Experts Doubtful About Melatonin

Millions of people may be taking melatonin as a sleep aid, but the hormone has not been proved scientifically as either effective or safe, specialists at the National Institutes of Health said. Researchers at a conference in Bethesda, Md., on the use of melatonin said wide publicity about the presumed benefits of the hormone has created a brisk market at health food stores even as scientists are scrambling to determine if it has serious side effects. “We are going at it backwards,” said Dr. Robert Sack of the Oregon Health Sciences University. “People are taking it, and we are trying to figure out what it does.” Melatonin is unregulated under federal law because it is a natural ingredient in some foods.