11/17/08

Polypharmacy

Polypharmacy is the use of multiple medications simultaneously. This is a common and dangerous practice. It's especially dangerous when multiple physicians are involved. Don't be naive and believe your physicians are co-managing your case. Making such an assumptions can destroy your life.

Here's an article concerning this very situation.

11/16/08

Fatty and Poor: Huntington, West Virginia

Huntington, W. Va is the fattest city in America. At least half of adults are obese. Succumbing to family traditions of fried foods saturated with gravy. There are over 200 pizza places in town...just pizza! Hot dogs are something else the city loves, who knows how many hog dog and other fast food joints are in town.

The town is also poor. In the 50s, it had a booming population due to coal mining, but that has long since evaporated. Today, area hospitals are the biggest employers, that and nearby Marshal University. Fortunately, the town has a low unemployment rate, however, it's supplied by the huge number of low paying, low quality restaurants in the area.

It's interesting that area hospitals are the largest employer. With "healthcare" being so prominent in the area, you would think this would be one of the healthiest cities in the US. The fact that it's not reinforces that America's health care is actually sick care. And those working in these hospitals are simply perpetuating sickness inducing ideology and habits inherent to this culture.

Citizen's believe they are too poor to eat healthy foods. However, with the rich supply of restaurants, there must be a market, telling me they have the money to eat outside the home. Something that is always more costly than more nutritious home cooked meals. How many drugs do you think each person takes in this city? How much money do you think that costs each family each month? What if these people traded in their dining out budgets for improved grocery budgets? I'm betting they'll find themselves with more money in the bank at the end of each month.

Good nutrition could have miraculous effects on this population. They'll have more energy, perhaps feeling like participating in a little physical activity. Their brains will function more efficiently, helping them see the error to their ignorant ways and from there the possibilities are endless. It's sad that a situation such as that in Huntington, WV exists in America today, but it's not surprising. This town exemplifies all that is wrong with our society in terms of health, and is exactly what will happen everywhere if people don't begin to take personal responsibility for themselves today.

11/14/08

Natural vs Synthetic


I've recently realized that there's a difference between natural and synthetic vitamins. Poor quality vitamins generally consist of an isolated chemical that someone deemed the active part of a whole food. Vitamin C is a great example. Ascorbate has been determined to be the nutritive chemical isolate and many supplements consist of a man-made synthetic version. Oppose to a complex that more closely resembles what would be found in natural food.

With this being said, studies [performed by pharmaceutical companies] on the effectiveness of nutritive supplements utilize synthetic [poor quality] vitamins. It's no surprise than that these studies more often than not, show that vitamins are useless, potentially even harmful.

But what's interesting, more often than not studies [performed by pharmaceutical companies] on the effectiveness of drugs show the drugs to be not only effective, but safe. Does this seem off to you? Vitamins and minerals are required by your body so that it may function adequately and you can be healthy. Nature created vitamins and minerals, yet pharmaceutical company studies show over and over again that not only is the use of vitamins bunk, it may be harmful as well. The lack a vitamins and minerals will without a doubt result in illness...and we've all been trained that illness requires pharmaceutical company produced drugs. Drugs that have been "proven by clinical trial" to be effective and safe. But all this is possible considering the difference between consuming vitamins in a synthetic inert pill versus a vitamin contained in a whole food.

On top of that, drugs are often developed based on studies of not only natural vitamins and minerals but natural herbs as well. How can it be then, that vitamins and minerals and herbs are not only ineffective but possible harmful? It can't be, not entirely anyhow. I believe that mother nature knew a thing or two. The human body is a miraculous creature and it only makes sense that nature also knew how to provide everything the body needed to be healthy and well. Modern day drugs weren't created by nature, they were created by money mongering pharmaceutical companies. Whole foods were created by nature, and the consumption of whole food is capable of preventing disease, even healing disease as well. Food was packaged with everything it needed to be fully utilized by the body. An orange does not contain only ascorbate, but millions of chemical isolates that come together and create something that man cannot reproduce.

Here's an article (again, from MSNBC) that verifies everything I just said within its first 2 paragraphs.

11/11/08

No risk of Heart Attack? Take Crestor!

MSNBC.com reports this week that those with a low risk of having a heart attack can prevent heart attacks by taking Crestor. What?? I just checked, I did write that correctly. This study was sponsored by AstraZeneca, who, by the way, owns Crestor. Cardiologists say this could take prevention to a whole new level because they now have reason to "treat" people they normally wouldn't have. Prevention? By taking a drug? That sounds like treatment to me, not prevention. Oh, this pill costs about $3.50 a day, which would put an estimated $9 billion in AstraZeneca's pocket each year

What I'm curious about is if these people are at low risk for heart disease, why do they need treatment? How are our doctors quantifying heart disease risk? Perhaps that's the real problem. Is it possible there is something inaccurate in the way we evaluate health risks? Surely the profession who kills a known 800,000 people a year would know how to appropriately evaluate risk...

This is also the first study that shows Crestor is effective at decreasing heart disease risk in those with high LDL cholesterol. All other statin drugs have already been shown to do such a thing, in pharmaceutical industry funded studies at least. Interestingly, Crestor has not been, not until this one, solitary study. Hmm...

Another fun fact. The study was suppose to be carried out over a period of five years. But it was stopped after only two. Why? Researchers say because Crestor was proving itself to be so wonderful that it was unethical to not provide the drug to everyone in the study. But it's still unknown what the long term side effects of being on Crestor are...

So, while Crestor was shown to be sparkly clean in multiple areas of health, it did increase the rate of diabetes in those taking it. Last I checked, diabetes was a fairly serious matter, that carried a whole bunch of potentially very serious risks along with it. Also, last I checked, there are many ways to prevent heart attacks AND diabetes AT THE SAME TIME!!! This typically includes diet and exercise and neither need to cost you any more $$ than you're currently spending.

Here's the prescription information on Crestor. I had to zoom in to at least 125% to read it, and 150% is much better, but maybe my eyesight is bad. Notice in the first column, two lines above Dosage and Administration is says the "effect of Crestor on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality has not been determined". So it won't actually save your life. All of the recommendations include adjunctive therapy i.e. diet, typically one low in saturated fats. Generally, any diet low in saturated fats will improve your lipid and cholesterol levels. Actually, no "heart health" drug has been proven to be effective without dietary modifications...has your doctor ever told you that? Side effects of Crestor include hepatitis, but this was reported after the FDA had given it's approval, so AstraZeneca doesn't think it's really related to their drug. Elevated CPK levels are also reported, which is interesting because elevated levels generally indicate to most doctors that a heart attack has occurred.

Don't be fooled by this study or by any tv commercials that will soon come. There are other ways to prevent disease, and by doing those simple things (diet and exercise) you can protect yourself from a lot more than just heart attacks.

Here's what Mike Adams from NaturalNews has to say about this study.