{"id":287018,"date":"2025-11-16T15:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T15:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/287018\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T15:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T15:42:11","slug":"is-melatonin-bad-for-your-heart-an-expert-explains-the-new-findings-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/287018\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Melatonin Bad For Your Heart? An Expert Explains The New Findings. : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

A study presented at the American Heart Association’s scientific meetings has raised concerns about melatonin, one of Britain’s most commonly prescribed sleep aids<\/a>. The findings suggest that long-term users face a higher risk of heart failure.<\/p>\n

But the preliminary data demands careful scrutiny before the alarm is sounded.<\/p>\n

Melatonin<\/a> has been prescribed in the UK for nearly two decades, with 2.5 million prescriptions issued in England last year alone<\/a>. The drug is a synthetic version of the hormone naturally produced in the brain \u2013 the so-called “hormone of darkness” that regulates our sleep\u2013wake cycle.<\/p>\n

Related: Humans Used to Sleep Twice Every Night. Here’s Why It Vanished.<\/a><\/p>\n

For years, it’s been considered safe<\/a> for treating short-term sleep problems in adults and, under specialist supervision, for children with learning disabilities or ADHD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The study, published only as a brief summary<\/a>, analyzed electronic health records of roughly 130,000 adults with sleep difficulties over five years \u2013 half of whom took melatonin and half of whom didn’t.<\/p>\n

People who took melatonin for at least a year were roughly three times more likely to be hospitalized with heart failure than non-users (19 percent of people who took melatonin versus 6.6 percent of people who did not).<\/p>\n

Long-term users also faced higher rates of heart failure diagnosis and death from any cause.<\/p>\n

The researchers attempted to balance their comparison by matching melatonin users with non-users across 40 factors, including age, health conditions and medications. Yet the study found only an association, not causation.<\/p>\n

This distinction matters. Correlation doesn’t prove that melatonin caused heart failure.<\/p>\n

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The devil, as ever, lives in the missing details. Only a 300-word summary of the study exists so far, meaning crucial information \u2013 melatonin dosage, insomnia severity, lifestyle factors \u2013 remains unreported.<\/p>\n

The study’s methodology raises questions. It relied on electronic medical records rather than direct patient follow-up or interviews, which can leave gaps in the data.<\/p>\n

The research drew from TriNetX Global Research Network, a large international database. But healthcare practices and record-keeping vary wildly between hospitals and nations, potentially skewing results.<\/p>\n

In the UK, melatonin requires a prescription for specific conditions. But in the US, it’s sold over the counter \u2013 purchases that are often not documented in medical records. This means some people categorized as non-users may actually have been taking melatonin, muddying the comparison.<\/p>\n

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The missing piece of the puzzle<\/p>\n

Even assuming both groups were correctly identified and matched, a key question lingers: why did one group receive melatonin while the other didn’t?<\/p>\n

Perhaps those prescribed the drug suffered more severe or disruptive sleep problems \u2013 symptoms that might reflect underlying health issues, including heart problems. If so, melatonin might simply be a marker of existing risk rather than the cause of it.<\/p>\n

Intriguingly, previous studies<\/a> in heart failure patients suggested melatonin may actually protect heart health by improving psychological wellbeing and heart function. Other research indicated<\/a> it could ease symptoms in people with heart failure and serve as a safe complementary therapy.<\/p>\n

Since the study exists only as an abstract, it hasn’t undergone peer review<\/a>. And information on the study’s methods and results remains limited.<\/p>\n

While the findings are noteworthy and raise legitimate questions about the long-term risks of using this supplement, they’re far from conclusive. Further studies are needed to determine whether prolonged melatonin use affects heart health, and if so, how.<\/p>\n

Doctors face a familiar balancing act: weighing treatment benefits against potential risks. Poor sleep doesn’t just affect the heart; it’s linked to problems<\/a> with metabolism, mental health and the immune system, among others.<\/p>\n

Doctors typically start with lifestyle changes, better sleep habits<\/a> and talk therapy. But when these fail to improve sleep quality, short-term medication may be necessary to restore healthy patterns and prevent further health complications.<\/p>\n

The melatonin story isn’t over. It’s just beginning. Until fuller evidence emerges, panic seems premature.\"The\n<\/p>\n

Heba Ghazal<\/a>, Senior Lecturer, Pharmacy, Kingston University<\/a><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A study presented at the American Heart Association’s scientific meetings has raised concerns about melatonin, one of Britain’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-287018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}