# Can't Believe this is working...



## MiArDe (Mar 23, 2013)

The only reason I'm hesitant about posting this is because I'm superstitious - I don't want to jinx the success I've had over the past 3 months







Well I'm tired of this ugly acronym controlling my every waking (and sometimes non-waking) moment(s) over the last 13 years so maybe this post will hep someone else who's tried everything and hasn't found relief.

Not sure why I feel the need to put some sort of disclaimer in here but here goes - I'm not a doctor so whatever you do with the information in this post is up to you. I'm not suggesting that you do what I'm doing - you can make that decision for yourself. This is just my experience.

For those of you that don't want to read the rest of this, here it is: I found relief by taking MELATONIN combined with "Align" probiotic. Skeptical? I would be too if it weren't for the fact that since I started a daily regimen of these two things, I've had only one bad day in three months! (Interesting to note that the one bad day found my wife in the same situation and she has an iron gut so it may have been something we ate or a bug going around). Three months of no stomach pain; no diarrhea; NORMAL stools (gosh, I couldn't remember what normal was!); increased confidence to put myself in situations where I don't have full control (like letting someone else drive me to a meeting an hour away); no constant mental fixation like studying the floor plans of stores or paying for a dinner check before the entree comes; not worrying about having to fart and just letting it rip - gross, I know, but I bet you can relate. I couldn't be happier.

How did I stumble onto this? By accident. In November I was blessed with a baby boy. As you can imagine, I was stressing out about how I wouldn't be able to be the best father I could be because I'd be limited (or limit myself) in what I could do with him as he got older. This is my first child so I found that you're so busy with the baby, you have to kind of shelf the fixation/analyzing for a bit - it doesn't go away, you just don't have time to think about it as much. Didn't matter as the stomach problems didn't just go away because I'm too busy! Anyway, I decided to try melatonin to help me sleep since I had "baby watch" in the middle of the night. I was taking it every day and started to notice that I wasn't having bouts of diarrhea. So I started to research the effects of melatonin in people with IBS and started to get excited. Of course the FDA needs more clinical research in order to endorse something but whatever - if it's working for me and I'm not poisoning myself, I'd need some hard evidence to get me to stop. Melatonin is a natural hormone/protein in the body. The piteal gland in the brain produces microscopic amounts to control normal wake-sleep cycles but apparently your gut produces 400 times more melatonin to do other things in the body (check these out: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198018/?tool=pubmed and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21128901) I'm not 100% sure why it's working but I really don't care at this point - I'm happy with the results.

I went to my family doctor, told him what I've been doing, and asked if he thought I was poisoning myself - he said if it's helping, keep doing it. It's not a drug so he didn't see the harm, even though there aren't any long-term studies that he knew about. Truth is, unless he told me that I was going to grow a third arm or that my liver was going to fail, I was going to keep doing it - that's how much better my life has been since I started. I've tried so many other prescription/OTC/natural/homeopathic remedies and none have even come close to this combo. At best, my old friend loperamide was my "go to" pill of choice but it would only work for a day or two. After that, I knew a bad day was imminent - I always said the dam is going to break at some point and when it does, I'm out of commission for a day or two anyway. I couldn't take it continuously because then I'd get constipation so bad, I'd be doubled over in pain.

I've tested my limits that past few months and couldn't be happier. Ice-cream test? Check. Chinese food test? Check. Soda test? Check. Of course I'm not living off of those things but I used to be able to enjoy them once in a while. Now I can. I've also been so bold as to not carry around loperamide in my pill case - yeah, I'm a rebel now! (Not sure that it matters but wanted to note that I'm a Pescetarian - have been for over a year and while it helps somewhat, it doesn't eliminate the problem).

I'll leave you with my schedule:

9am - one Align Probiotic
11am - 15mg of Melatonin (five 3mg tablets)
5pm - 15mg of Melatonin
8:30pm - 15mg of Melatonin
3am - 15mg of Melatonin (baby-watch time)

That's a total of 60mg of Melatonin a day - do I need to take that much? Don't know - I'm having success with this amount so why change? Could I take one and a half 10mg tablets or three 5mg tablets instead of five 3mg tablets? Again, I'm sticking to what's working for me.

The brand of Melatonin I'm taking is "Nature Made." I've taken other brands too but this one has the least amount of fillers (3 total) and I like that about it.

Well hopefully this helps someone else out there like it's helping me. I've wanted to shout this from the rooftops but have been restrained until I had some time under my belt. Feel free to ask me questions if you want. Thanks for reading this and I'll post again as time goes on. If I have any negative side-effects (none yet) or if it stops working, I'll be sure to let everyone know.

Take care and good luck.

Mike


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## Brownish72 (Aug 26, 2012)

Thanks for sharing. IBS is a tough problem, and if you found relief, awesome! Lets hope it lasts long!


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Thanks for letting us know! May your success continue!


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Does the melatonin make you sleepy during the day, or did you get used to that? I know a lot of people take it to help them sleep.


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## MiArDe (Mar 23, 2013)

Great question - you'd think it would help me sleep but it doesn't. It doesn't make me drowsy or more alert - I think that may be how I got up to 5 at a time, trying to see if more was better. Not for sleep, anyway. I've believe the "recommended" dose for sleep is about .3mg but I don't think you can even get anything lower than 1mg and I'm sure you're not going to cut a 1mg tablet into thirds. I've also read that more than that is supposed to have the opposite effect but again that doesn't happen for me.

The only side effect I noticed is that my stomach finally feels normal - quite the feat since I'd normally have 4-5 bad days a week, sometimes 5-6 awful BMs a day. Now I have a "normal" BM every other day maybe - no constipation like I'd have with Loperamide either.

Sorry my answer is so long


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## onyx (Jan 13, 2006)

I took Align and like all the other probiotics I've tried it didn't seem to help. I've also tried melatonin, but for a different reason, GERD pain, which it seemed to actually help with somewhat. However, I was only taking 6mg a day so maybe you need more to effect IBS-D, which I also have had for a long time and it's pretty much made me homebound.

Maybe I'll try kicking up the melatonin dose and try together with a probiotic to see if I get any good results like you. I also get almost no use out of loperamide anymore, was up to 8x day for like a month and it was doing nothing. Thanks for the report, I'm desperate and will try anything.


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## MiArDe (Mar 23, 2013)

I'm pulling for you, Onyx. If you can, try the 3mg tablets and take them for at least a week. Please let us know how it goes.


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## celestin (May 20, 2004)

Maybe did you read this paper before? Melatonin and ulcerative colitis: evidence, biological mechanisms, and future research. Terry PD, Villinger F, Bubenik GA, Sitaraman SV. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2009 Jan;15(1):134-40. Review.


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## MiArDe (Mar 23, 2013)

You have to buy that article. Any free articles you recommend?


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## celestin (May 20, 2004)

free here? http://www.livar.net/uploadedfiles/article/melatoninandulcerativecolitis.pdf


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## MiArDe (Mar 23, 2013)

Thanks celestin! That's a great article. Two things made me happy:

1. "Finally, 3 clinical trials of melatonin supplementation

(3 mg/d) versus placebo among patients with IBS all showed
dramatic, statistically significant reductions in symptoms in
the treatment group,94-96 with treatment times ranging from
2-8 weeks"

2. "Given the
very low toxicity documented for even high levels of melatonin
in animals and human subjects, this relatively inexpensive
treatment may represent an attractive alternative for
patient suffering from mild to mid-grade UC given the low
incidence of side effects."

(http://www.livar.net/uploadedfiles/article/melatoninandulcerativecolitis.pdf)

The trials were only 8 weeks at the max - wonder if the people decided to keep taking it after they were done! It also makes me wonder why more people don't know about studies like this - low toxicity at high doses and improvement of symptoms seem like something I'd want my GI doctors to tell me, regardless of whether they "think" it will work. Let me decide.

Thanks again!


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## celestin (May 20, 2004)

Well, well let us read that:
http://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-pain/c/question/761671/112886


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## MiArDe (Mar 23, 2013)

Thanks for the link. It helps balance out the pretty picture I painted above.

Maybe I should start a list of side-effects for all of the drugs I've been prescribed by my gastroenterologist over the last 13 years and compare it with reports of melatonin side effects? I wonder which list would be more appealing? I'd much rather try a non-toxic vitamin/supplement over a prescribed medication but that, like this entire post, is my opinion/experience.

Thanks again for playing devil's advocate.


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