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MELATONIN FOR PAIN · Your Daily Dose

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  Speaker 1: Hey everybody, welcome to September 17th, 2026. Today we're going
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  Speaker 1: to talk about easing pain, chronic and acute pain. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to look more at chronic and understand that the
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  Speaker 1: sleep hormone, melatonin, may be playing a role. Stay tuned.
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  Speaker 1: Hi and welcome to Health Talk with Dr. Len, your
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  Speaker 1: daily dose. The information you hear on this show is informational.
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  Speaker 1: It's not meant to diagnose or treat any disease. Any
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  Speaker 1: kind of Complete health conditions must be checked out and
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  Speaker 1: discussed with your primary care physician. Get ready for the
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  Speaker 1: good news of the day. God bless you folks. And
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  Speaker 1: here is Dr. Lent. Our daily devotional today comes from
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  Speaker 1: the book of 1 Peter chapter 5. You will not
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  Speaker 1: find my peace by engaging in excessive planning, attempting to
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  Speaker 1: control what will happen to you in the future. That
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  Speaker 1: is a commonly practiced form of unbelief. When your mind
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  Speaker 1: spins with multiple plans... Peace may sometimes seem to be
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  Speaker 1: within your grasp, yet it always eludes you. Just when
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  Speaker 1: you think you have prepared for all the possibilities, something
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  Speaker 1: unexpected pops up and throws things into confusion. I did
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  Speaker 1: not design the human mind to figure out the future.
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  Speaker 1: That is beyond your capability. I crafted your mind for
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  Speaker 1: continual communication with me. Bring me all your needs, your hopes,
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  Speaker 1: and your fears. Commit everything into my care. Turn from
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  Speaker 1: the path of planning... The Path of Peace. Stay tuned.
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  Speaker 1: The Path of Peace 727-916-4215. Sleep is a great healer.
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  Speaker 1: Pain keeps you up, and being up makes the pain worse.
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  Speaker 1: a cycle millions of people with chronic pain know well.
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  Speaker 1: Some researchers now think that melatonin might help break it.
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  Speaker 1: A new analysis of 23 clinical trials involving more than 2,000
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  Speaker 1: patients found that melatonin, best known as the jet lag
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  Speaker 1: and bedtime aid, reduced pain in people with chronic musculoskeletal
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  Speaker 1: conditions such as arthritis and low back pain. The findings
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  Speaker 1: raised the question, could this familial sleep supplement have a
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  Speaker 1: supportive role in pain care? Researchers pooled results from studies
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  Speaker 1: of two groups, people with chronic pain lasting at least
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  Speaker 1: three months and people recovering from musculoskeletal surgery, such as
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  Speaker 1: joint replacement and spinal surgery. The results showed melatonin-eased pain
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  Speaker 1: in the chronic pain group in the highest quality studies.
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  Speaker 1: It did not meaningfully help pain after surgery. The researchers
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  Speaker 1: converted the results into a common 100-point scale for this meta-analysis.
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  Speaker 1: Across all chronic pain studies, Melatonin pain level scores lowered
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  Speaker 1: by 9 points on average. 9 points may not seem significant,
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  Speaker 1: but consider that a 2020 Cochrane review found that the
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  Speaker 1: common first-line pain relievers, such as ibuprofen, reduced pain by
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  Speaker 1: about 7.7. Although this isn't a direct comparison, it suggests
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  Speaker 1: melatonin may provide a similar degree of pain relief. We
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  Speaker 1: find that melatonin can relieve people's pain intensity with the
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  Speaker 1: effect comparable to some conventional analgesic medications. Interesting. Even so,
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  Speaker 1: melatonin's pain reduction falls below the threshold doctors generally consider
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  Speaker 1: clinically meaningful. The evidence is not yet strong enough to
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  Speaker 1: change clinical practice. Larger, high-scale studies are needed. Poor sleep
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  Speaker 1: and pain feed each other. One makes the other worse.
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  Speaker 1: The numbers in common musculoskeletal conditions show how common this
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  Speaker 1: overlap is. About 70% of people with osteoarthritis and 95%
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  Speaker 1: of people with fibromyalgia report sleep problems. Research shows that
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  Speaker 1: people who struggle to fall or stay asleep are more
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  Speaker 1: likely to develop chronic pain years later. Here's why. Pain
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  Speaker 1: triggers the body's stress response, raising cortisol and keeping the
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  Speaker 1: brain alert, which cuts into deep restorative sleep. Poor sleep
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  Speaker 1: then feeds the cycle. It increases inflammation, weakens the brain's
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  Speaker 1: natural ability to suppress pain, make painful sensations feel more intense.
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  Speaker 1: Even just a few nights of restricted or interrupted sleep
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  Speaker 1: have been shown to increase pain sensitivity significantly. and reduce
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  Speaker 1: pain tolerance. Melatonin may help break the cycle in several ways.
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  Speaker 1: It restores normal sleep patterns, stopping the pain-wake cycle, has
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  Speaker 1: antioxidants and anti-inflammatory effects, may directly calm an overactive nervous system,
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  Speaker 1: may improve mood and reduce anxiety, which directly makes pain
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  Speaker 1: easier to manage. The clear divide in the study was
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  Speaker 1: between chronic pain and post-surgical pain. Melatonin was not very
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  Speaker 1: helpful after surgery. Chronic musculoskeletal pain and acute postoperative pain
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  Speaker 1: are different experiences. After surgery, the body immediately responds to
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  Speaker 1: tissue injury with acute inflammation and strong pain signals. That
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  Speaker 1: type of pain often requires fast-acting and relatively potent analgesic support,
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  Speaker 1: and melatonin's effect may simply be too gradual or modest.
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  Speaker 1: As a result, most postoperative studies suggest Give melatonin only
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  Speaker 1: once for up to a week, which may not have
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  Speaker 1: been enough time for it to work. Although melatonin appears
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  Speaker 1: promising for chronic musculoskeletal pain, this isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.
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  Speaker 1: Before trying to do this, keep in mind, talk to
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  Speaker 1: your doctor first if you're pregnant or breastfeeding, elderly, or
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  Speaker 1: risk of falls, have epilepsy, or take other medications. Melatonin
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  Speaker 1: can interact with some drugs. It's not a fast fix.
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  Speaker 1: Unlike a painkiller, melatonin seems to work gradually over weeks.
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  Speaker 1: not hours. More isn't better. Researchers found no link between
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  Speaker 1: higher doses and stronger pain relief. Keep it short term
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  Speaker 1: for now. Most of the studies use dosage of 2-3
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  Speaker 1: mg per day for under 3 months. Side effects across
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  Speaker 1: the studies are generally mild, nausea, dizziness, headache, drowsiness. The
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  Speaker 1: findings are encouraging but modest. For patients with chronic musculoskeletal
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  Speaker 1: pain who also have sleep disturbances, melatonin could be considered
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  Speaker 1: as an adjunct treatment. Hallelujah! Need more help with that?
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  Speaker 1: Give me a call, 727-916-4215. God bless you folks. See
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  Speaker 1: you back here soon.