Fear mongering in the release of new Melatonin study is medicinal Click-Bait at its worst.
“It’s time to stop marketing anxiety in the name of science. The only people losing sleep tonight should be the ones trading scientific integrity for headlines.” — Dr. Joseph Varon
The President and Chief Medical Officer of the Independent Medical Alliance (IMA) released the following statement on the release of a new Melatonin use study coming from a group of researchers connected with SUNY Downstate/Kings County Primary Care in New York City.
“The headlines around this new melatonin ‘study’ are bordering on malpractice. This is not peer-reviewed research; it’s a retrospective chart pull, yet the abstract is being spun as if melatonin causes heart failure. Even NBC News reports the truth hidden in their own story: ‘There’s no evidence that melatonin supplements themselves cause heart problems.’
Exactly. This paper did not control for insomnia severity, metabolic disease, psychiatric disease, or polypharmacy. People who use melatonin are not the same as those who don’t. Insomnia itself is often a marker of stress, chronic illness, menopause, etc.
So what’s happening here? Correlation is being sold to the public as causation. However, here are the facts: size does not equate to rigor, and fear does not equate to science.
Melatonin is a real physiologic molecule with known roles in immune modulation, inflammatory resolution, mitochondrial signaling, and circadian rhythm. Oversimplifying it into a headline scare story may get clicks, but it harms patients.
It’s time to stop marketing anxiety in the name of science. And here’s the irony: melatonin helps people sleep. The only people losing sleep tonight should be the ones trading scientific integrity for headlines.”
About the Independent Medical Alliance (IMA)
Formerly the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, the IMA has grown into America’s leading organization of frontline doctors, healthcare providers, and researchers advocating for complete reform of government healthcare agencies, including transparency on conflicts of interest, pricing and payments, drug and vaccine injuries, and other essential reforms to restore trust in healthcare agencies.
About Dr. Joseph Varon
Dr. Joseph Varon is one of the nation’s foremost doctors and gained fame during the pandemic for spending 715 consecutive days in full protective gear, fighting COVID-19 cases as the Chief Medical Officer in charge of the ICU at Houston’s United Memorial Medical Center. Dr. Varon’s unit had the best survival rates in the country.
