Effects of daytime ingestion of melatonin on heart rate response during prolonged exercise

Abstract

The current study sought to investigate the effect of melatonin consumption on cardiovascular response during submaximal exercise in healthy men. For this purpose, eight students (age: 21.8 ± 0.9) were asked to run for 45 minutes at submaximal intensity after melatonin-(6 mg) or placebo-ingestion, in a randomized and counterbalanced order. Heart rate (HR) and rectal temperature (Tre) evolution during exercise were measured. Blood samples were drawn twice (before and immediately after exercise) for the determination of triglycerides, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), lactate, protein, and superoxide dismutase concentrations. The results showed that melatonin may disturb thermoregulatory control by exerting an effect on HR at 10 min of exercise, reducing HR by 6.6% (9 bpm; P < 0.001), and this effect decreased to 3.6% at the end of exercise (P < 0.01). Melatonin has no effect on triglycerides total cholesterol, HDL-c, lactate, and protein at rest and post-exercise. Although melatonin administration did not present a risk for cardiovascular function in healthy men, melatonin at high doses could decrease superoxide dismutase concentrations owing to the alteration of redox balance. These findings suggest that a high concentration of antioxidants does not enhance cardiovascular performance and may impair thermoregulatory control during prolonged exercise.