Article: A natural wonder drug? Melatonin may not be all it's claimed to be but it sure sells books.(a pineal gland dark-sensitive hormone that regulates the 24-hour biological clock)

Move over, estrogen and testosterone. Melatonin is one hot hormone. At least five books on melatonin have been published so far this year, and one, The Melatonin Miracle, has hit the New York Times bestsellers list. Consumers seem to be racing from bookstores to drugstores. Source Naturals of Santa Cruz, Calif., one of more than a dozen distributors of melatonin supplements, has shipped well over a million bottles so far in 1995-20 times more than in 1993.

Released by the pineal gland deep in the brain in response to darkness, melatonin keeps the body's 24-hour biological clock synchronized, signaling when it is time to sleep. Veteran air travelers routinely pop ...

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