Taking Melatonin Does Not Increase Your Risk of Heart Failure

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Health & Fitness, Alternative Health

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A preliminary American Heart Association (AHA) study linked long-term melatonin use to increased heart failure risk, but a closer analysis shows serious flaws, including lack of peer review and failure to account for confounding variables
The study found melatonin users had 90% higher heart failure rates, but data mixed together prescription-only countries with over-the-counter markets, misclassifying many actual users as non-users
Moreover, the study failed to account for insomnia severity, psychiatric conditions, other medications, and dosing details, making it impossible to determine if melatonin caused the observed outcomes
Decades of peer-reviewed research demonstrates melatonin's cardioprotective effects, including reducing blood pressure, protecting heart tissue, and mitigating oxidative damage, contradicting the study's alarming headlines
While supplementation is unlikely to pose serious risks, there are natural ways to optimize your melatonin production, such as getting morning sunlight exposure, keeping a consistent sleep schedule, limiting evening blue light, eating earlier, and practicing stress-reduction techniques

Transcript

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0:00.0	Could a supplement you keep in your nightstand really be blamed for heart failure when the research behind that claim isn't even peer reviewed and misclassifies millions of users?
0:10.0	Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy to listen summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go. No reading required.
0:20.0	Subscribe for free at
0:21.0	Mercola.com for the latest health insights.
0:23.6	Hello, and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. I'm Ethan Foster, and today
0:29.2	we're taking a clear-eyed look at melatonin in heart health. You've seen the headlines
0:33.6	suggesting long-term melatonin use raises heart failure risk. We're going to unpack what
0:39.0	the data actually say and what you can do to support your own melatonin production naturally.
0:44.7	I'm Alara Sky. Let's set the stage. A preliminary analysis presented at the American Heart Association's
0:52.3	Scientific Sessions, 2025, linked a year or more of documented melatonin use
0:58.3	with higher rates of new heart failure diagnoses,
1:01.6	more hospitalizations for heart failure,
1:04.0	and increased all-cause mortality over a five-year window.
1:08.0	That sounds alarming until you examine how melatonin use and non-use were defined and what
1:13.6	crucial variables were missing. The researchers pulled five years of electronic health records
1:19.4	for more than 130,000 adults with chronic insomnia. People were counted as melatonin users
1:25.9	only if their medical records documented at least 12 consecutive months of use.
1:30.3	Everyone with insomnia, but no charted melatonin, was labeled a non-user.
1:35.3	Right away, that approach folds together countries where melatonin is prescription only,
1:40.3	and places like the United States where most people buy it over the counter,
1:45.1	meaning many actual users were automatically placed in the non-user group.
1:49.5	When you look at outcomes, the recorded use group showed roughly a 90% higher rate of new heart
	...

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