Earlier this week, data released from the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions suggested that there could be a relationship between melatonin use and the risk of heart failure. We asked an expert from the Parkview Heart Institute to weigh in.
What is melatonin?
Melatonin is a hormone the body naturally produces to help control sleep and wake cycles. As daylight fades, the brain increases melatonin, signaling to the body that it is time to prepare for sleep. Over-the-counter melatonin supplements may help improve sleep and are consumed by approximately 27% of the population.
What the AHA said
The biggest takeaways from the AHA findings include:
- A review of 5 years of health records for more than 130,000 adults with insomnia who had used melatonin for at least a year found they were more likely to be diagnosed with heart failure, require hospitalization for the condition or die from any cause.
- The association between melatonin and increased risk of heart failure or death found in this study, which cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship, raises safety concerns about the use of melatonin, which is widely available, and may warrant more research on melatonin to assess its cardiovascular safety, researchers said.
- Note: The study featured in this news release is a research abstract. Abstracts presented at American Heart Association’s scientific meetings are not peer-reviewed, and the findings are considered preliminary until published as full manuscripts in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
What our expert said
We talked to Dr. Mark O’Shaughnessy, MD, PPG – Cardiology, about the recent findings from the AHA.
“The safety of melatonin has recently been questioned after the release of an ‘abstract’ presented at the AHA annual meeting. This abstract suggests that taking melatonin regularly for sleep may have detrimental effects, increasing the risk for the development of congestive heart failure (CHF) and increase chance for death.
“It is critically important to note several limitations about this data. First, it is released in an ‘abstract’ form and therefore has not been peer-reviewed to validate the conclusions.
“Secondly, it was a retrospective chart review study with no controls and therefore the statistical validity of the results are, at best, dubious. There can be no cause-and-effect analysis with this type of study and therefore this should not cause undue alarm.
“The data does suggest further study of melatonin should be undertaken in a truly randomized blinded fashion and that individuals should be cautious before taking any over the counter medications. I would recommend that individuals who experience insomnia discuss this with their primary care provider and review various solutions given this very preliminary data.”
