Posted in Cardiovascular Disease Medications Type 2 diabetes by .
Jan 12
27
Drug Warnings for Diabetics, Part 3
Avandia is another health conundrum. It’s a popularly prescribed diabetes drug, especially for Type 2 Diabetes.
And once again, a drug that is given to diabetics suddenly is able to cause the complications that many diabetics suffer from – heart attack and heart failure.
But that’s not all. Avandia can also cause failure of the liver as well.
In May of 2007, the FDA issued a public safety alert, but did not recall the drug. In the meantime, thousands of people were at risk of dying.
What exactly the guidelines are for recall of a drug is unknown. But doesn’t it make common sense to you that if a New England Journal of Medicine study found an increase in the risk of heart attack by 43% and an increase in the risk of death from all types of heart disease by 64% from Avandia, that drug should have been recalled?
Instead, the FDA slapped the hands of the pharmaceutical company with a simple course of action: Add a warning box onto the label and say that there are increased risks of congestive heart failure and heart disease.
The FDA thought it did its job adequately by cautioning Type 2 diabetes patients with underlying heart disease or at high risk of heart attack to talk with their health care provider about other options.
When did that actually happen? Did you get contacted by your doctor or by the FDA itself warning you about what was happening? Or were you expected to somehow find out about this through the grapevine?
The FDA wanted those in health care to closely monitor their patients for side effects.
Closely monitor them? What exactly does that mean? Can a health care provider foresee a heart attack or stroke coming on? NO. They would have to wait until the heart attack or stroke actually happened to know that the person was affected.
And based on the data, if a doctor has a practice of 2500 patients, he could expect 1075 patients to have a heart attack and 1600 of the total to go into heart failure. Do you think that it is realistic that your doctor would let you know? Is he going to hire someone new just to manage this project? How long would it take to contact 1600 people?
The other side effects of Avandia include:
• Edema, or swollen legs and ankles
• Fast weight gain although you aren’t eating more
• Fatigue
• Vision changes
• Short of breath
• Chest pains
• Breathing difficulties
• Dizziness
Be careful what drug you take. If the drug hasn’t been on the market for decades with hard data to support it, and it has very few side effects associated with it, then you don’t want to be a human guinea pig for scientists.
Don’t have one of your missions in life be to become a statistic for the pharmaceutical companies!
Posted in Dietary Supplements Lifestyle Medications Type 2 diabetes by .
Leading natural health expert Dr. Joseph Mercola talks about the dangers and side effects of taking statin drugs and how to optimize your cholesterol levels naturally.
Jan 12
17
More on Drug Warnings for Diabetics
I’m always amazed at the number of drugs that are prescribed to diabetics and cause the complications that diabetics normally get. For example, some cholesterol-lowering drugs can cause heart attack and stroke.
This sounds like a health conundrum to me. If your goal is to create a drug that lowers cholesterol and it does lower the cholesterol 10 to 15%, but also makes a person susceptible to heart attack and stroke, where is the good?
The purpose of lowering one’s cholesterol is to not end up with heart disease. There’s an implied assumption that if you lower cholesterol, you will not get heart disease and die from a heart attack or stroke.
The connection between high cholesterol and heart disease is assumed to be one carved in stone. However, the American Medical Association simply saw a simple connection between cholesterol and heart disease many years ago – before the research into the connection really started. They made recommendations based on a hunch. At that early time, cholesterol levels were allowed to be a lot higher than what they are now.
Throughout the years, the doctors went after the cholesterol with all guns out. They were determined to get the bad guy. This was even before they accepted there were different types of cholesterol. They lowered their recommended levels again and again. Now the level for total cholesterol is thought to be 200 mg/dL whereas before, it might have been 250 mg/dL or 300 mg/dL. And still, the population is ridden with heart disease. Heart disease remains a top killer.
In other words, it really didn’t work. And that’s because the experts didn’t consider the other factors.
High cholesterol levels are only a problem when blood sugar levels are high.
Using the anti-cholesterol medication on everyone with high cholesterol became possible because the population was convinced of the old research that there is a tie between high cholesterol and heart attacks and stroke.
The results were that many more people became exposed to the statin drugs and other cholesterol medications than they should have been exposed to. And that means more side effects were seen.
One statin drug was pulled off the market because it caused the rapid breakdown of muscles, which led to kidney disease and death.
Be very careful about the drugs you agree to take. Many people can simply open their mouth and say they don’t want to risk x, y or z side effects from a drug and the doctor will say okay, I will find something else. It may be that simple.
But your best way out is always to use a natural alternative to the medications.
Find out more tomorrow about Avandia and why it was pulled off the market.
Posted in Type 2 diabetes by .
Posted in Lifestyle Medications Type 2 diabetes by .
Jan 12
12
Drug Warnings for Diabetics
Do you ever wonder how the pharmaceutical drug companies can get away with releasing their drugs when they haven’t been tested thoroughly? I wonder about this all the time. The studies are supposed to start out with positive results found in test tube studies, then animal studies, then human studies – and all this takes time.
The procedure is a natural progression to guard against harming people.
But often the time between the creation of a new drug and the release of a new drug just doesn’t make it seem possible that all the work that is required got done.
Or if it did get done, was it really done right?
Now, scientists have created different types of genetic strains of animals that are more prone to certain diseases and can be used in their studies. They have pre-selected candidates for their studies based on who the drug may work best with.
The problem then becomes generalizing the results to the population. If it works for diabetics who are a certain age without certain diseases and with certain other diseases, does that mean that only those who fit in that category will benefit?
I think not. This method has managed to cause deaths from pharmaceutical drugs over the last decade. Maybe part of this is because what doctor could possibly remember the specific group of people that each of the hundreds of drugs works on?
Then there’s another issue. Was the study done long enough? For example, aspirin is supposed to be a good way to keep the blood flowing and reduce a heart attack. The motto is that an aspirin a day keeps the heart attack away. Really? What about the long-term studies we are finding now that say it contributes to pancreatic cancer? If a diabetic takes an aspirin a day, then will he or she end up with diabetes and pancreatic cancer?
Perhaps some of the reasons why these long-term studies are not performed is that the scientists believe that diabetics won’t live another 30 years anyway. They’ll die from heart disease, poor immunity, an amputation, or kidney disease. Or they might go into a diabetic coma and then shock.
So why bother with long-term studies?
Think about this for today and learn more about this hot topic in my next post.
Posted in Cardiovascular Disease Lifestyle Medications Pre-Diabetes Type 2 diabetes by .
Dec 11
21
Merry Aussie Christmas!
Seasons Greetings to All … from Downunder!
Dec 11
21
Christmas Healthy Fudge Recipe
Here’s a recipe that can delight your Christmas guests while nourishing them at the same time.
2/3 cup chunky peanut butter (use the natural one at the store)
2/3cup agave nectar
2/3 cup roasted carob powder
1/3 cup toasted sesame seeds
2/3 cup roasted sunflower seeds (with salt is okay)
1/3 cup lightly toasted walnuts
2/3 cup lightly toasted sunflower seeds
1/3 cup soaked and drained golden raisins
¼ teaspoon peppermint flavoring
Heat the peanut butter and agave in a sauté pan until it’s runny. Mix in the carob powder. This is a chocolate substitute and it has aperant qualities to it. Then pour it over the mixture of the nuts, seeds, raisins and flavoring in a large bowl. Mix.
Spray a light coating of olive oil into an 8 inch by 8-inch square pan and press the mixture into the pan. Refrigerate covered for two hours before serving.
Enjoy!
Enjoy this remake – hope it makes you smile!
Posted in Lifestyle Type 2 diabetes by .
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