Melatonin Overdose Warning

More than one out of every four Americans take melatonin at least once a week, but how safe is it now at six new concerns about the dangers behind the drug. According to the CDC, in a three-year span, over 11,000 children were rushed to the hospital for melatonin toxicity. Some of those cases even proving to be deadly now, right now, Cara 7 takes a look at the risks at hand for you and your family. Good evening. I’m Mel Thomas and I’m Aaron Wright Conroe 7’s Frankie Catafias joining us live in Renton. Frankie, you spoke with a local doctor specializing in pediatric and adolescent medicine. She’s got a stern warning for us tonight. Yeah, absolutely. Aaron and Elle, one thing about that CDC report too, Of the 11,000 children that were taken to the hospital for consuming melatonin from 2019 to 2022, the ages were typically ranging between one and five years old. Now, melatonin is a very popular sleep aid between adults and adolescents, but the big question that we’re asking is it, is it even safe? The piece of melatonin which has become very important to understand right now is it’s been around a long time. Again, it’s a neuro hormone which we make in our brain naturally. Doctor Cora Bruner has over 20 years experience in the medical field and specializes in pediatric and adolescent medicine, and her work has made her passionate about educating parents about the supplement industry. The reason I’m interested in supplements, but in melatonin specifically, is to make sure that what we are doing and putting into our children and young adults and teenagers is safe. Doctor Bruner finds many faults with taking melatonin as a dietary supplement, especially for kids. So the more we take it orally, the less our brains decrease it. It shuts it off, almost like it’s a feedback mechanism. Not to mention that taking the synthetic version of this hormone not only disrupts the production of natural melatonin in your brain, but so do other factors like light exposure before bed. But one of the problems right now is where we have noticed, especially with more use of screens, is that people are building a tolerance to it. And with limited research highlighting the potential long term impacts on developing children and teens, when it comes to recommending use at all, if we don’t have robust data supporting A dose for an age under which we wouldn’t give it any more than I, I hesitate to recommend it at all. Now, there are some cases that Doctor Bruner says could be exempt for intermittent use, but of course, as always, you should be consulting with your family physician to just get a little bit more insight on that. Now, she also adds, if you find yourself purchasing some of these supplements because you absolutely just believe it’s maybe the best thing to have in your house, that one thing you should be looking for is to make sure that it’s third party tested and do your research to make sure that it’s not contaminated with any additional products that maybe weren’t listed. That’s again, all information you can find on our website. For now, reporting in King County, I’m Frankie Catafias for Cairo 7 News.