Archive for the Not So Healthy News
According to the Washington Post this morning the results of the first human study of bisphenol A–a chemical widely used in everyday plastic–has found that people with higher levels of bisphenol A had higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, and liver abnormalities.
The research is published in this month’s JAMA by a team of British and American scientists. They compared the health of 1,455 men and women with BPA found in their urine.
The test subjects were divided into four groups according to their urine BPA levels. “Those in the quartile with the highest concentrations were nearly three times as likely to have cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest levels, and 2+ times as likely to have diabetes” the Post reported.
While the researchers describe these findings as “preliminary” the FDA took notice and Frederick vom Saal, a reproductive scientist at the U of Missouri at Columbia said, “this is the nail in the coffin.”
As for me and my house we are moving as far away from using plastics with BPA as possible. I’ve addressed this potential danger before in the Q & A section my June ’08 newsletter and it seems the danger is more real than the skeptics, like the FDA, can refute.
So are any plastics safe? Yes, check out the bottom of bottles and other containers for the following numbers, #2, #4, #5, . These are safe leaving #s 1, 3, 6 and 7–the BPA one– as the ones to stay away from.
What about Nalgene bottles, the hard plastic ones? The makers of Nalgene products, Thermo Fisher Scientific, announced sometime back in ’07 that they would phase out BPA in production of their products and so would be safe for use as a portable beverage container.
It may take some practice to sub buying small water bottles to tote around with a glass or Nalgene or other safe container but your internal and external environment will thank you with better health.
One of my major areas of concern for us smart women is our health and how we maintain it. Sometimes we need the wonders of modern medicine it’s true and I’m thankful that some drugs exist to save our lives or move us quickly through infections and the like. Not all drugs save lives or help us preserve our health without dangerous and often painful side effects. Many are routinely prescribed for long term use with no alternatives offered if the person taking the drug doesn’t do well on it.
Advair
It’s asthma medicine that can make your asthma deadly. Advair contains the long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) salmeterol. A 2006 analysis found that regular use of LABAs can increase the severity of an asthma attack. Researchers estimate that salmeterol may contribute to as many as 5,000 asthma-related deaths in the United States each year.
Avandia
Diabetes is destructive enough on its own, but if you try to control it with rosiglitazone, better known as Avandia, it could cause a heart attack. A study found that people who took rosiglitazone for at least a year increased their risk of heart failure or a heart attack by 109 percent and 42 percent, respectively.
Celebrex
This painkiller has been linked to increased risks of stomach bleeding, kidney trouble, and liver damage. And according to a 2005 study, people taking 200 mg of Celebrex twice a day more than doubled their risk of dying of cardiovascular disease. Those on 400 mg twice a day more than tripled their risk.
Ketek
This antibiotic, which has traditionally been prescribed for respiratory-tract infections, carries a high risk of severe liver side effects. In February 2007, the FDA limited the usage of Ketek to the treatment of pneumonia.
Prilosec and Nexium
The FDA has investigated a suspected link between cardiac trouble and these acid-reflux remedies, although they did not find a “likely” connection. But whether this is true or not, they can raise your risk of pneumonia, and result in an elevated risk of bone loss. The risk of a bone fracture has been estimated to be over 40 percent higher in patients who use these drugs long-term.
Visine Original
These eye drops “get the red out” by shrinking blood vessels. Overuse of the active ingredient tetrahydrozoline can perpetuate the vessel dilating-and-constricting cycle and may cause even more redness.
Pseudoephedrine
This decongestant, found in many drugs, can raise blood pressure and heart rate, setting the stage for vascular catastrophe. Over the years, pseudoephedrine has been linked to heart attacks and strokes, as well as worsening the symptoms of prostate disease and glaucoma.
That’s a strong statement I realize but here are some facts that might surprise you. Thank you Dr. Julian Whitaker for always bringing us the information the public rarely sees.
A study named ACCORD, Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes, was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of various medications and regimens in reducing heart attacks, strokes, and death from CVD in patients with type 2 diabetes.
This past February the researchers came out with a very scary announcement.
ACCORD found that not only did participants on the most intensive drug regimens aimed at driving blood sugar way down have a much higher cardiovascular death rate, the treatment proved to be so harmful that the researchers halted this part of the study 18 months early to prevent killing more people.
What’s even more distressing is that we have similar results from a study conducted in 1969 called the University Group Diabetes Program. The goal of this placebo-controlled study was to see if either of two oral diabetes drugs lowered the incidence of heart attacks and other CVD complications.
Continue reading ‘Drugs For Type II Diabetes Can Kill You’
Fibromyalgia is a very real and very painful, often debilitating condition. Although 45% of Americans say they have never heard of it I think my smart women readers are not only aware of it but some of you may suffer with it. My heart goes out to you if you do.
When there is pain we want to stop it and the Big Pharma company Pfizer, is hoping to convince you that they can help your fibromyalgia related pain with their latest drug, Lyrica. So what’s wrong with a drug that can relieve pain? Nothing if it is a safe, well tested, proven medication. In this case that does not seem to be the case. But I am ahead of myself.
In order to learn more about fibromyalgia and what the latest medical research says about it’s diagnosis and treatment I turned to the web. There I found a site for the National Fibromyalgia Association. There on the bottom right side of the home page is the Pfizer logo. I’m thinking this is a consumer site sponsored by a drug company but very subtly. There is no mention of their new drug until the end of the treatment section.
Continue reading ‘Women With Fibromyalgia Beware’
