Melatonin is often used and advertised as a natural alternative to sleeping pills. However, recent research shows that long-term melatonin usage can affect our health in the long run.
Read on to learn more.
How Can Melatonin Affect Your Health?
Melatonin can be safe if used in moderation and for short-term purposes. If you’re a shift worker, for instance, or suffer from jet lag, taking melanin won’t be an issue. But it is not known if melatonin is safe over the long-term. The absence of research in this area makes it almost impossible to predict the severity of the potential health issues.
Melanin can also harm your health if you take more than the recommended dosage. Researchers suggest a dose of melatonin should be 10 milligrams per tablet. Yet several brands sell the supplement in pills containing double that amount.
Ultimately, sleep medication should not become addictive. However, because of its low risk of dependency and side effects, melatonin is still one of the safest and most effective sleep aids currently available. However, specific adverse short-term effects, including headaches, are still possible.
Keep in mind that FDA restrictions for supplements like melatonin are less stringent than for prescribed or over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, which the agency also regulates. Hence, it is imperative that you contact your doctor before beginning any supplement treatment. This is especially true for patients using other prescription medicines, as it may interfere with the effects and put them at risk of other health hazards.
