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May 2008 Health in the News Archive[ Monthly Index of New Briefs ]Prescribing antidepressants for stroke May 2008 Doctors may want to give stroke victims antidepressants right away instead of waiting until they develop depression, a common complication, new research suggests. The researchers gave low doses of the antidepressant Lexapro to stroke patients. The patients on the drug were 4.5 times less likely to develop depression than patients taking a dummy pill. The study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, was based on an analysis of 176 stroke patients, ranging in age from 50 to 90. Someday high-risk people like stroke patients might take the drugs before suffering depression just as people now take cholesterol drugs to prevent heart attacks, the lead author said. More than 700,000 Americans suffer strokes each year and more than one-third will develop depression in the next two years. Stroke patients with depression recover more slowly and are more likely to die, according to previous research. "We showed you could in fact prevent the development of depression after stroke,'' said Dr. Robert Robinson of the University of Iowa who led the study." I hope I don't have a stroke, but if I do, I would certainly want to be placed on an antidepressant.'' But with prevention, some patients take pills who never would have needed them, putting them at risk for unnecessary side effects. Seven stroke patients would have to be treated with antidepressants to prevent one depression, the researchers found. Dr. Grout's Comment: Even if Lexapro is given to make what serotonin the brain can still produce hang around longer, this does nothing to help the brain recover from its stroke. Whenever there is a stroke, there are always brain cells in the surrounding area which are partially damaged but not yet dead the area is called the "penumbra" or "shadow zone". These cells still have a chance to recover, if they can be given sufficient energy. However, because of the stroke, their blood supply has been cut off or diminished to the point where they have used up all their stores of readily available energy (ATP) and have used up all the precursors. So they are left with no gas in the tank. Giving ribose helps to put at least a precursor of gas in the tank, so that the cells have a better chance at surviving. GMO sugar is here and everywhere May 2008 American Crystal, a large Wyoming-based sugar company, and several other leading U.S. sugar providers have begun sourcing their sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets. Like GE corn and GE soy, products containing GE sugar will not be labeled as such. These sugars, like GE corn and soy, are found in many conventional food products, so consumers will be exposed to genetically engineered ingredients in just about every non-organic multiple-ingredient product they purchase. The GE sugar beet is designed to withstand strong doses of Monsanto's controversial broad spectrum Roundup herbicide. Farmers planting GE sugar beets are told they may be able to apply the herbicide up to five times per year. Weed control is the number one production problem facing sugarbeet growers in the USA; some industry experts say weeds can sap as much as 30 percent of a crop's yield. "It's a pretty major step," Crystal President David Berg said. "Here at American Crystal, we believe biotechnology is the current wave that will help feed the world." Dr. Grout's Comment: Since half of the granulated sugar in the U.S. comes from sugar beets, a move towards biotech beets marks a dramatic alteration of the U.S. food supply. Sugar beets have been modified to insert a gene that makes the plant resistant to glyphosate, a toxic herbicide, sold under the trade name Roundup. At the request of Roundup's manufacturer, Monsanto, the EPA increased the allowable amount of glyphosate residues on sugar beet roots by 5,000 percent. The inevitable result is more pesticide in our sugar, and a GM element "hiding" in many items we might by at the grocery store. More than half of us are on drugs May 2008 For the first time, it appears that more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription medicines regularly for chronic health problems, according to data compiled last year by Medco Health Solutions. Medco examined prescription records from 2001 to 2007 of a representative sample of 2.5 million customers, from newborns to the elderly. The analysis revealed "that last year, 51 percent of American children and adults were taking one or more prescription drugs for a chronic condition, up from 50 percent the previous four years, and 47 percent in 2001." The most widely used drugs are those to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol -- problems often linked to heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Experts say the data reflect not just worsening public health but better medicines for chronic conditions and more aggressive treatment by doctors. Additionally, there is the pharmaceutical industry's relentless advertising. Americans buy much more medicine per person than any other country. But it was unclear how their prescriptions compare to those of insured people elsewhere. Comparable data were not available for Europe, for instance. Dr. Robert Epstein, chief medical officer at Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based Medco, said, "Honestly, a lot of it is related to obesity," he said. "We've become a couch potato culture (and) it's a lot easier to pop a pill" than to exercise regularly or diet. Epstein noted the biggest jump in use of chronic medications was in the 20- to 44-year-old age group - adults in the prime of life - where it rose 20 percent over the six years. That was mainly due to more use of drugs for depression, diabetes, asthma, attention-deficit disorder and seizures. Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen's Health Research Group blames doctors for not spending the time to help patients lose weight and make other healthy changes before writing a prescription. Dr. Grout's Comment: This one should trigger all kinds of alarm bells. We eat food "products" with chemicals that are bad for us, then start taking drugs to counteract the effect of a non-nutritious diet. How backwards is that? Many of our patients find that even if they start a healthy detoxification and nutritional program like FirstLine Therapy late, they can come off their drugs because they no longer need them. This is the perfect example of "less is more." And the choice is ours modify our lifestyle and eating habits, or take drugs to counteract the effects. The drugs come with side effects and do not resolve problems at their core. It seems like a pretty obvious decision to me New asthma inhalers cause problems and cost more May 2008 Millions of people with asthma and other lung diseases will have to switch inhalers by the end of the year. And for many, the transition will not be smooth. The new inhalers have a less forceful spray, and less appealing taste, and differ in how they are primed and cleaned. And they cost perhaps three times as much.  The change is mandated by the federal government in response to a ban of most uses of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which are blamed for eating away the earth's ozone layer. CFCs are used as propellants in many inhalers. The new "CFC-free" inhalers use propellants called HFAs, for hydrofluoroalkanes.Three of the four new HFA-propelled inahlers still use the drug albuterol. "What the government failed to do is to mandate anyone to tell patients and physicians this transition was happening," said Nancy Sander, president of the Allergy and Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics. "There is no education, no monitoring of patients, no financial assistance to patients who have to pay higher prices for the new drugs." The cost difference has meant huge gains for drug companies. As people switched to HFA inhalers in 2006 and 2007, sales of all albuterol inhalers jumped from about $500 million to $1.1 billion, according to I.M.S. Health, a health care information company. Dr. Grout's Comment: So, we have done something good for the planet by reducing CFCs, but we didn't do something good for the human body. The new inhalers still make use of fluorine, so you get some every time you puff. Fluorine displaces iodine, causes the thyroid to function poorly, and is toxic to the lungs. Politics control EPA analyses of chemical risks May 2008 Democratic senators accused the Bush administration of injecting politics into the Environmental Protection Agency's assessment of health risks from toxic chemicals, citing a congressional investigation that concluded assessments are being undermined by secrecy and White House involvement. A Government Accountability Office report said White House demand for broad interagency involvement in EPA's toxic chemical risk assessments is undermining the agency's ability to make timely, science-based conclusions on the cancer risks and other health impacts of many chemicals. John Stephenson, GAO's director of natural resource programs, told the Senate Environment Committee that the White House Office of Management and Budget not only is closely involved in the chemical assessments but "actually dictating which assessments that the EPA can undertake." "By placing politics before science, the Bush administration is putting the public in harm's way," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., at a hearing into EPA's toxic chemical programs. Dr. Grout's Comment: At issue is the EPA's screening of chemicals used in everything from household products to rocket fuel to determine whether they pose serious risk of cancer or other illnesses. Headlines like this are why Diane Rehm of National Public Radio says the public has little faith anymore in the EPA's ability to protect public health. |
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