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hauptmann

I was doing some research on lucid dreaming and I happened to stumble on an article about melatonin and sperm production. This made me remember reading an article that stated that marijuana increased the production of of melatonin by 4,000 percent. I thought that perhaps this was a possible connection. Any thoughts?

So perhaps long term marijuana use causes increased levels of melatonin which results in temporary sperm motility and production issues?

*Note: Many people do not believe that this is an actual side effect of marijuana, but we are not here to debate that. But rather if it is true, why?*



Sources:

Effects of THC on Melatonin Secretion in Man

Marijuana can be Anti-Addictive

Melatonin and Dreams
Taken from: MELATONIN: Your Body's Natural Wonder Drug,

Russel J. Reiter, Ph.D., Jo Robinson;©1995 Bantam Books:198-199

Of all the known ways to stimulate melatonin production, none is more dramatic than smoking marijuana. Marijuana stimulates production of a prostaglandin called PGE2, which may relate to its ability to stimulate melatonin production. Italian researchers discovered that when eight men smoked a cigarette containing the active ingredient in marijuana, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), they had dramatically higher melatonin levels twenty minutes later. After two hours, their melatonin levels were 4,000 percent higher than at baseline!(11)

The fact that smoking marijuana is accompanied by a dramatic increase in melatonin production may explain some of the drug's positive effects. A 1995 article in The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the hallucinogen is being used to counteract the toxicity of chemotherapy, treat migraines, reduce intraocular pressure, minimize pain, treat menstrual cramps, and moderate wasting syndrome in AIDS patients.(12) Melatonin has been shown to ameliorate each and every one of these conditions.

Smoking marijuana as a vehicle to increase melatonin production, however, may not be a good idea. The increase is so marked that it is not likely to be beneficial, especially if one smokes marijuana during the daytime, when melatonin levels are normally so low that they are just above the level of detection. Causing such a dramatic surge in melatonin levels in the daytime could phase-shift your circadian rhythms or interfere with your health in other as yet unknown ways.

References

11. Lissoni, P., Resentini, M., and Fraschini, F. "Effects of Tetrahydrocannabinol on Melatonin Secretion in Man." Hormone and Metabolic Research 1986; 77-78. At baseline, the mean value of their melatonin levels was 21.3 pg/ml. Two hours later, it was 904 pg/ml.

12. Grinspoon, L., and Bakaler, J.B. "Marihuana as Medicine." Joural of the American Medical Association 1995; 273(23): 1875-76.

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Melatonin Administration Alters Semen Quality in Healthy Men

Journal of Andrology, Vol. 23, No. 4, July/August 2002

RAFAEL LUBO****ZKY, ZILLA SHEN-ORR, RACHEL NAVE, SCHAHAR LAVI AND PERETZ LAVIE

From the Department of Endocrinology, Haemek Medical Center, Afula, Israel; the Department of Endocrinology, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel; and the Sleep Laboratory, B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.

The role of melatonin in the regulation of reproduction in humans is unknown. We conducted a 6-month, double-blind, crossover study of a daily treatment dose of 3 mg melatonin or placebo given orally at 1700 hours in 8 healthy men. Semen quality (concentration, motility, and morphology), serum and seminal plasma 17-ß-estradiol (E2), testosterone, melatonin, and serum gonadotropin levels were determined every 3 months throughout the study. In 6 men, there was no change in semen quality or in serum and seminal plasma hormone levels during the study period. In 2 men, during the melatonin treatment period, sperm concentration decreased to 3 x 106/mL and 12 x 106/mL, and motility declined to 32% and 30%. These coincided with a decline in seminal plasma and serum E2 levels and with an increase in testosterone:E2 ratios. Six months after the cessation of melatonin, sperm concentration and motility were normal in 1 man but remained abnormal in the other one with a still elevated testosterone:E2 ratio. Serum gonadotropin levels were unchanged during the study in all 8 men. Our preliminary observations suggest that long-term melatonin administration is associated with decreased semen quality in a number of healthy men, probably through the inhibition of aromatase at the testicular level.

Some articles and discussion about this topic from our community....

http://www.marijuana.com/420/showthread.php?t=28636

http://www.marijuana.com/420/showthread.php?t=29308

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iGame3D

The studies do not prove infertility.
A study of 8 guys is total crap research.
You have millions of people smoking pot, with every kind of occupational and environmental stress effecting their health and sperm count.
They pick 8 guys, they don't tell you what they ate, they don't tell you their lifestyles, where they work, how much they drink, or what porn mags they used to help collect the sample, nothing.

Bunk Science.

Any research that uses "may" is crapping on your shoes.
Either it does something in x percentage of subjects or it doesn't do something in x percentage, you surely can't get a good percentage of a population of millions out of 8 guys.

Check out this article at the sleep foundation, its all about Melatonin Check out the part on insomnia, its funny, basically "if you have a pulse, you may have trouble sleeping"

If you are worried about sperm count, and actually want to get someone pregnant all you have to do is think of her sleeping with someone else, or take her out where she can flirt with other guys in front of you, JEALOUSY increases sperm count and increases sperm strength. Your sperm will even fight another mans sperm if they should be found, there are special sperm just for this!!

I remember seeing a movie about marijuana in college with this hippy talking about the sperm count , he opens his arms wide and says
"Does it look like it caused my sperm count to go down? I have five kids!"