Comment: This one’s a bit of a favorite, as I don’t think anyone who measures vitamin D serum levels in clinical practice believes the IOM suggested dose could possibly be accurate. Here the authors point out a statistical mistake that was made and reassesses the same data to come to extrapolate to a far higher […]
Comment: This is a graph that I keep close at hand as I share it with patients very frequently. It shows how diverse the requirements are to achieve adequate serum vitamin D levels, and how the actual supplementation level to get most people into target range is far higher than the IOM recommendations, which were […]
Comment: The evidence summarized here makes a powerful case for melatonin as a therapeutic agent in cardiovascular health, a potent, naturally occurring neuroendocrine hormone with impressive antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. What stands out most is the breadth of its potential benefits: from protecting the heart muscle during a heart attack (I/R injury) to suppressing damage […]
Comment: This meta-analysis offers a compelling signal for melatonin’s role in palliative care for Heart Failure (HF). The statistically significant and moderate-certainty finding that melatonin improves Quality of Life (QoL) is highly relevant for patients struggling with chronic symptoms. The observed reduction in fatigue and improvement in sleep quality strongly supports this benefit. However, the […]
Comment: This is an important one for several reasons. Nocturnal hypertension is more closely associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes and mortality than daytime hypertension, with nighttime systolic blood pressure being a stronger predictor of risk even after adjusting for daytime values. The reduction levels seen with controlled release melatonin may look minimal, but are actually […]
Comment: The summary of this review is striking for the apparent disconnect it highlights regarding Desiccated Thyroid Extract (DTE). The authors accurately report that official guidelines universally reject DTE based on theoretical concerns—namely, the lack of FDA oversight and the transient, non-physiological T3 spikes. Yet the clinical data they reviewed tells an entirely different story: […]
Comment: This is a classic “real-world evidence” abstract that generates a frightening headline—a 90% increased risk of heart failure!—but whose findings are likely the result of a fatal flaw: confounding by indication. It’s impossible to fully judge a study from a conference abstract alone, as the methodology is never described in sufficient detail so we’ll […]
Comment: This study is a classic example of one that is both exciting and deeply frustrating. The exciting part: A simple, cheap intervention (melatonin) was associated with a 70% relative reduction in death or heart failure readmission after a heart attack, supported by a significant, positive change in the MMP-9 biomarker. The frustrating part: The […]
Comment: Here we have another publication adding to the growing body of evidence supporting Natural Desiccated Thyroid (NDT) for the subset of patients who remain symptomatic on standard levothyroxine monotherapy. While this article is a “mini-review” and not a large-scale, rigorous RCT, it correctly highlights the crucial clinical reality: patient-reported outcomes and preferences matter. The […]
Comment: This is a powerful meta-analysis that validates what we and our patients have known for decades. The data is clear: patients overwhelmingly prefer combination therapy, and the network meta-analysis highlights that desiccated thyroid extract (DTE) is the most preferred intervention of all. What’s particularly telling is the discrepancy between patient preference and the results […]
