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Subject: melatonin (long) The following is from the University of California at Berkeley Wellness Letter of March 1996. "Imagine a world without any drug regulations. Among other things, estrogen and testosterone would be sold over the counter, and you'd figure out your own dosage. These hormones would be advertised as natural substances that would keep you young, improve your sex life, strengthen your bones, build muscle, prevent cancer, and boost your IQ by several points. Claims would be made for improved sleep, effortless weight loss, thicker hair, and a better golf game. "Risks and side effects would go umentioned. If these hormones caused disease instead of preventing it, that would be your problem. There'd be no way of knowing whether the pills in the bottle actually contained any estrogen or testosterone, or whether they might be contaminated with other substances, or whether you actually would absorb enough of whatever was in the pill to do anything at all. "This, in effect, is the world of melatonin. . . . "Amid all this, a few cautious voices have hardly been heard. The French and British governments have banned sales of melatonin; in Canada it is available by prescription only. . . . "Maybe melatonin will prove to be all that its boosters claim. . . . But you needn't act as a guinea pig for the supplements industry, which is outrageously stretching the truth to call a human hormone a `dietary supplement' in the first place. We don't recommend that you take melatonin. Who knows if the pills you buy are melatonin anyway?" [any typos are mine; sorry; I can't edit in this mode] I know melatonin seems to be helping many in the PD community, and in many cases things have reached the point that we WANT to be guinea pigs--we'll try anything that shows promise of helping. I thought it would be worth posting this caveat anyway. Joanne Sandstrom [log in to unmask]