Melatonin may help ease chronic muscle and joint pain, new study suggests

Melatonin is best known for helping people sleep, but new research suggests it may also offer modest relief for chronic muscle and joint pain. The Conversation reports on a meta-analysis of twenty-three clinical trials involving over two thousand participants that found melatonin reduced pain scores by about nine points on a hundred-point scale — comparable to some anti-inflammatory drugs. However, the benefits were much smaller for post-surgical pain, and it's still unclear whether melatonin works better for people who already struggle with sleep. Researchers say melatonin should be viewed as an add-on treatment alongside physiotherapy and exercise, not a replacement for established therapies, and larger trials are needed to determine optimal dosing and who benefits most.

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