Over-the-counter melatonin (“anti-gonad hormone”) dietary supplements have a tendency to not include what they are saying they do, and the contaminants might be harmful.

In the event you’re crossing three or extra time zones throughout a journey and plan to remain at your vacation spot for per week or extra, lengthy sufficient to make it worthwhile, you may modify your physique clock to the brand new time by “utilizing behavioural and, if desired, pharmacological strategies.” The behavioral methodology is gentle publicity and lightweight avoidance at particular instances of the day based mostly on which course you’re going and what number of time zones you cross. I function a useful desk with “suggestions for using shiny gentle to regulate physique clock after time zone transitions” at 0:23 in my video Are Melatonin Dietary supplements Secure?, which you too can see beneath. You could wish to take an image or screengrab it for future reference.

The pharmacological intervention is melatonin. “It’s referred to as the ‘darkness hormone’ typically as a result of…it’s secreted on the onset of darkness and is suppressed by gentle.” A little bit gland within the heart of your head begins to secrete it as quickly because it will get darkish and shuts off when the solar comes up within the morning, thereby serving to to set your circadian rhythm. Plenty of analysis has been performed on treating jet lag, however most of it has been on rats as a substitute of individuals, as you may see beneath and at 0:53 in my video. However, of the handful of human trials which were carried out, most have discovered that taking melatonin “near the goal bedtime on the vacation spot” to attempt to sync your physique to the brand new time can successfully lower jet-lag signs after lengthy flights “crossing 5 or extra time zones.” It’s vital to notice that “melatonin differs from most or all different medicine in that the timing of the dose is essential and determines the impact; given on the fallacious time it can delay circadian adaptation to native time,” making jet lag even worse. For instance, when you had been to take “melatonin at bedtime when touring west,” it “really might lead to a section advance” when a “section delay is desired.”

Taking a day by day dose of melatonin between 0.5 and 5 mg of melatonin appears to be “equally efficient” by way of serving to with jet-lag signs, however the larger dose does have extra of a sleeping pill-type impact, permitting individuals to “go to sleep quicker and sleep higher after 5mg than 0.5mg,” however that seems to plateau at about 5 mg. These are large doses, although. Even taking solely a 3 mg dose produces ranges within the bloodstream 50 instances larger than regular nightly ranges. It really works, however we don’t know the way secure that’s. In any case, within the early days, melatonin “was often known as an anti-gonadal hormone,” with human-equivalent doses of simply 1 or 2 mgs lowering the scale of intercourse organs and impairing fertility in laboratory animals. Now, clearly, rats aren’t individuals, however “contemplating the pronounced results of…melatonin on reproductive physiology in these nonhuman mammals, to imagine they might not have some sexual results in people would nearly appear naive.” In actual fact, the researchers speculated that maybe melatonin might in the future play a task as some type of a “contraceptive agent in each human men and women.”

Wouldn’t we learn about these results, although? Nicely, how? Melatonin is on the market over-the-counter (OTC) as a dietary complement, so there isn’t any post-marketing surveillance like there’s with pharmaceuticals. “With out a license, there isn’t a obligation for undesirable uncomfortable side effects following melatonin use to be recorded.” And, let’s not overlook in regards to the purity drawback. Dietary supplements are so poorly regulated that that you simply by no means actually know what’s really in them. Certainly, the “purity of melatonin…can’t be assured. For these causes, melatonin can’t be really helpful….”

Is the purity concern simply theoretical although? You don’t know till you place it to the take a look at.

Certainly, as a result of “poor high quality management of over-the-counter melatonin,” what the labels “say is usually not what you get.” Melatonin just isn’t solely one of the standard dietary supplements amongst adults, however amongst kids, too. An evaluation of 31 totally different manufacturers discovered that the majority had only a fraction of what was claimed. What makes that much more egregious is that precise melatonin content material various as much as almost 500 p.c in comparison with what it mentioned on the label. “Essentially the most variable pattern was a chewable pill (and most definitely for use by kids). It contained nearly 9 mg of melatonin when it was speculated to include 1.5 mg,” which might lead to 100 instances larger than pure ranges. “In brief, there was no assure of the power or purity of OTC melatonin,” main these researchers to counsel it needs to be regulated as a drug in order that, by legislation, it might not less than include what it says on the bottle. Okay, however that’s relating to its power. What about its purity?

“4 of six melatonin merchandise from well being meals shops”—two-thirds—“contained impurities” that might not be characterised. However, with no unique patent, “no pharmaceutical firm needs to pay for the toxicological research and the info meeting required to acquire a product license as a result of it can not have exclusivity.” The stuff is simply so grime low-cost to buy. The researchers suggest “shopping for it from a big respected pharmacy chain and hope for the very best.” Is it well worth the threat?

A examine I focus on at 4:26 in my video suggests it’s not well worth the threat in any respect. Contaminants current in tryptophan dietary supplements had been reported to be answerable for a Nineteen Eighties outbreak of a illness that affected greater than a thousand individuals and resulted in dozens of deaths. Given the structural similarities of tryptophan and melatonin, is it potential that those self same poisonous contaminants might be created while you’re making an attempt to synthesize melatonin? Certainly, as you may see beneath and at 4:57 in my video, researchers discovered similarities between the contaminant blamed on the tryptophan epidemic and what they present in melatonin dietary supplements. In actual fact, they’re a bit of too shut for consolation, suggesting melatonin dietary supplements could be “‘one other accident [epidemic]… ready to occur.’”