CNN and A.M.A. fail at math, science, and logic when attacking MELATONIN (part4)
CNN and A.M.A. fail at math, science, and logic when attacking MELATONIN (part4)
What is the biological importance and “medical risk” that indicates warning the public about this “danger” of harm and “death”?
This story keeps getting better!
Part 1: I had been thinking about melatonin with regard to patient care and some new research when I noticed a new smear campaign by the American Medical Association and CNN recently.
Part 2: The American Medical Association post on social media was a combination of direct misinformation along with a hyperlink to the article published by CNN which of course glorified in a reciprocal manner a recent publication by the American Medical Association. CNN repeats what the AMA published in its journal JAMA, and AMA reciprocates by guiding traffic to the CNN website. Like one hand washing the other, in the same dirty water.
Part 3: Critical reading of the CNN hack piece shows it to be intellectually and informationally vacuous (empty), loaded with juvenile innuendos and unfounded accusations that would never pass muster in any good high school grammar/writing class or undergraduate journalism course.
Let’s look at their “evidence” of “danger” and the risk for “muscle rigidity, fever, seizures and death”
THEIR MISINFORMATION: “People are using twice as much melatonin as they used to, sometimes at dangerously high levels.”
THEIR MISINFORMATION: “Previous studies also found 26% of the melatonin supplements contained serotonin, "a hormone that can have harmful effects even at relatively low levels," … “serious drug reaction” … “muscle rigidity, fever, seizures and even death if not treated.”
The source of their information
The data being exploited to support their fear-mongering about serotonin contamination of melatonin products was published 5 years ago in Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine 2017 (vol. 13, no. 2, pages 275–281). Two researchers bought and tested melatonin products for contamination with serotonin, described as follows:
“All products investigated in this study were purchased from local grocery stores and pharmacies in Guelph, Ontario [Canada]. Supplements tested spanned 16 different brands…”
Why is this dirt being dug up 5 years late?
Why it is being published to an American audience when the supplements being questioned were purchased in Canada?
I have to wonder why CNN and A.M.A. are so desperate to look up this article five years after it was published and why any of this considered to be of importance to a mostly American audience when the products were purchased in Canada. One might reasonably assume that if this data was known to the industry that they might have made corrections (if any were indeed necessary) within 5 years thereby making the recycling of this information 5 years later completely unnecessary, if not intentionally misleading.
How much serotonin did they find in the melatonin products?
You can see from their Table 2 that 8 products were found to have serotonin, with content ranging from 1.21-74.27 micrograms. So let’s simplify this to the worst-case-scenario and round up to 75 micrograms.
What is the biological importance and “medical risk” that indicates warning the public about this “danger” of harm and “death”?
Given that hormones and neurotransmitters are typically administered in milligram amounts which are 1000x larger than microgram amounts, I cannot say that I am starting this analysis with too much concern.
Further, orally administered serotonin is unlikely to reach the brain in any meaningful amounts. I guess that CNN and the A.M.A. never studied the blood-brain-barrier.
Let’s think about this
Serotonin is derived from the amino acid tryptophan and is then converted into melatonin. Since the amino acid tryptophan is found in many natural foods we might not be too surprised that likewise serotonin in the melatonin are also found in foods. Furthermore, given that nutritional supplements containing melatonin are commonly derived from natural sources, we should reasonably expect that some level of contamination with naturally-present serotonin may occur. If my line of thinking is correct here, then the most obvious way to assess the "risk and danger" of serotonin contamination of melatonin supplements is to look at the amount of serotonin found in commonly consumed foods.
If we find that people are dropping dead due to the presence of serotonin in their food, then we obviously have reason to be concerned.
If we find that people are living well and thriving despite the fact that they are consuming naturally-occurring serotonin in their foods, then we have nothing to be concerned about.
Furthermore, if this is true, then the American Medical Association and CNN are both guilty of failing to do sufficient background research while exploiting the opportunity to create fear, anxiety, and misinformed health care for millions of doctors and patients.
Let’s compare this level of “serotonin contamination” (1-75 micrograms) with the levels of serotonin that are naturally found in common foods.
Again, if we find that people are living well and thriving despite the fact that they are consuming naturally-occurring serotonin in their foods, then we have nothing to be concerned about.
Here, I looked at articles that have addressed this question by using analytical laboratory methods to determine the serotonin content of common foods. Remember, AMA and CNN told you that the serotonin contamination of melatonin products —published 5 years ago from sampled products in Canada —puts you at risk for injury and death. The data they are citing found ranges from 1-75 micrograms of serotonin. Look at the data below and tell me what you think.