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The problem with a lack of FDA regulation is that there is no guarantee on what you are taking. The freshness of the product and the veracity of what's in the p
by ChikkaChiChi 13y ago
The problem with a lack of FDA regulation is that there is no guarantee on what you are taking. The freshness of the product and the veracity of what's in the pills will always be suspect to me.
If I could trust where I get my melatonin from, I would gladly take it. But I've learned too much about how terrible this industry is.
- Lost_BiomedE 13y agoI don't trust many, but I do trust Nature's Way, Now Foods, and Jarrows. They do proper batching and testing.
- ChikkaChiChi 13y agoI'll check them out, thanks!
- rickdale 13y agoI have to add LiftMode, their products are pretty good, and come with test results to show exactly what you are getting.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- thuzarsky 13y agoI'd also strongly recommend the Trader Joe's brand. I've been using melatonin for a couple of years and haven't found anything that has been as consistently effective.
- desigooner 13y agoI've heard many of TJs supplements are white labelled Nature's way products
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- hawkharris 13y agoI agree that oversight is important. Incidentally, that's why bottled water is generally more dangerous than tap water. Public water supplies are held to stricter standards in terms of quality control and regular testing.
- drugcite-com 13y agoThats a very good point, also it's important to look for off label side effects (Adverse Events) to the non prescription drugs. I own the site linked to in the 'Uses' section (http://www.drugcite.com/?q=melatonin http://www.drugcite.com/?q=melatonin), it's also to sort the data by date and gender to get more accurate information. This data is put together from numerous data sets including FDA FAERS.
- refurb 13y agoNice website! It's a great interface for the FDA collected data.
- Zenst 13y agoThe issue here is that it is a natural chemical and with that nobody can patent it. The cost for drug approval (in many countries) is high and this is the crux. No company is going to finance the approval process as they have no way to control there financial return upon that investment as they can not patent the drug they are getting approval upon. So everybody else can just ride there investment and that is the case now in that nobody has any incentive to put it thru the costly FDA approval. Same can be seen for Omega-3 and other naturaly occuring benificial products. This also means that people with depression or sleep disorders can not be prescribed these products as they are not FDA approved and insurance will not pay for it either. This forces people into patented phara drugs that may or may not be better for them and in all cases have more side effects (upto including death being common disclaimer on the long list). Same issue in the UK and more so in that melatonin is not allowed to be sold. Sure you can get it on the internet, but from some contries but as there are no standards it is hard to tell. Is it syntheticly made or the type extracetd from animal and with that the whole area of concern starts to rise. If only some benificial billionair would fund FDA tests for approval for this and other unpatentable naturaly occuring medicines. Certainly be positive for everybody.
- refurb 13y agoCompanies can obtain market exclusivity without a patent. In the US, the FDA assigns 5 years of market exclusivity based on a NDA approval. If it's an orphan disease, it's 7 years. You can also bump up the exclusivity by 6 months if you get approved in a pediatric indication. That said, there isn't much incentive for a company to do this. Let's say a company spend $200M getting FDA approval for melatonin. Considering the huge population that it would be used in, the FDA would require a very large trial to determine safety. Once launched, the drug company would need to recover that cost plus a profit, so suddenly melatonin goes from a few pennies per dose to several dollars. The push back from the public would probably kill any chance of making it a profitable venture. What drug companies did do was create melatonin analogues. Rozerem by Takeda is a great example. It hasn't done that well. As for omega-3s, GSK did get Lovaza approved by the FDA although they did have a patent on it (a specific form of omega-3s).
- 13y ago
- chmars 13y agoHow do you define 'freshness' with regard to Melatonin? How relevant is the date printed on Melatonin bottles?
- martincmartin 13y agoconsumerlab.org does independent testing of all sorts of supplements. Highly recommended.
- afterburner 13y agoTrue. A doctor recommended Jamieson.