Axelrod, the pineal and the melatonin hypothesis: lessons of 50 years to shape chronodisruption research.

With key work in the 1950s and 1960s, the 1970 Nobel laureate Julius Axelrod made major contributions to the development of pineal science. Looking back at some of his accomplishments in and for the field, we feel that lessons can be derived for future work regarding impairments of the pineal gland's and melatonin's many functions for promoting health and preventing disease in man.