Is it amazing that melatonin relieves insomnia?

Insomnia has become a problem for most modern people. In recent years, due to the rise of "melatonin", it has been misled and promoted by businesses as a "magic medicine" for treating insomnia. So what exactly is melatonin? What are the effects of melatonin? What are the precautions for taking melatonin? Here are the answers for you one by one.

What is melatonin

In the upper posterior part of the human thalamus, there is a pea-sized gray-red gland. Because it is shaped like a pine cone, it is called the pineal gland. The pineal gland secretes a hormone. The name of this hormone is called Melatonin in English transliteration, and melatonin in paraphrase. It is so named because it can agglomerate the melanin in the frog's skin, make it white, and regulate the skin color changes of amphibians. In China, because it is secreted by the pineal gland, it is also called pineal gland; when a company sold it as a health product, it simply changed its name to "Mercrolatin."

Melatonin is called endogenous melatonin secreted by the human pineal gland. Commercially available melatonin is exogenous melatonin, mostly chemically synthesized.

Melatonin has the physiological role of participating in the regulation of human circadian rhythm and sleep. The human body secretes melatonin at night and inhibits the secretion of melatonin due to bright light during the day. The secretion of melatonin is not only affected by various factors such as light intensity, light wavelength, light time, photoperiod, electromagnetic field, etc., even starvation and strenuous exercise can affect the secretion of melatonin. And with age, the secretion volume will gradually decrease, and the secretion volume of the elderly is generally lower than that of the young.

The efficacy of melatonin

⒈Improve the quality of sleep.

The pineal gland accelerates the secretion of melatonin at night, which helps us to sleep and regulate emotions. However, as people age, the pineal gland that secretes melatonin will continue to degenerate, especially after the age of 40, the melatonin in the body will continue to decrease, thereby affecting the quality of sleep. Therefore, by supplementing exogenous melatonin, patients with sleep disorders and circadian rhythm disorders caused by reduced melatonin secretion can shorten the time to fall asleep, reduce the number of awakenings in dreams, and improve the quality of sleep.

The effect of melatonin is related to its way of taking, dosage form, time and dosage, and course of treatment. Therefore, when supplementing exogenous melatonin, it is necessary to follow the body's own natural secretion time of melatonin, and it is recommended to take it 1 to 2 hours before going to bed. In addition, melatonin has a short half-life and a short duration of action. The slow-release melatonin has a relatively good effect.

The mechanism by which melatonin regulates sleep has not been fully established. Clinically, melatonin is generally not used as a medicine to treat insomnia in my country, but is classified as a health food, and the declared health function is limited to improving sleep. The recommended daily dosage is 0.1 to 0.3 mg.

⒉ Delay aging.

Free radicals are closely related to aging. Melatonin can scavenge free radicals and play an anti-oxidant effect, thereby protecting the cell structure of the human body, preventing biological macromolecules from being damaged, thereby reducing the content of oxygen in the body, and helping people to achieve anti-aging effects. purpose.

Can melatonin whiten

Melatonin does not play a role in whitening, it is not a whitening product, and does not affect the level of melanin changes in the human body. People who have poor long-term sleep quality or often have jet lag can take melatonin in moderation to improve sleep quality and adjust facial complexion. Many commercial advertisements on the market are exaggerated, so don't follow blindly. The health function of melatonin approved in my country is currently recognized as only "improving sleep function", and its health functions such as whitening and anticancer have not been recognized.

Side effects of melatonin

A number of experiments have proved that it is safe to take melatonin in short-term, small doses, with few side effects, and occasional adverse reactions such as fatigue, headache, and vomiting. However, long-term and overdose of melatonin may affect the body's normal secretion of melatonin and cause sleep disorders.

Under normal circumstances, the content of melatonin in the human body is relatively small. If too much melatonin is taken, the concentration of thyroxine and epinephrine in the human body will be relatively lowered, which will make people feel poor, drowsy and sleepy. At this time, attention will be easily distracted, reaction power will slow down, and sensitivity will decrease. The next day Feel dizzy after getting up in the morning (it can easily lead to traffic accidents while driving). Therefore, it is recommended to use it with caution for people who drive, work on machinery or engage in dangerous operations.

Studies have also pointed out that melatonin has a certain effect of inhibiting ovulation and may affect fertility. Taking too high doses of melatonin may also cause cerebral vasoconstriction and increase the risk of stroke; it will also make depression patients dreamy, nightmares, and easy to wake up, and the patients will continue to feel low and aggravate the condition. Therefore, if insomnia is caused by depression, you must avoid taking melatonin.

Tips: Precautions for taking melatonin

⒈It is not recommended to take melatonin for people with coagulopathy, depression, epilepsy, and organ transplantation; for patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases who take aspirin for a long time, it is especially not recommended to use melatonin, because aspirin and melatonin will have drug interactions , Affect the efficacy of the two; patients with autoimmune symptoms (rheumatoid, etc.) and hyperthyroidism are used with caution.

⒉Don't be overly superstitious about imported melatonin products. As a health food, melatonin is a qualified product, regardless of whether it is an imported or domestic product, if the quality is up to standard and has a health food approval number from the health administration department, and the effect is similar.

⒊Strictly follow the group, dosage and time specified in the product label.