Antiarrhythmic benefit from melatonin is distinct from its antioxidant effect, reports Science Daily.

Although melatonin does improve the outcomes of induced heart attacks in rats, those improvements are not the result of its antioxidant effect, new research finds. The study comparing antioxidant activity and heart protection will be presented today at the American Physiological Society (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2019 in Orlando, Fla.

Antiarrhythmic agents are substances that treat irregular electrical activity in the heart. Melatonin has previously been shown to have antiarrhythmic effects, with the assumption that this was due to its known antioxidant properties. In this current study, an international team of researchers examined precisely how melatonin affected the heart in a rat model of heart attacks.

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