Most Powerful Antioxidant

Meet the night-time miracle molecule.
Although Astaxanthin has been touted as the most powerful antioxidant on the planet, it doesn’t hold a candle to the promise of melatonin. Simply put, melatonin doesn’t just help you sleep which is essential to weight loss, it potentially saves your life while helping you pare off the pounds in the process. A 2011 study at the University of Granada in Spain found that melatonin helped in controlling weight gain, even without reducing the intake of food.
Called the Dracula hormone because its production peaks at night—this remarkable substance, produced by the pineal gland buried deep inside the brain—increases the effectiveness of the body’s own killer cells, the lymphocytes, which can fight off foreign invaders.
It is also a precursor of glutathione—that powerful detoxifier that occurs in every cell in your body.
Like a resident handyman, glutathione can repair any free radical damage on the spot as well as clean up any toxins and the injury they cause.
Unlike most other antioxidants, melatonin can cross the blood-brain barrier—meaning that it can actually breach the membrane designed to prevent toxins from entering your brain.
Perhaps most interestingly  and unknown to many concerned weight watchers, melatonin stimulates your thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), which the body uses to create thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) helping to stoke your metabolism. A high TSH is a marker of hypothyroidism which causes fatigue, cold intolerance, depression, muscle cramps, joint pain, constipation and…weight gain.
Since melatonin substantially decreases as we age and is reduced by electropollution, I recommend that everyone—but especially those over 50 take melatonin.  One of the best food sources is tart cherries—aim for two to three servings a week of 8 ounces of cherry juice or 3.5 ounces of dried cherries
The optimum supplement dosage is 1-3 mg, preferably in a time-released form. The UNI KEY Melatonin 3mg supplement, which I helped to formulate also contains the most common lacking minerals—manganese, selenium, and zinc—all of which can help to support your thyroid produce the activated T3 hormone for sustained weight control.
There is also an exciting melatonin-enhancing lifestyle secret that I have used successfully with myself and with many of my clients. It’s called Earthing.
A pilot study published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (2004), found that 66% of participants who slept grounded with Earthing technology experienced an increase in melatonin ranging from 2 to 16 percent after just eight weeks. Several studies have also found that sleeping grounded “normalizes the daily cortisol [stress hormone] rhythm, improves sleep, and reduces pain and inflammation,” writes James L. Oschman, PhD, in the Journal of Bodywork Movement and Therapy.
So, what is “Earthing,” you ask?
Throughout time, humans have strolled, sat, stood, and slept on the ground—the skin of our bodies in constant physical contact with the surface of the Earth. Today, we are disconnected from the Earth’s energy, especially because rubber or synthetic-soled shoes have replaced leather soles which were more conductive to Mother Earth.
Science has proven that the Earth is teeming with negatively charged electrons. When connected to the Earth, these electrons—nature’s most abundant source of antioxidants lower sleep-disturbing cortisol, and stimulate melatonin secretion. In addition, Earthing has been found to promote more energy, quicker healing, and reduced inflammation and pain.
Earthing technology allows you to reconnect to the earth indoors—via revolutionary lifestyle products—to allow the Earth’s healing energy to flow into our bodies. You can sleep grounded with the Earthing Half Sheet (placed at the foot end of any bed, over the bottom fitted sheet, and tucked around and under the mattress) that grounds your body to the Earth for sound sleep. For more versatile grounding and the most affordable option, consider an Earthing Universal Mat or Earthing Wrist/Ankle Band for use while sleeping,
 working or relaxing. Learn more about Earthing at http://www.unikeyhealth.com/earthing.
-Edge On Health, Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman