As originally reported in Pulmonary Hypertension News, sleep is a natural cleanser for the body. During the nights, our brain imbeds our memories, removes metabolic waste, and heals itself and the body. The full nature of our brain’s processing during sleep is still to be explored, it is known to be vast and vital. One part of the sleeping-process involves the production of the natural hormone ‘melatonin’ which regulates our circadian rhythm.
The hormone has become a household name because its been made into a popular supplement to help troubled sleeping. However, while people may know it for sleep assistance, less commonly known is how the hormone has been found to assist cardiovascular functioning, protecting against many heart related diseases. In new research on mice, scientists have found amongst these benefits could be the ability for melatonin to protect again symptoms of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH.) The mice who received the melatonin in the study experienced less damage to their lung blood vessels and experienced less inflammation.
Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a disease resulting from high blood pressure in the arteries in the circuit from the heart to the lungs. In PAH, the arteries are too tight or blocks to allow the blood to flow smoothly, causing the blood pressure to raise to get through. The heart weakens over time due to the extra work it must use to push the blood through. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, fatigue, chest pain, passing out, and swelling. The disease progresses over time.
The New Research: A Treatment For PAH?
While the research is still new, so far, the data suggests melatonin could be beneficial to incorporate into the therapy regime for PAH patients. Scientists still do not understand many of melatonin’s properties, including why exactly it is having the effects that it is. However, melatonin is known to scientists as an anti-inflammatory. PAH is known to develop with inflammation, and so the researchers are focusing on this property of the hormone. They found that the melatonin had a few main effects in this research:
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The hormone prevented lung inflammation. It does this by preventing the production of cells which cause inflammation: macrophages and inflammasomes.
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The hormone protected the cells around the blood vessels from damage known as ‘endothelial injury’, which contributes to symptoms of the disease.
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They found that the characteristic thick pulmonary artery walls were reduced in size to a healthier range.
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It was shown to reduce the high blood pressure of the heart’s lower right chamber.
However, still, why melatonin had these effective results in the studies on mice and sheep is not clearly understood still. The ability to make use of a chemical ‘endogenous’ or natural to the body is positive.* It is not known to cause many or severe side effects. Further, there are many diseases which benefit from healthier blood flow and reduced inflammation. So far, it seems to alleviate some of the PAH symptoms, the next trials will bring more insights.
