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A hormone naturally produced by the human brain, melatonin helps prepare the body for sleep. It is also manufactured in the laboratory and available over the counter, on the internet or on the shelves of pharmacies. Easier access denounced today by the American health authorities, because of the consumption figures which are exploding.
Melatonin, also called the sleep hormone, is produced by the pineal gland in the brain. It helps prepare the body for sleep when night falls. The hormone slows the heart rate, it reduces the body’s blood pressure and makes you sleepy.
Available over-the-counter or online
A natural molecule, melatonin is produced in the laboratory and sold freely in the United States, without regulation from the American Food and Drug Administration. It is increasingly popular in the country, as shown by its exploding sales figures: +142% between 2017 and 2020 with 821 million dollars against 339 million.
Worrying consumption figures
The excessive consumption of this hormone today worries the American authorities, who point out that the long-term effects of melatonin are not known. In addition, accidents involving the lives of children have occurred.
Often, melatonin comes in the form of gummies, those candy-like gummies. If parents present them as such to give them to their children, the risk of an accident may be increased.
Two children died
A CDC report released in early 2022 found that in the decade to 2021, poison helplines handled 260,435 calls about children who had taken too much melatonin, a 530% increase. .
Of those, two died, five were put on ventilators, nearly 300 ended up in intensive care and more than 4,000 were hospitalized. Dr Naima Covassin, from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Rochester, Minnesota in the United States, believes that the situation is “a bit alarming”. “Just because the product is available over the counter doesn’t mean it’s completely harmless and doesn’t have significant physiological effects.”
Unknown long-term effects
The effects of the molecule taken in excess are not really known. The National Institutes of Health, along with others, have linked the drug to dementia and a slightly shorter lifespan, although there is no conclusive research to prove the case.
For Dr. Christophe De Jaeger, physiologist and member of the Doctissimo expert committee, “melatonin should be prescribed under medical supervision, based on a deficiency dosage to be assessed and corrected over time” says the specialist. “It is a hormone whose secretion decreases over time and by giving it in a complementary way to certain patients, they could compensate for their deficit due to senescence”.
Consult a doctor online for your sleep disorders
Do not scare unnecessarily
However, melatonin has certain benefits, such as regulating the sleep of people in jet lag or that of shift workers. No study has yet detected a risk of dementia induced by the hormone, but work is currently underway. For Dr. De Jaeger, “The American NIH should avoid wanting to scare the population by using arguments without scientific foundation: this only discredits them and provides grist for the mill of conspirators”.