About 22 million Americans are on long-term treatment with beta-blockers, a class of drugs frequently prescribed to manage high blood pressure and as cardioprotection after a heart attack.
Having difficulty falling or staying asleep, or insomnia, is one of the most common side effects of beta-blockers, as they suppress night-time melatonin secretion. Melatonin is a hormone your body produces at night, and one of its primary roles is to help you sleep.
The melatonin released in the bloodstream of the elderly is only half of that in young adults.
This may also explain why they are also associated with an increased risk of diabetes, as this is another well-known complication of beta-blockers and sleep impairment has been strongly correlated with insulin disturbances.
So, researchers decided to see what would happen if they supplemented people on beta-blockers with melatonin each night to help them sleep…
Categories: Alternate Medicine, Health, Research, Science