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Comment by budsniffer952 | Hacker News Reader

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So much for a good faith discussion here. I don't appreciate that you tell me to "get a grip". You're not steelmanning. Instead, your reaction comes off as a knee jerk reaction. There are enough communities where I have to come up with defenses to deal with that nonsense. Don't do it here please.

US melatonin measured dosage can be 4x as much as what is reported [1, 2].

Also 0.3 mg is the recommended dose [4]. A lot of doses in the US are way higher than 0.3 mg. In the Netherlands it's stupidly easy to find 0.1 mg doses (e.g. at the Kruidvat or at the Etos). It's in part why I never looked further.

And since you're new here (55 days ago, 13 karma as of writing). I strongly recommend you to read the HN guidelines [3]. All people who are on HN should follow them, not knowing them degrades the community experience that we're having here.

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

> Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive

There are a few others that apply as well.

[1] Cohen PA, Avula B, Wang YH, Katragunta K, Khan I. Quantity of Melatonin and CBD in Melatonin Gummies Sold in the US. JAMA. 2023;329(16):1401–1402. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.2296

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10130950/

[2] Erland LAE, Saxena PK. Melatonin Natural Health Products and Supplements: Presence of Serotonin and Significant Variability of Melatonin Content. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017;13(2):275–281. doi:10.5664/jcsm.6462

https://link.springer.com/article/10.5664/jcsm.6462

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[4] https://gwern.net/melatonin

(referring to melatonin) yeah this is valid. I used to take melatonin every night, found out about the problems with us supply, couldn't find anything nearing 1/2 mg, and gave up. I took kids gummies for a few weeks, but I still think they were 1mg.

It's completely invalid. Small dose melatonin is all over Amazon and iHerb.

Share a link to 0.1 dose product please

I think you mean the US version of things. But here is my favorite from the Kruidvat in NL [1]. Time released melatonin works a bit better for me.

[1] https://www.kruidvat.nl/shiepz-melatonine-time-release-0-1mg...

Pharma and Healthcare was the implication I believe. The US approach to these things has a bad reputation internationally though I am informed that it’s an amazing system if you’re rich.

Let’s not conflate US pharma with their healthcare more generally.

The US is dominant in pharmaceutical and biotech, and FDA is generally excellent as a regulator, despite (IMO) sometimes being too conservative and resistant to any ideas not gestated within the agency. There are weird quirks (like the wide and wacky dosages of melatonin available over the counter, in this example) but most countries have such quirks.

Irrelevant due to a scoping problem. If you’re peddling a dietary supplement there is virtually no regulation at all.

As long as you don’t say anything in the marketing material, you’re good.

The only science in supplements is the marketing.

As I understand it, the FDA doesn't regulate melatonin as it's not sold as a medication, but as a supplement.

FDA does regulate supplements, but using a different legal framework which is far, far more hands-off than for pharmaceuticals.

Are you implying that everyone in the US is taking unknown quantities of OTC medications?

Unless you have some data to backup this claim, it is tinfoil hat speaking.

In the US its regulated as a supplement, not an over the counter medication.

US melatonin measured dosage can be 4x as much as what is reported [1, 2].

Have you never looked into stuff like this? It's all over social media and the claims are relatively easy to verify. I'm asking because I need to know if I'm in a bubble or not.

[1] Cohen PA, Avula B, Wang YH, Katragunta K, Khan I. Quantity of Melatonin and CBD in Melatonin Gummies Sold in the US. JAMA. 2023;329(16):1401–1402. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.2296

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10130950/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.5664/jcsm.6462

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