Brain Detox via Liposomal Melatonin
Our liposomal melatonin formula is effective and it tastes like it should be on a cupcake. BUT, I don't recommend it to patients any more. We created the formula when there wasn't a similar commercial product available. There is one now (Davinci Liposomal Melatonin), and while the at home formula is great and it can be empowering to make your own medicine, sometimes it's great to have one less thing on the to do list.
I do still recommend melatonin strongly, and for good reason. Melatonin is one of two ways that the brain detoxifies itself (the other one is the movement of the jaw while chewing and talking throughout the day, which puts muscular pressure on the skull and gently but almost constantly squeezes it in a pumping action). Even if we weren't exposed to an absurd number, amount, and type of toxic substances, on a daily basis and everywhere we go (see the Tox Town website for specifics), that our detoxification systems did not evolve with, all of our cells behave like tiny animals in that they have to take in new nutrients (eat) and discard what they've processed (poop). Imagine if your toilet stopped working, the garbage truck stopped coming, and you had no other way to remove your waste. How long would it be before it started stacking up in your house and neighborhood, and causing some serious problems?
This is what happens when the brain is deficient in melatonin. Metabolic waste and toxic material taken up from our environment build up in the brain because it can't be removed as quickly as it's being produced or taken in, and wherever there's a large amount of toxins that the body can't effectively do much with, infections of all different kinds start to grow. Eventually, brain function decreases in an increasingly noticeable way: poor memory, brain fog, ears ringing, insomnia, anxiety, depression, seizures, and on up to the neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and others. (Melatonin deficiency is just one of the many possible causes of these symptoms, but even when they are due to something else, the deficiency will exacerbate them.)
Melatonin deficiency is extremely common. The two most common things that shut it off are exposure to blue light (computer and phone screens and other cool/high Kelvin lighting like "cool white" or "daylight" light bulbs; instead use things like warm bulbs, beeswax candles with lead-free wicks, the f.lux app for your computer, and the iPhone's Night Shift mode) and some of the man made electromagnetic frequencies (commonly referred to as EMF): the ones that come from WiFi, cell phones and cell towers, cordless phones, baby monitors, dirty electricity in building walls, RF transmitting utility meters, etc. It's very hard to find a place to live that doesn't have significant and melatonin reducing EMF exposure. It's may be easier to control our exposure to blue light in the evening, when our bodies, if able, start naturally ramping up melatonin production in the expectation of sleep, but given modern habits of the phone, TV, or computer screen being the last thing we see before we go to bed or even shut our eyes, maybe that's challenging in a different way.
It's a dangerous downward spiral: as melatonin is blocked from being produced, toxic matter builds up, which makes it harder for the pineal gland to get what it needs to make melatonin, so even less is produced, and more toxic matter builds up, etc. until the point where the brain is toxic and beyond the point where it can clean itself out without help.
This is where we can see an increase of the second way the brain detoxifies itself: the person starts grinding their teeth at night. The body is trying to forcibly squeeze toxic material out by increasing the pumping pressure on the skull (this can decrease when melatonin normalizes and the brain returns to a healthy inflow and outflow of nutrients and waste).
But why liposomal melatonin? Many people have tried taking melatonin before for insomnia, and many people report that it doesn't work. That's because stomach acid often breaks it down before much can be absorbed, so it never gets to the brain. A good liposomal product is absorbed orally and moves to brain, having a noticeable effect within 20-30 minutes in most individuals.
The most common set of questions I get about it is: couldn't it be addictive? Isn't it dangerous or imbalancing to supplement hormones?
I think that these are really good questions, and in most other hormone prescriptions, I agree (there are always exceptions). However, because of the spiral described above, it can be very hard once a person gets to a point of having neurological symptoms, for the body to start producing enough melatonin that it can regulate itself.
Further, my clinical observation is that after people have been on melatonin and other appropriate supportive therapies (because the melatonin by itself is not enough: what is your body doing with the toxins once they're out of the brain and into the bloodstream? Especially if you have some old backlog of junk built up. Without your natural detoxification systems being on point and well supported, it would not be hard to make yourself sick taking melatonin), that eventually a patient, no longer having symptoms, and able to sleep well again even when they don't take their melatonin, will just gradually start forgetting to take it every night, which stretches into days, then weeks of not taking it - because they don't need it any more.
It seems that once enough material is cleared out of the brain, the natural melatonin production picks up again, and as long as the person stays on a good maintenance regimen to keep the daily toxins flowing cleanly out, there is no longer a need to supplement it.
The material above is not meant to be taken as medical advice, nor is the information here complete enough by itself to make accurate or wise treatment decisions. Please talk with an appropriately trained healthcare provider before using melatonin therapeutically.
Photo credit: Mostly Mountains