When it comes to using melatonin for help with sleep issues, as with all supplements some cautions apply.
- For starters, the dosage matters, as do the consistency and length of treatment.
- Product quality also matters, owing to inaccurate labeling of product potency, and to manufacturing processes and “inert” ingredients.
- Pre-existing conditions also matter, as do the inaccuracies in self-reported usage versus monitored intake, along with other variables.
Recent articles have reported a study in which adults with chronic insomnia who used melatonin for more than a year had a 90% higher risk of developing heart failure within five years. In a test population of 130,000, 4.6% developed heart failure, compared to 2.7% of non-users.
In this study, use of melatonin was defined by doctor prescription.
Self-prescribed melatonin users were not considered – and that’s a problem for interpreting the results, but it does raise a red flag regarding the need for further studies, and for sorting numerous other variables, including the reasons for which the melatonin was taken.
Questions remain. For example, it would be helpful to look at the cardiovascular risk of long-term insomnia versus the possible risks of melatonin.
We must also weigh the benefits of long-term melatonin use in conditions such as estrogen-dependent cancers, compared to the risk of melatonin-related cardiovascular issues.
Most oncology drugs come with warnings of far more serious risk factors – including cardiovascular risk.
The news reports of these findings seem overly alarmist. As with most supplements and drugs, the benefits and risks are difficult to discern with inflexible certainty.
However, the benefits of low-dose melatonin for sleep issues, and high-dose melatonin for various cancers, plus melatonin’s general anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties, as well as its use for stabilizing circadian rhythms, are proven benefits, especially since other studies have shown melatonin’s promise for heart health.
Drs. Connie and Marcel Hernandez
DrConnie@DrsHernandez.com
DrMarcel@DrsHernandez.com