It may be uncontrolled in the US but not everywhere. It’s not allowed to be sold without a prescription where I live, and even then it’s only prescribed for chronic sleep disorders. I always ask anyone travelling to the US to bring back a bottle.
Wow. It's been a long time but I've definitely taken melatonin and if I felt any effects at all they definitely weren't strong if even noticable.
Here (USA) Ambien is prescribed often for chronic sleep issues and that drug absolutely terrifies me. I've had friends addicted to it who wound up in a lot of criminal trouble for trespassing and wandering around beaches naked and things like that because they'd sleep-walk hallucinate. I had one friend get arrested for sleeping in someones (random) attic on an ambien kick. A pilot, no less.
My mom gave me a bottle of it when I was in high school and it made me hallucinate in an unpleasant way. I do plenty of mycology stuff but the ambien was weird. I think I took it twice or three times and just stopped.
https://www.amazon.com/Melatonin-Transform-Melatonin-resilie...
It's mindboggling that this is freely available.
Absolute horror that people ingest things based on a lie. It's on level of this powder doesn't contain asbestos. Just because he isn't a big corp doesn't mean he is free to lie and profit on his lies.
Now, my group of preferred experts might be different from yours.
I don't think that's an excuse to start banning books (and other media), but products like this -- especially anything that advocates a particular approach to health, nutrition, or medicine -- should be vetted by actual experts (more than one), and stores should be required to post disclaimers when the product doesn't pass muster.
Yes, there's the potential for abuse and shady dealings there, but I'd like to believe that the end result would still be better than what we have now.
Now, some people are just raised to believe in complete nonsense, so you're not going to save everyone by trying to educate them. But I think it'd help many people not get drawn in by (potentially dangerous) pseudoscience.
"and stores should be required to post disclaimers when the product doesn't pass muster."
What about this is restrictive of free speech? If anything, YOU want to restrict the speech of the store to not allow them to say things they sell might be nonsense.
I think for medical things, oversight and general blurbs are fine. Its also fine if the store in question wants to post a blurb where they disagree with the "vetted" version. But this tramples on nobodies free speech, only on your personal sensibilities.
It would simply be much easier to not produce any content "that advocates a particular approach to health, nutrition, or medicine."
Capitalism is responsible for a lot of evils in the world but it is not the root cause of people lying.
>especially anything that advocates a particular approach to health, nutrition, or medicine -- should be vetted by actual experts (more than one), and stores should be required to post disclaimers when the product doesn't pass muster.
No thanks to the nanny warning. I've reading plenty of books on alternative medicine and without exception they all have a warning along these lines:
"The medical information contained within is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment. Please consult your health care provider before making any health care decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition."
An additional sign is not necessary IMO. We're grown adults.
This isn't directed at you then - if you actually have experience and done some real research (not read some news articles), great. Make informed decisions.
"We're grown adults."
A non sequitor. Grown adults are often unknowledgeable, incorrect, strapped for time, etc.
I've frequently seen nonsense pushed as fact, and known that I don't actually know everything. I welcome better (human agency, crowd-source mix) vetting in general.
I'm not so arrogant that I think I can always "do my own research" and get it right.
Any eye catching news headlines you would like to share?
I had never heard of a Chiropractic Neurologist. Interesting.
Welp reading about him was a wild ride. To save people a click -
> After becoming severely ill with Lyme, EBV and Mold illness, Dr John Lieurance began to explore ways to improve health at the deepest cellular level. His journey brought him to discover Melatonin as the core anti-oxidant that supports all systems in the body. His book on Melatonin takes a deep dive into healing naturally and using high dose melatonin, along with various other practical healing methods to heal the body and live a longer and more vital life.
His life focus is on vitality, longevity and enhanced consciousness. His interest is in connecting what he calls, "The 3 legs of a stool": Vitality of the body, Mind Mastery & a Direct experience of God. Using science and ancient wisdom, he aims to connect these dots in his own journey to becoming the best version of himself in this life. Diving deeply into many healing methods, to discover the deepest and most profound means to activate cellular energy, such as with Melatonin, Methylene Blue, NAD+, as well as fasting with various nutrients to activate responses. Dr. John explores many new paths in the health care world, with his unique & fresh ideas using various delivery systems, such as suppositories and nasal sprays and various protocols he has created. He attended Parker College of Chiropractic & received his Naturopathic degree in 2001 from St. Luke's School of Medicine. He has practiced Functional Neurology, Naturopathic medicine and Regenerative Medicine, using stem cell therapy in Sarasota for 25 years. Founder of the Advanced Rejuvenation Center in Sarasota, Florida, and founder of Functional Cranial Release – which is an Endo-Nasal Cranial Treatment with the ability to unlock the spinal fluid to allow profound healing of the nervous system. See his next book "It's All in Your Head: Endo-Nasal Cranial Therapy". He has been involved in multiple clinical trials, including investigation into the use of stem cells for Parkinson's Disease, COPD, OA of the knee and hip from 2012-2014. He has a clinical focus on mold illness, Lyme disease and chronic viral infections.
I take 1mg of melatonin every night, and it does immediately make me sleepy. I used to buy 10mg at the drugstore and it just makes me feel like shit for the next day.
The 10mg makes you feel bad because it’s still in your system the next day. At the recommended (lower) doses, your body fully clears it out by morning, so you feel alert and also have much lower risk of long term effects.
https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/10/melatonin-much-more-th...
That sounds quite magical. Wouldn't it be more likely that the uptake characteristics were very different for the two variants? Not sure if possible but maybe the 10mg variant were still being digested the day after so it would make you sleepy then instead of during the night?
After some digging here are some interesting discoveries related to melatonin and doxylamine:
https://www.reddit.com/r/insomnia/comments/spoaec/anyone_hav...
https://www.reddit.com/r/insomnia/comments/spoaec/anyone_hav...
I wonder if that's why people get addicted? Maybe the normal dose is fine, but many some start developing a tolerance, and then self-raise their dosage in order to get it to work again, but a higher dose triggers addiction?
> According to a report by the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), in 2010, about 57% of ER visits and hospitalizations caused by taking too much Ambien also involved other drugs. Ambien combined with alcohol accounted for 14% of those visits, or 2,851 people total. Combining alcohol and Ambien increased the person’s likelihood of requiring transfer to an intensive care unit (ICU) due to overdose.6
That could be because insomnia and alcohol dependence often go hand in hand. Additionally, alcohol works on the same GABA receptors in the brain as Ambien, increasing the effects of both Ambien and alcohol. Reported rates of sleep problems among people with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/30/615421269...
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/alcoholism-treatment/mi...
This is all assuming it isn't being used for some kind of chronic sleep issue.
Also, there was a story about the developer of DirectX who alledgedly overdoesed on Paracetamol/Tylenol:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201223122742/https://www.wsj.c...
I want to believe it's because they've been thoroughly tested to not be harmful, since they don't even have the leaflet that's mandatory with drugs / medication listing all the side effects and whatnot.