Following up with more epitalon

So, last night, I took more epitalon. This time, 5mg by IV at around 10:30pm. Absolutely no benefit to sleep was found (actually it might have even interrupted my sleep). In the morning, I felt fine (not angry) although still fatigued and in need of sleep. Around 10:30am I recognized some irritability and the initiation of a migraine (aura) and took Cordyceps (cause I had nothing else) and Excedrin (cause I immediately went and purchased it). The aura went away and left me with a headache localized to the front of my head. Apparently this is the target location for migraines. I believe this is the first migraine I have had in which the aura has left me (previous migraines (2) with auras have occurred more than 8 years ago). I’ve been drinking a lot of water, so it isn’t from dehydration. I also have increased light sensitivity and neck stiffness. Migraines and light sensitivity are associated with low serotonin levels. ]

Neck stiffness can be related to “Serotonin syndrome” which apparently can happen if a person takes antidepressants and migraine medication. There are numerous other symptoms for serotonin syndrome so I do not believe I quite have that. However, it is clear that there may have been a delayed effect in which perhaps serotonin either spiked and crashed or perhaps was over-converted leaving me with a depletion.

Here is a little more information on the serotonin to melatonin conversion.

Arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT) is the enzyme that converts Serotonin into NAS (melatonin precursor). It acetylates Serotonin (as you can guess) and then NAS is methylated to turn into melatonin via the action of hydroxyindole-O-methyltransferase (HIOMT).

Serotonin ---AANAT---> N-acetylserotonin (NAS) ---HIOMT---> Melatonin

Other actions of NAS include:

Activation of TrkB receptor (moreso through a NAS derivative “HIOC” [Shen, Gahi, et al., 2012])

The half-lives of melatonin and NAS are described as ~30min in rats while HIOC is about 4hrs. Given that HIOC is a NAS derivative, epitalon could also be increasing this (which has neuroprotective effects via TrkB activation). Half-life of serotonin in the platelets and intestine is on the order of days but it is on the order of minutes in the brain. I wonder what would happen if I consumed epitalon.

Anyway, it has occurred to me that perhaps I already have something in my body that does whatever it is that epitalon does in ‘normal people’. I am notoriously young looking for my age, according to a crazy amount of people. If I take it again, it will be a lower dose or consumed. I am beginning to lean towards not doing it again though…maybe I should stick to DISP and/or taking straight melatonin. Btw, taking straight melatonin never really helped me sleep.

Notably, neither has epitalon.

References:

Shen, J.; Ghai, K.; Sompol, P.; Liu, X.; Cao, X.; Iuvone, P.M.; Ye, K. N-acetyl serotonin derivatives as potent neuroprotectants for retinas. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2012, 109, 3540-3545.