Are you aware of the scary world of dietary supplements? I am, and I still ingest a good number of them, as I’ve mentioned here earlier (See here). Am I nuts? Maybe. As you know, dietary supplements can be purchased “over the counter” with no apparent restrictions. Although the packaging of these supplements almost always tells you what is inside, that information is not necessarily true. In fact, it’s often wildly wrong, as revealed by a recent article in the Journal of The American Medical Association.

In that article, researchers reported measuring the amount of melatonin in gummie products. Melatonin is the natural hormone that tends to induce sleep. It is secreted in higher amounts during darkness (our nighttime concentrations of the hormone in blood are about 10 times higher than during the day, thus helping to regulate our internal clock). Although small supplements of melatonin taken orally may help us slip into sleep, there appears to be no solid medical evidence for how effective this approach is. Nonetheless, melatonin is popular. According to one report, sales of synthetic melatonin preparations in 2020 reached $821 million. A nice chunk of dough.

Is it worth it?

So what did the buyers get for their money? According to the JAMA report, the authors analyzed 25 products (all gummies) that claimed to include melatonin. They found that one product did not contain any detectable melatonin but it did contain 31.3 mg of cannabidiol (CBD). CBD is a chemical found in marijuana, but it’s not the psychoactive ingredient. CBD is used medically to treat certain types of seizures. See here for more information about this chemical.

And what about those gummies that did contain melatonin? Well, the amount of melatonin ranged from three-fourths of the stated amount to three and a half  times that amount. An amazing 22 of the 25 products were inaccurately labeled.  Scary results. So buyer beware!

Bad effects

It’s clear that melatonin products can trigger bad effects. For example, over the 10-year period from 2012 to 2021, the National Poison Data System received queries on 260,435 pediatric (kids 19 and under) melatonin injestions. Those resulted in 27, 795 emergency department and clinic visits over the same period, 4,097 hospitalizations, 287 intensive care unit admissions, and 2 deaths. (Most of the serious cases resulted from “unintentional ingestions” among children aged ≤5 years.) Were they tempted by gummies?

Questions naturally abound. What can one do about the scary world of dietary supplements? Should supplements be more tightly regulated? How safe are they? How can you, the consumer, determine the accuracy of labeling of supplements?

If these questions trouble you and disturb your sleep, you might consider taking some melatonin, carefully!