Fun fact: the FDA regulates most supplements (including melatonin) as food, not drugs. That means there are standards for what’s in them, but it’s mostly that they can’t just outright lie about the ingredients. There are nowhere near the same standards of testing for efficacy / safety, and they don’t even have to be the exact chemical structure (which makes sense for something like powdered ginger root that might vary slightly between batches / growers). Supplements can be super helpful but you really need to do your own research or get advice from a doctor experienced in holistic medicine (a lot of primary care / general practitioners / family medicine doctors are picking up on this but it’s definitely not universal).
The melatonin I use says “Take just before bed” in the instructions
What’s great is there’s nothing to differentiate between medical advice, marketing language and serving suggestions on a label.
Fun fact: the FDA regulates most supplements (including melatonin) as food, not drugs. That means there are standards for what’s in them, but it’s mostly that they can’t just outright lie about the ingredients. There are nowhere near the same standards of testing for efficacy / safety, and they don’t even have to be the exact chemical structure (which makes sense for something like powdered ginger root that might vary slightly between batches / growers). Supplements can be super helpful but you really need to do your own research or get advice from a doctor experienced in holistic medicine (a lot of primary care / general practitioners / family medicine doctors are picking up on this but it’s definitely not universal).
thats fine, of course… im repeating this based on an article in the nytimes I read that summarized all the data from double blind studies.
honestly the evidence is mixed whether it has any efficacy at all