“This Doctor was Duped”

Getting Tired of Confusing Advertising

It’s Dr. Rob. Sometimes I get really tired, but I can’t sleep. To help me feel drowsy, I sometimes use a five milligram tablet of melatonin. It’s not really a medicine. It’s a food supplement. It’s a gummy that dissolves in your mouth, but the melatonin absorbs the same way sublingual nitroglycerin does, through the blood vessels in your mouth and then, if swallowed, through your stomach.

I ran out of the medication and found it kind of expensive for what it is at my local store. So I decided to go online to buy it. Later I went back to the store to see if the same problem existed. See if you can spot it.

I went to the store brand called Essentials. Other brands are doing the same thing. Essentials Melatonin Gummy Sleep Support, five milligrams, 120 count. Look carefully. The dietary supplement says 120 count, five milligrams.

Let’s take a closer look at the product. They don’t show much else about the ingredients. So let me stop sharing and look at the actual product itself.Here I have the product. It is 120 count. And it’s half the cost of the five milligram version in my grocery store for one of the brands. Another brand in the store is priced about the same, but it has fewer gummies.

 It has only 60, again five milligrams.But then when you look closer, you think you’re getting a real bargain online. Look a little closer and the serving size is two gummies per dose. It’s difficult to read, but trust me, it’s two gummies per dose. So to get the five milligrams, I need to take two gummies, which makes it only 60 doses, not 120 like they implied.

The point is, at best, this is confusing.

 At worst, it’s intentionally misleading. It leads you to buy a product thinking you’re getting a discount.

The problem becomes more serious if you take what you believe is five milligrams and it doesn’t work. Your doctor might say to increase to 10 milligrams, so you go buy another product. You could be taking much more or much less than you think. If you are not getting the results you want, your doctor might think you need a different pill, a higher dose, or something like Benadryl.

The point is, deceiving someone with labeling, even though it is officially a food supplement, becomes critical. Reading and knowing how to read the back label carefully becomes crucial.

I was taking half the dose I thought I was, and it really wasn’t working. Then my wife pointed out the misleading labeling.

Family Members can be a Force for Health

Thank you to my wife for helping me better manage my medicines. It’s up to you now. Manage your own medicines better. Help the people you’re working and living with manage their medicines better. And complain to your pharmacy, the manufacturer, or your congressman about mislabeled, confusing, or potentially deceitful labeling and marketing.

Thanks for being a force for health, and read labels carefully. Don’t be duped. I’m a 40-year physician, a trained health educator and population health specialist, trained to read labels, and I missed it. I worry about the rest of you.

Be a force for your health and be careful out there.