and compromised immune systems that leave the baby vulnerable to many illnesses.
  • Miscarriage – Mothers-to-be who choose to smoke have a higher incidence of miscarriage.
  • Oxygen Reduction – Mother’s who smoke take in relatively less oxygen. Put differently, a baby gets its oxygen from its mother, so any reduction in the quantity of oxygen available can negatively impact the health of the baby.
Categories Cancer
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Magnesium is a Great Supplement for Insomnia

by Scientific Health Staff
September 18th, 2012

It’s estimated that three out of every four people are magnesium deficient. What compounds the problem is that many people can’t dietary forms of magnesium that aren’t very absorbable by the body. Magnesium supplementation helps the body to utilize enzymes properly, which results in the following positive benefits:

  • insomnia
  • depression
  • anxiety
  • irritability
  • migraines
  • restless leg syndrome
  • high blood pressure

Magnesium Supplements


Not all magnesium that you buy from the health food store is created equal. Some inferior forms of magnesium supplements include the following:

  • Magnesium pills – Magnesium oxide & magnesium lactate. These pills are not the most bioavailable forms of magnesium and aren’t well absorbed into the bloodstream.
  • Liquid magnesium Ð Although we see more and more “ionic magnesium” being sold in health food stores as a readily assimilated form of magnesium, have you ever tasted it? I’ve tried it, and it tastes like battery acid. I also had a stomachache after taking a dropperful of the ionic magnesium so I won’t be buying it again.

So now that we shared what not to take, how about some good forms of magnesium supplements?

  • Powdered magnesium – This is a great way to take your magnesium as it’s in a form that the body recognizes. You’ll need to work up to taking a full teaspoon of the powder a day as too much magnesium can cause loose stools. Since having an empty stomach helps magnesium absorption, powdered magnesium is a great supplement to take right before bed. The most popular flavors are lemon, orange and raspberry and it makes a slightly fizzy drink when poured into water. The most popular powdered magnesium appears to be Peter Gillham’s Natural Calm Mag Supplement, but there are many brands that are just as good. For example, Natural Factors has a product that is marketed for women.
  • Magnesium-lysine chelate – I know that earlier I said that pills were bad, but this form of a magnesium pill seems to be readily absorbed by the body. Also known as magnesium glycinate, lysine is bound to the magnesium molecule (a process known as chelation) so that the magnesium is more usable to the body. Of the few brands I’ve tried, I’ve been happy with the Doctor’s Best brand.

Getting More Magnesium from Your Diet

Sometimes the best way to get more of a vitamin or mineral like magnesium is to include some different foods in your diet. These can include the following:

  • Green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale.
  • Nuts like brazil nuts, cashews, walnuts and almonds.
  • Seeds like pumpkin and squash seeds.
  • Bananas.
  • Baked potatoes.
Categories Health Treatments
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Low Dose Aspirin – More Risk than Its Worth?

by Scientific Health Staff
September 17th, 2012

Cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease are the leading causes of death in men and women in the US. Men tend to have higher risk for coronary heart disease compared to women, but women have a higher risk of stroke compared to men. It’s becoming increasingly common for people to use low-dose aspirin as a way to minimize the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It’s estimated that aspirin therapy is helping to prevent more than 200,000 deaths every year in the US. But aspirin therapy is not without its risk, with elderly populations particularly vulnerable to some of aspirin’s more hazardous side effects.

Risks of aspirin therapy

  • Intracranial hemorrhage risk is increased by 40% when combined with aspirin therapy. Although that sounds high, the absolute risk is still low. As a point of comparison, the drug warfarin is associated with approximately 4000 intracranial hemorrhages a year, while aspirin therapy is associated with about 3000 per year.
  • Upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding risk is associated with aspirin therapy, and the risk increases with age. The frequency is approximately 1 per 1000 patients per year in all age groups, and it increases to 4 per 1000 for those above 75 years old.

To put these risks in perspective, take for example a healthy 50 year old man who has a life expectancy of approximately another 28 years. If he starts low-dose aspirin therapy at the age of 50, he will have a lifetime 5% risk for upper GI bleeding, a 1.3% risk for major upper GI bleeding, a 0.5% risk for intracranial hemorrhage, and a 0.2% risk for death. The total increased risk is about 7%, meaning that 1 out of every 15 patients would have some type of negative and impactful health consequence from aspirin therapy.

Aspirin therapy effectiveness for women.

Aspirin therapy effectiveness largely depends upon the age of the woman undergoing supplementation.

  • Studies don’t seem to support any cardiovascular benefit for women to take low-dose aspirin at younger ages. There is some evidence in reduction of stroke risk, but that is offset by a heightened risk for major bleeding. For every 1000 women taking an aspirin regimen tracked over an approximately 5 year period, there would be 2 fewer strokes but at least 2 more hemorrhages when compared to a control group. These numbers are similar to the statistics for men at this age group.
  • Studies suggest that there is less overall benefit for older women to take low-dose aspirin between the ages of 50 to 65.
  • Among elderly women 65 years of age and older, there is evidence for decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, but not for stroke.

It should also be noted that in women smokers, aspirin therapy did not reduce the risk for stroke and increased the risk for cardiovascular disease when combined with smoking. For further reading, please see Murphy SA: Women’s Health Study: low dose aspirin in primary prevention. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 46:CS7, 2005.

Is aspirin safe for the elderly?

Aspirin for primary prevention in older adults: Studies suggest that for every 1000 men aged between 70 and 74 years old, low-dose aspirin would prevent about 40 myocardial infarctions and about 20 deaths. But these numbers should be weighed against the fact that aspirin therapy would cause approximately 60 major upper GI hemorrhages or intracranial hemorrhages, resulting in approximately 15 deaths. Since the risk / reward ratio is not clear-cut, older adults should discuss aspirin therapy with their doctors. For further insight, please see Algra A, Greving JP: Aspirin in primary prevention: sex and baseline risk matter. LancetÊ373:1821, 2009.

Precautions / contraindications for taking aspirin with other drugs.

  • Avoid combining aspirin with the anti-coagulant warfarin.
  • Avoid combining aspirin with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, since the risk for major bleeding increases over 100 percent.
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