Review Article
Alternative Options to Manage Menopausal Symptoms with a Focus on Melatonin and Osteoporosis
Holly Lassila1, Nutjaree Pratheepawanit Johns2, Christine K O’Neil1, Jeffrey R Johns3, Judith L Balk4 and Paula A Witt-Enderby5* | |
1Division of Clinical, Social and Administrative Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | |
2Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 123 Khon Kaen University, Naimaung, Muang Khon Kaen Thailand | |
3Department of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 123 Khon Kaen University, Naimaung, Muang Khon Kaen Thailand | |
4Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Temple University School of Medicine, USA | |
5Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | |
Corresponding Author : | Paula A Witt-Enderby School of Pharmacy, Duquesne University Pittsburgh, 421 Mellon Hall, PA 15282, USA Tel: 412-396-4346 Fax: 412-396-5599 E-mail: wittp@duq.edu |
Received December 13, 2013; Accepted February 10, 2014; Published February 12, 2014 | |
Citation: Lassila H, Johns NP, O'Neil CK, Johns JR, Balk JL, et al. (2014) Alternative Options to Manage Menopausal Symptoms with a Focus on Melatonin and Osteoporosis. Clin Pharmacol Biopharm 3:115. doi:10.4172/2167-065X.1000115 | |
Copyright: © 2014 Lassila H, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Abstract
Many menopausal women are seeking symptomatic relief from hot flushes, irritability, sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression, and to prevent bone loss. Instead of pharmaceutical approaches, many women are opting for alternative modalities such as yoga, meditation and natural products. Melatonin is a molecule released from the pineal gland in response to darkness and is commonly used as a sleep aid due to its soporific effects and/or due to its ability to reentrain circadian rhythms out of synchrony with the light dark cycle. The focus of this mini-review is to highlight the novel use of melatonin on managing menopausal symptoms and menopausal bone loss and describe food sources that are rich in melatonin.