Melatonin: Safe to Supplement?

I recently wrote an article on the many ways that melatonin can affect our health and several readers either commented or emailed me about their use of melatonin.  Some have been supplementing melatonin for years and it has helped their sleep patterns.

Now Melatonin is an amino acid and as a holistic health practitioner, I am comfortable recommending that clients supplement melatonin for short periods of time (less than 3 months) in order to correct an imbalance.  Melatonin has so many benefits and effects in the body and sometimes we need to take an amino acid to kick start a process.

However, the entire ethos of the work that I do is to help clients return to homeostasis or balance.  Therefore, I don’t recommend the long-term or chronic use of melatonin as a supplement.

I do not recommend that the following categories of people supplement melatonin at all:

a.  Pregnant women

b.  Women wanting to fall pregnant

c    People under the age of 40 (except for jet lag) because you should be manufacturing enough melatonin.  If you are traveling across time zones,  it is okay to supplement melatonin for a few days as you adapt to a new time zone but not for any other reason.

Supplementing Melatonin….

Since melatonin has so many health benefits as I mentioned before, it is easy to think that supplementing it will help your health.  However, we are synergistic beings and therefore supplementing one amino acid is going to affect several systems in the body.  Now if we do this consciously, we may want to supplement in order to kick start a process but over time your body will adapt to the new environment and therefore it is not good to supplement melatonin long-term ( in my opinion).

There are several ways to supplement melatonin…..

You can use a melatonin spray such as Energetix Melatonin Spray that is a combination Vitamin B6 & Melatonin Spray.    I like this method because it is easier to assimilate in the body.  For more information on this, you can contact me directly.

You can use a homeopathic version of melatonin.  I have seen many comments online that this is useless.  Well, that is because those folks don’t understand homeopathy. 

Homeopathy is puzzling if you are used to pharmaceutical drugs or whole food supplements. 

Homeopathy is a form of energy medicine that relies upon the frequency of a substance not the substance itself.  It is usually diluted beyond physical matter and leaves only the imprint of the substance.  Homeopathy will provoke an action in the body that is designed to shift the imbalance being experienced if the homeopath has picked the correct remedy. 

Homeopaths are trained to read a set of symptoms and match a remedy to those symptoms.  It is usually very effective but not always.  If someone is very toxic, then they are unlikely to respond well to a single homeopathic remedy.

Our health challenges have become much more complex in today’s world and it has become more difficult to treat someone simply with homeopathy but make no mistake, this doesn’t negate homeopathy.

You just need to understand it and consult with a professional homeopath.  Homeopathy still remains extremely relevant as part of a greater treatment program if used appropriately.

Homeopathic melatonin has been very effective for me with regards jet lag and I have used it over several decades.

Ways to maintain or increase melatonin levels without supplementing……

One way to naturally increase melatonin is via the use of morning sunlight if you can get it!

Keeping away from electro-pollution when you sleep will help.  This is a topic I am passionate about and will be the subject  of a series in early 2013.

Avoid smoking!

Drink alcohol in moderation especially in the evenings.

Some prescription drugs will lower your melatonin.

Eat foods high in antioxidants – and make sure you are getting sufficient calcium, magnesium and vitamin B6.

In the main, I am never in favor of anyone supplementing when you can get the nutrition from whole food because our body should be healthy and in balance and be able to manufacture sufficient melatonin.  However, that is not the case with many people.

If you are going to travel, and use a homeopathic form of melatonin, then use Melatonin 6 X.   This can be obtained from any homeopathic pharmacy.  You would take it at 4 pm local time when you are getting to your destination and take it for a few days after arriving depending on the time difference between home and destination.

Finally, I am personally interested in the research that has been undertaken suggesting that supplementing melatonin can be helpful with high blood pressure.  I know that sleep issues can be experienced alongside hypertension and the use of melatonin in this case is interesting.  It may be a positive side effect of improving the circadian rhythm, the most common one is sleep but blood pressure is another circadian rhythm so this may be the reason for the link.  Melatonin may have a connection with all circadian rhythms in the body.

Again, you may like to comment about your use of melatonin whether for jet lag or other reasons.  What form of melatonin have you used?

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Your friend and partner in wellness and prosperity,

skype: clarekelway

Related posts:

1. Melatonin and your Health: 11 Factors You Ought to Know

Tagged as: homeopathic melatonin, melatoniin & hypertension, melatonin, melatonin and insomnia, melatonin and jet lag, melatonin spray

About Clare Kelway

From Mom and Homeopath to Network Marketing Professional, Clare is passionate about helping you create freedom in your life - equipping you with success and a naturally healthy life. Health and Financial stress are the two greatest stresses we experience. Clare has a part time natural health clinic and spends the rest of her time teaching people how to effectively build a network marketing business. She builds her business online and offline using blogging, online marketing and speaking engagements. She lives in Kentucky, USA with her husband and two of her three sons.