How Far Off Were Melatonin Bottles on Huberman Lab?

On Huberman Lab, one speaker is concerned about high melatonin because the hormone has effects on the reproductive axis. He sees people take a hundred, ten, five hundred, sometimes even ten thousand times the amount the body normally releases. He does not want anyone, including himself, to take a hormone known to be androgen suppressive, and he says the concern is not nested in any one specific human study.

The other speaker calls the point a good one and says melatonin is pretty safe on lethality. The first speaker answers that you can take a lot before you die. The second speaker rejects survival as the yardstick: health, not whether the pill will kill you, is the decision for taking it. He then recalls a study he thinks the first speaker mentioned too. He thinks the study looked at at least over 20 brands of melatonin supplements, and he thinks the capsules ranged from 83 percent less than the bottle to 478 percent more than the bottle.

The 10 milligram figure is a separate what-if, not the dose in the brand comparison. If a pill is 10 milligrams and the capsule holds 478 percent more than 10 milligrams, he says 10 milligrams is already many tens of times more than a physiological dose and sits in supraphysiological territory. His conclusion is that people need to be a bit thoughtful.