Have you heard the news? (Take Melatonin) and you have a 90% chance of dying from Heart Failure

Just for fun!
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The worst thing is that the headline gets lots of attention and the carefully researched follow up will never make the news. When it is determined that this is a very small subset, the results will go unnoticed.

I remember a groundbreaking study that showed that using a nightlight for your children makes them more likely to need glasses for nearsightedness later in life. It was big news, it really helped sell those battery operated push button lights.
When other researchers could not replicate the original study’s results, it was determined that nearsighted parents make nearsighted children and nearsighted people are more likely to use nightlights.

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You mean the guy who shilled Magnetic Pajamas is one of the better ones???

Sure, when i came to heart surgery, he was at the top of the game. But expertise in one area does not translate to another, even if to an outsider the areas seem to be the same (medicine).

Like many others (Francis Crick; Avi Loeb, many others) he’s gone down the path from Brilliant to Crank.

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Well, we don’t know that for sure (yet)! :wink:

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Yeah, this is the biggest problem with garbage like this. Just look at all the people who still point to Andrew Wakefield’s long disproved (and retracted) paper to justify their anti-vax stance. And in recent times, how many people have bothered to look past the headlines to see that actual studies have shown no link whatsoever between Tylenol and autism?
Too many people think in headlines, and media feeds them what they want.

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My wife never took Tylenol when she was pregnant with my son who is autistic. Something caused the rise in autism, or maybe it’s just better diagnostic tools. It’s not Tylenol or vaccines.

I find this latest BS quite nauseating as a Dad.

I knew within days of my Son’s birth that something wasn’t right. It wasn’t the Hep-B shot either, although I do agree that it’s not necessary within minutes or hours of birth when Mom is clear.

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I do believe that the industry groups will get the word out once this gets straightened out. The reality is that it will never actually be announced. It may or may not be peer reviewed at some point in the future. If the peers find what we know they will, it will be radio silence, and the abstract will just quietly vanish from the AHA’s site. It’s not actually there anyway. Only on their conference site at the moment.

I thought the presentation was given 5 minutes on Monday at the conference. I was wrong. That’s what they do on the schedule for “poster presentations”\. Couple pieces of high-grade oaktag hanging on a wall for people to look at if they want. That was it. Read an article from the UK today, where it’s used as a prescription, ripping the abstract apart, in a similar way that I did upthread. You know, logic


I’ve personally reached out to the author, but I’m not expecting a response. Ethically we would like the data to see for ourselves. All I asked for was the group totals by country so we can correlate what we know about the US population and Melatonin usage.

As I had mentioned, the suspicion is that US insomniacs were a sizeable part of the nix (in the control group) due to the US patient representation in the TriNetX system.

Anyone that’s interested in reading a hundred pages of actual data on Melatonin and heart benefits - Here you go - Evidence for the Benefits of Melatonin in Cardiovascular Disease

Along with our downward spiral, we’ve seen a huge uptick in sales on Amazon and elsewhere of “Melatonin Free” supplements. Most of them with star ratings of 3 or below.

The consumer is desperate for an alternative but they are going to be disappointed. Once that stuff doesn’t work, they are likely to search for a reason to believe to validate returning to what has worked for them.

We have 7 thousands subscribe and save customers on Amazon. It’s pretty shocking to see a meaningful number of them cancel over the last 10 days.

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As I predicted, but probably just people in a position to pivot into hyping up their supplements without it to catch the latest fad. There have been formulations excluding melatonin due to undesirable effects.

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It’s pretty funny. Now all those lead images have been changed with a big “No Melatonin!” Burst. Bots don’t seem to care about those altered images yet


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Amazing what you can get people to say when you buy enough of their memecoin.

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I haven’t gotten anything from buying this memecoin :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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That is a lot of it, plus the changing threshold. I have a niece who is autistic; 30 years ago she would have been called “really shy”. It’s like if you move the outfield fence in 20 feet; you’ll see more home-runs; doesn’t mean that balls are being hit farther.

I imagine so. Thankfully you understand that it’s all BS.

The ones I feel really sorry for are the autistic kids of parents who became anti-vax, once they get to the point of realizing that their parents would rather they were dead than autistic. It’s really sick.

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That’s basically it. Jr. has always done great in school, doesn’t even need to study. Has lots of virtual friends on the gaming sites but no real ones sadly. He did better than my wife, daughter, and myself on the SAT’s and he drives himself to high school everyday.

He’ll be fine. I’m positive that I’m on the spectrum too, if you couldn’t tell :rofl: . Is what it is.

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Sadly, I don’t get to see my niece as often as I would like (she lives several states away). Only the last time I saw her did she start talking to me (she was about to turn 12 at the time). Part of the problem is her mom, who always steps in for her; for example, when we got to their house, niece was working on making cookies; I asked her “what are you making?” and mom immediately jumped in to answer “she’s making choc chip cookies”. Sorta hard to encourage engagement in cases like that (mom was diagnosed “learning disabled” and had excuses made for her for her whole life, so just continuing the tradition).
But niece loves to read. So I took a bunch of books for her to look through, and take whatever she wanted. Took a bit to convince her that she was free to take as many as she wanted; I think she ended up with about 30-40. She was already on the second one when I saw her a day later.

Frankly, I think an overly-protective mom might be holding her back more than her extreme shyness (once she got talking, she talked about several of her friends as school, so I think she’ll do okay).
I even got her to give me a hug when we said “Goodbye”. :slight_smile:

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Knew you joined the club the day you said Subaru, Welcome brother.

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My wife has one now too. Must be contagious.

Her Forester Hybrid is a really nice car. We love it. Averaging 34MPG since April. 2.4X better than her Traverse we got rid of. We are part of the solution now!

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We went with “Ze PAPERS PLEASE VAGON” and got an AWD atlas. Kind of cool having AWD when going to Tahoe or Shasta or running over protestors on the GG bridge.

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Saw this posted by a prominent industry player on LinkedIn, Really sums up the problem. We’re not against better regulation / qualifications for those that can market supplements by any means but that probably won’t happen unfortunately.

Supplement Sensationalism In The Media: Fear Over Facts

Over the years a media pattern has become undeniable: every time a category reaches real consumer traction, a scare story follows. Growth attracts attention, and attention attracts sensationalism. Admittedly, it frustrates the hell out of me. Here are some of the headlines of the past decade, what was behind them, and the status today.

2013: Omega-3s and “Cancer Risk”

Major outlets ran with a study linking high omega-3 levels to prostate cancer. It was observational, based on a single blood draw, and participants weren’t confirmed supplement users.

Today: Omega-3s remain one of the most clinically validated nutrients for heart and brain health.

2015: “No Herbs Found” in Herbal Supplements

A NY Attorney General probe claimed store-brand botanicals contained none of the labeled herbs. DNA barcoding was used, a method that cannot detect herbal extracts because DNA is removed during processing.

Today: Herbal supplements have doubled in size, backed by validated HPTLC and LC-MS testing and strong clinical research.

2018: “Toxic Metals in Protein Powders”

Clean Label Project reported that many proteins exceeded Prop 65 limits. Prop 65 is a California warning statute, not a true safety standard, and levels cited were below FDA/WHO tolerances.

Today: Protein continues to grow as one of the most trusted, transparent, and rigorously tested categories in wellness.

2020–21: Energy Drinks & Teen Scare Headlines

Stories linked energy drinks to hospitalizations and deaths. Most cases involved extreme caffeine intake from multiple sources or pre-existing conditions, but the headlines generalized risk across the category without context.

Today: The category evolved into cleaner energy and nootropic beverages with clear labeling.

2025: “Unsafe Lead Levels in Protein Powders”

Consumer Reports used a minimal 0.5 ”g/day limit based upon Prop 65 (again), which is far below FDA, WHO, and EFSA. All products were presented without context/clarity as to natural factors and serving sizes, but the distinction was ignored in report.

Today: Protein is everywhere. And it’s safe.

2025: “Melatonin Linked to Heart Failure”

Just last week, I saw headlines stating long term melatonin use raised heart-failure risk by 90%. The study was observational, not peer-reviewed, based on incomplete medical data, & heavily confounded by insomnia itself.

Today: Melatonin is safe and effective for short term use and proper dosing.

These stories appear when categories hit mainstream adoption, context is nonexistent, nuance fades, the headline spreads, and the science eventually corrects the record. Clicks and eyeballs are the target, not delivering the truth.

I’m not anti-media, but, in our industry, the loud headlines rarely tell the true story. Categories/products with real efficacy and real consumer value will outlast and be heard over the noise. But the media proves fear has more value and short term impact than the truth.

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Because the point of media is not the point of journalism; the point of media is traffic and eyes so their true monetization is adverts. It works so it happens. The issue points deeper at how people are rather than how media is. And perception is proximal and temporal.

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Melatonin always made me groggy when I woke up and I didn’t like that feeling. Plus, it didn’t work all the time. I’ve been taking Unisom for years and I don’t get that groggy feeling.

Ambien was great for the few years I was on it but it had many bad side effects
it was not something one is supposed to be on long-term.

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megan-mullally-karen-walker
They literally handed it to me weekly in a ziplock little baggie in the middle east as if I was in the projects. (tent projects perhaps).
I could never give up Ambien. In my dreams my kids behave, Amazon behaves, my wife cooks, my mother and mother in law have little to no opinion about anything, the boat is always clean, there is never traffic, and beer has no calories, they released the unredacted Epstein files


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