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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> I believe there is a place for good quality supplements and believe they can
> assist a person to be healthy or become healthy.

For what it's worth, the research doesn't back up that view.

> 
> We love broccoli and consume it in vast quantities here, but I can't get
> Melatonin in broccoli. 

No you can't, but you can get it from sunlight.  Indirectly.  While 
everything we produce diminishes with age, drops in melatonin level is most 
often 
associated with the brain continuing to produce melatonin when in a natural 
sleep/wake cycle it would be suppressing it.  Thus at night it can't produce 
enough 
to induce a deep enough level of sleep.  Exposure to a lot of sunlight tells 
the brain it no longer needs to produce melatonin for the day and so it shuts 
down production.  Both the mechanism and constituent chemicals are conserved 
and 
available for night when it is natural to produce melatonin.

I've no doubt taking melatonin supplement is effective, after all insomnia is 
a pathology, but I don't think that's the only way to address the problem.  
What would give me (personally) pause is this:  Suppose I had persistent 
infections and bleeding gums and it turned out to be the precursor to scurvy. 
 I 
could take vitamin C supplements and the condition would clear up.   Or else 
I 
could eat a lot of broccoli, and the condition would clear up.   With the 
latter 
solution I would also be getting fiber and 400 known  and the gods only know 
how many unknown (as anyone who knows anything about the unknown well knows) 
phyto-chemicals that prevent all and sundry ailments and enhance the overall 
health.  WIth the former solution I get none of those.

Like that, longer exposure to sunlight is supposed to balance melatonin 
production.  With that solution who knows what other benefits one gets.  A 
bunch, I 
bet.  With the supplement, I'd (personally) be concerned I was masking 
something else that wanted addressing.

Just me.

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