Do You Know The Eight Drugs Doctors Would Never Take??? You Should!!!

Would doctors take the medications they prescribe to their patients? Not necessarily, as it was reported in a recent article in Men′s Health, June 22, 2008. A number of physicians were asked which drugs they themselves would refuse to take.

And it may surprise you especially if you are currently taking one of these drugs, but here is their list:

• Asthma drug Advair
• Diabetes drug Avandia
• Pain reliever Celebrex (a relative of the infamous Voixx)
• Antibiotic Ketek
• Heartburn medication Prilosec
• Heartburn medication Nexium
• Eye drops Visine Original
• Decongestant Pseudoephedrin

The doctors questioned also suggested alternative treatments. Unfortunately, all they could come up with were other drugs! You have to understand that is all they are trained in at medical school…You can find their recommendations in the original article in Men’s Health.

Here is a portion of a commentary by Dr. Mercola on this very subject:

“Seemingly positive and helpful articles like these really highlight how pervasive the conventional drug culture is. Although these drugs are exposed as being dangerous and best avoided at all costs, the writer failed miserably in providing ′healthier′ alternatives; in all cases but two, merely citing alternative drug treatments …”

Actually it was the doctors who failed miserably; the writer just quoted the doctors′ recommendations. Mercola then goes on to comment on three of the drugs on this list — the asthma, diabetes and heartburn/acid reflux medications — and suggests non-pharmaceutical alternatives. This would be a good time for me to restrict my own comments to Avandia. But it should be mentioned that there is a reason lawyers are targeting people who have had adverse reactions to this drug.

In May of 2007 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a safety alert on Avandia:

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is aware of a potential safety issue related to Avandia (rosiglitazone), a drug approved to treat type 2 diabetes …”

The agency goes on to say that safety data from some controlled clinical trials showed a potential increase in the risk of heart attacks, but other data provided contradictory evidence. The agency then issues this warning to patients on Avandia:

“Patients who are taking Avandia, especially those who are known to have underlying heart disease or who are at high risk of heart attack should talk to their doctor about this new information as they evaluate the available treatment options for their type 2 diabetes.”

Why didn′t the FDA just mandate the removal of the drug from the market?

“FDA′s analyses are ongoing. FDA has not confirmed the clinical significance of the reported increased risk in the context of other studies. Pending questions include whether the other approved treatment from the same class of drugs, pioglitazone, has less, the same or greater risks. Furthermore, there is inherent risk associated with switching patients with diabetes from one treatment to another even in the absence of specific risks associated with particular treatments. For these reasons, FDA is not asking GlaxoSmithKline, the drug′s sponsor, to take any specific action at this time.”

If changing treatments poses such a significant health risk, why advise patients to talk to their doctors about their available treatment options, i.e. about switching drugs? And exactly what was the information available to the agency that made it so difficult for them to make a decision?

“Recently, the manufacturer of Avandia (GlaxoSmithKline) provided FDA with a pooled analysis (meta analysis) of 42 randomized, controlled clinical trials in which Avandia was compared to either placebo or other anti-diabetic therapies in patients with type 2 diabetes. The pooled analysis suggested that patients receiving short-term (most studies were 6 months duration) treatment with Avandia may have a 30-40 percent greater risk of heart attack and other heart-related adverse events than patients treated with placebo or other anti-diabetic therapy. These data, if confirmed, would be of significant concern since patients with diabetes are already at an increased risk of heart disease.”  FDA approval for Avandia was given May 1999 and this safety alert wasn’t issued by the FDA until May of 2007. My question is-What took so long to issue the Risk Warnings of serious cardiovascular complications after most of these studies that were conducted over a short 6 month period of time? It sure is odd that it took 8 years to issue this safety alert, in my opinion!

Of significant concern? Can you imagine a natural health product remaining on the market with a rap sheet like that. Does the pharmaceutical industry control the FDA, or what?

The sad thing about all of this is that type 2 diabetes is considered a life style disease that is both preventable and reversible. The American Diabetes Association readily admits this:

“People with diabetes have the same nutritional needs as anyone else. Along with exercise and medications (insulin or oral diabetic pills), nutrition is important for good diabetes control. By eating well-balanced meals in the correct amounts, you can keep your blood glucose levels as close to normal (non-diabetic level) as possible.”

Pharmaceutical intervention shouldn′t even be necessary in type 2 diabetes. Yet the drug peddling continues, with the active participation of the medical establishment.

It is a shame that every Healthcare Provider isn’t required by law to learn what Nutraceutical options exist…but we have to remember who has the greatest influence in a medical doctors education and training-it’s not the nutraceutical companies!

What Do Doctors Think Of Dietary Supplements???

The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), a trade association representing the dietary supplement industry, conducted a couple of surveys among health care professionals to find out. What they discovered was that dietary supplement use was just as common among health care professionals as among the general public. However there are still some misinformed physicians that still believe that people who take multivitamin supplements are probably just wasting their money and boosting the profits of vitamin companies… They are the same doctors that believe that in our society of highly processed, genetically modified and fortified foods, we can obtain all the nutrients we need. This thinking in my opinion is so far from reality it isn’t worth repeating!

The first CRN survey, conducted in 2007, questioned 900 physicians and 277 nurses about their thoughts on dietary supplements. The survey revealed that 51% of the doctors and 59% of the nurses took dietary supplements regularly, comparable to supplement use in the general population. 79% of the physicians and 82% of the nurses also recommended dietary supplements to their patients, whether they themselves took supplements or not. The list of supplements taken and recommended included things like fish oils, in addition to vitamins and minerals and antioxidants.

 
The second CRN survey, released in 2008, questioned around 1200 orthopedic specialists, cardiologists and dermatologists. Among the orthopedic specialists 73% took supplements themselves; 94% of those who took supplements also recommended them to their patients. For the cardiologists surveyed those figures were 57% and 86%, and for the dermatologists 75% and 79%. Even many of the doctors who did not take dietary supplements still recommended them to their patients.

The doctors and nurses surveyed may not be nutrition experts, but they see the extent and consequences of poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles in their medical practices; they just have to look at their patients′ expanding waistlines. How do you get obese on a “balanced diet”? Given the shear number of the overweight and the obese, how could most people possibly get all the micro-nutrients they need from the food they eat?

In 2007 investigators from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examined the dietary habits of about 100,000 high school students to find out how many ate the recommended two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables per day. The results of the survey, released just recently, were sobering. Only 32% got two daily servings of fruit and only 13% the recommended three servings of vegetable. Less than one in ten high school students surveyed ate enough of both. The adults questioned in the same survey didn′t do much better. So much for the balanced diet.

Lets have the Independent Vitamin Safety Review Panel, a group of physicians, academics and researchers, have the last word on this subject:

“In the past, over-conservative government-sponsored standards have encouraged dietary complacency. People have been led to believe that they can get all the nutrients they need from a ‘balanced diet’ of processed foods. That is not true. For adequate vitamin and mineral intake, a diet of unprocessed, whole foods, along with the intelligent use of nutritional supplements, is more than just a good idea: it is essential.”

Do You Know What Margarine Was Designed For??? You Butter!!!

This may be the most interesting thing you learn all week…

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. But when it killed the turkeys, those who had put all the money into this research wanted a return on their investment so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product. It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to unsuspecting people to use in place of butter. How do you like that? They have come out with some clever new flavorings and the Big Food Industry got behind it and once again used their marketing strategies to convince the public, not that it was the same as butter, but that it was Better than butter!

DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter? Read on to the end…gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories. Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods. Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and only because they are added! Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods. Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .

And now, for Margarine.. Very High in Trans fatty acids. Triples risk of coronary heart disease! Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)!
Increases the risk of cancers up to five times…Lowers quality of breast milk…Decreases immune response…Decreases insulin response…

And here’s the most disturbing fact… HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC… and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT.

These facts alone should be enough to have you avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

Open a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not even find a home to grow.

Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

So, if this has enlightened you today, please recommend this blog to your friends!

3 MORE TOXIC PRESERVATIVES TO OUR MEATS???

That’s right, be aware of these toxic preservatives being added to your meats!!!  After intense lobbying by Kraft Foods Global Inc. and Kemin Food Technologies, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has agreed to reverse existing regulations that prohibit the use of three toxic meat preservatives. Kraft Foods and Kemin Foods are rapidly bicoming the Monsanto of the Food World!

To read what these 3 preservatives are and how they will create toxic accumulation with in your body, click: http://http://www.naturalnews.com/039792_USDA_meat_preservatives_chemicals.html

Don’t Drink Diet Soda Until You Read This Report…

Each year, Americans consume about 5,250 tons of aspartame in total, of which about 86 percent (4,500 tons) is from the consumption of diet sodas. Diet soda is the largest dietary source of aspartame  in the U.S. A study recently published at the beginning of December 2012 links the consumption of Aspartame to increased risk of Lymphoma and Leukemia. As few as one diet soda daily may increase the risk for leukemia in men and women dramatically. The study was conducted by the Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA. The study was a follow up after a 22 year period of data collection including health frequent dietary and health check ups of the study group.

Click here to read the full study…

The Answer to Alzheimer’s May Be Found in This…

According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2011 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures…In the United States, someone develops Alzheimer’s disease every 69 seconds, and by 2050 this is expected to increase to a new case every 33 seconds.

This disease is currently at epidemic proportions, with 5.4 million Americans—including one in eight people aged 65 and over—living with Alzheimer’s disease.

By 2050, this is expected to jump to 16 million, and in the next 20 years it is projected that Alzheimer’s will affect one in four Americans. If that comes to pass, it would then be more prevalent than obesity and diabetes is today!

Alzheimer’s is a sad, devastating disease that develops slowly and gets worse over time. Worse yet, there is no known cure and very few treatments. Alzheimer’s drugs are often of little to no benefit at all, which underscores the importance of prevention throughout your lifetime.

Alzheimer’s develops over the course of a few decades, so the time to start preventing it is yesterday. Your approach to preventing this terrible disease should be a comprehensive lifestyle approach.

This natural approach may very well be The Answer to the devastating diseases known as Dementia, and Alzheimer’s.

Astaxanthin is a natural pigment with unique properties and many clinical benefits, including some of the most potent antioxidant activity currently known to man. It is the same pigment that makes flamingos pink.

These birds are born with grey feathers—and after consuming their natural diet of astaxanthin-containing algae and crustaceans, they turn pink! It has been found to reduce the accumulation of phospholipid hydroperoxidases (PLOOH)—compounds known to accumulate in the red blood cells of people who suffer from dementia—and scientists now believe astaxanthin could help prevent dementia, including Alzheimer’s.

As a fat-soluble nutrient, astaxanthin readily crosses your blood-brain barrier.

One study found it may help prevent neurodegeneration associated with Oxidative Stress, as well as make a potent natural “brain food.”

The molecules of astaxanthin neutralize free radicals and other oxidants without being destroyed or becoming pro-oxidants themselves in the process. It’s is a unique molecule whose shape allows it to precisely fit into a cell membrane and span its entire width. In this position, astaxanthin can intercept potentially damaging moleculesbefore they can damage your cells.

In fact, astaxanthin is hundreds of times more effective than vitamin E in squelching singlet oxygen free radicals, and far exceeds the free radical scavenging power of vitamin C, CoQ10, beta-carotene, and green tea. According to a recent article in the Alternative Medicine Review.

“Astaxanthin improved cognition in a small clinical trial and boosted proliferation and differentiation of cultured nerve stem cells…   Astaxanthin’s clinical success extends beyond protection against oxidative stress and inflammation, to demonstrable promise for slowing age-related functional decline.”

This supports the findings of a prior 2011 study in the British Journal of Nutrition that showed taking 6 mg or 12 mg of astaxanthin daily for 12 weeks lowered levels of PLOOH by 40 percent and 50 percent, respectively.

It is unlikely you will be able to obtain enough astaxanthin from diet alone… unless you are a flamingo. You can get some astaxanthin by taking krill oil, which is a fantastic omega-3 fat supplement. But you can boost your astaxanthin even MORE by adding a pure astaxanthin supplement to your nutritional regimen.  For optimal absorption, make sure to take krill oil and/or astaxanthin with a fat-containing meal, since both are fat-soluble.

So, if you have a family history of or are developing early signs of either Dementia or Alzheimer’s you may want to do a little more research into this…

Study Finds Antioxidant Effective For Autism…

N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), a nutrient well-known specifically for displaying strong antioxidant activity, has been advocated as a valuable asset for purposes related to detoxification along with a new study which suggests it may be effective in easing irritability and repetitive behaviors in children with autism–a disorder that has been displaying alarming increases.

The 12-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study involved 33 children, aged 3 to 12, and, reflective of the general characteristic of the disorder, predominantly male (31 of 33). All were diagnosed with an autistic disorder and Clinical Global Impressions-Severity (CGI-S) score of 4 or higher.

The children were randomly divided into experimental and placebo groups. The N-acetyl cysteine protocol involved a steady increase in dosage, consisting first of 900 mg of NAC administered daily for four  weeks, followed by 900 mg twice daily for four weeks, followed by 900 mg taken three times daily for a final four weeks.

Follow-up data were available on 14 of the children in the NAC-receiving group and on 15 children in the placebo group. Compared with placebo, NAC treatment was associated with a significant decrease in irritability scores from 13.1 to 7.2 on the Aberrant Behavior Check List (or ABC) irritability subscale. Improvement was observed in week four and continued through weeks eight and 12, according to authors.

The change is not as large as that seen in children taking antipsychotics, according to lead investigator Antonio Hardan, MD, from Stanford University School of Medicine, in Palo Alto, California, “but this is still a potentially valuable tool to have before jumping on these big guns.”

These results lend some support to related observations involving dietary changes in autistic children, particularly so-called “elimination diets”, and collectively these studies serve to strengthen the association believed to exist between certain nutritional “pollutants” and the impaired cognitive function characteristic of autism. Additional research is required to help narrow the focus, but the study above not only reveals more about the causes of autism, but potentially one part of the solution.