Monday, April 23, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Vioxx Killed Over 100,000 - How Many Will Statin Drugs Kill
Vioxx (and also other Cox2 inhibitors) was a common prescription for aches and pains that was given to many people before it was removed from the market for causing death via heart disease. In the court cases, it has come to light that the people that produced Vioxx were well aware of its potential to adversely affect the heart. Yet they still saw to it that these drugs were brought to market and actively marketed as drugs of choice for treating aches and pains.
Today, we have a whole class of drugs commonly prescribed to people by the medical field because their blood level of cholesterol is deemed high. Medical science has attributed high levels of cholesterol to heart disease, yet the truth be known about 50% of the people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. Also studies with older populations show people with higher cholesterol levels have a longer life expectancy. A good perspective on the falsity of cholesterol theory has been done by a Swedish MD, Dr Uffe Ravnskov. He has written a book called "The Cholesterol Myths"
In medicine the standard for bringing any drug to market should be the benefits in taking that drug outweigh any risks involved from that same drug. In the case of statin drugs, they effectively lower the blood cholesterol numbers by interfering with a metabolic pathway involved in the bodies production of cholesterol. However, studies have failed to show a lower mortality rate simply from lowering cholesterol numbers. And there are several problems associated with interfering with this metabolic pathway. Most notably this same pathway interferes with the bodies supply of CoEnzyme Q10. CoQ10 in involved in cellular energy production in all cells. A common side effect of statin drugs is muscle weakness caused by the lower amounts of CoQ10 that the body has to work with. The heart being the most important muscle in the body also has to function with a lower rate of CoQ10 bringing into question the wisdom of treating heart disease with this class of drugs.
Even more disturbing about this lowered rate of CoQ10, is the fact that this nutrient is typically low in cancer patients and is in fact considered one of the many alternative cancer cures (see http://www.cancertutor.com/ ) In my mind this brings into question the fact that statin drugs as a class may cause cancer. In fact the rat studies of statin drugs did see an increase in cancers. The reason that this may not be evident in human trials of statin drugs is that most if not all of the studies of statin drugs lasted less than five years. Cancers typically take longer than five years to develop and in fact if you were to conduct a study trying to find a correlation of tobacco use and cancer and the study lasted only five years, you would probably not find a correlation.
The drug makers are well aware that these drugs lower CoQ10 in the body. In Europe and Canada, patients prescribed statin drugs also get a prescription for this nutrient. Merck has patented a version of Lipitor that includes CoQ10 in the US but has not brought it to market. And unlike Europe and Canada, few physicians in the US advise their patient to take CoQ10 supplements.
Another effect of statin drugs is that they stimulate the growth of blood vessels. While this may might sound like an innocuous benefit, the greatest need for increased blood vessel growth is from cancer cells and recently researchers have called this effect into question For more info on this see http://www.mercola.com/2000/sep/10/statins_cancer.htm and/or http://www.yourmedicaldetective.com/public/1020.cfm
In closing I would like to add that this research takes on a personal note with me. My mother was a seven year statin drug user. She recently passed away at the young age of 72 from pancreatic cancer. I fully attribute her death to her total trust in the medical industry.
Today, we have a whole class of drugs commonly prescribed to people by the medical field because their blood level of cholesterol is deemed high. Medical science has attributed high levels of cholesterol to heart disease, yet the truth be known about 50% of the people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. Also studies with older populations show people with higher cholesterol levels have a longer life expectancy. A good perspective on the falsity of cholesterol theory has been done by a Swedish MD, Dr Uffe Ravnskov. He has written a book called "The Cholesterol Myths"
In medicine the standard for bringing any drug to market should be the benefits in taking that drug outweigh any risks involved from that same drug. In the case of statin drugs, they effectively lower the blood cholesterol numbers by interfering with a metabolic pathway involved in the bodies production of cholesterol. However, studies have failed to show a lower mortality rate simply from lowering cholesterol numbers. And there are several problems associated with interfering with this metabolic pathway. Most notably this same pathway interferes with the bodies supply of CoEnzyme Q10. CoQ10 in involved in cellular energy production in all cells. A common side effect of statin drugs is muscle weakness caused by the lower amounts of CoQ10 that the body has to work with. The heart being the most important muscle in the body also has to function with a lower rate of CoQ10 bringing into question the wisdom of treating heart disease with this class of drugs.
Even more disturbing about this lowered rate of CoQ10, is the fact that this nutrient is typically low in cancer patients and is in fact considered one of the many alternative cancer cures (see http://www.cancertutor.com/ ) In my mind this brings into question the fact that statin drugs as a class may cause cancer. In fact the rat studies of statin drugs did see an increase in cancers. The reason that this may not be evident in human trials of statin drugs is that most if not all of the studies of statin drugs lasted less than five years. Cancers typically take longer than five years to develop and in fact if you were to conduct a study trying to find a correlation of tobacco use and cancer and the study lasted only five years, you would probably not find a correlation.
The drug makers are well aware that these drugs lower CoQ10 in the body. In Europe and Canada, patients prescribed statin drugs also get a prescription for this nutrient. Merck has patented a version of Lipitor that includes CoQ10 in the US but has not brought it to market. And unlike Europe and Canada, few physicians in the US advise their patient to take CoQ10 supplements.
Another effect of statin drugs is that they stimulate the growth of blood vessels. While this may might sound like an innocuous benefit, the greatest need for increased blood vessel growth is from cancer cells and recently researchers have called this effect into question For more info on this see http://www.mercola.com/2000/sep/10/statins_cancer.htm and/or http://www.yourmedicaldetective.com/public/1020.cfm
In closing I would like to add that this research takes on a personal note with me. My mother was a seven year statin drug user. She recently passed away at the young age of 72 from pancreatic cancer. I fully attribute her death to her total trust in the medical industry.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
The Drugging of Our Children
Our brightest and most active children are often labeled with psychiatric labels and drugged. Watch this video http://www.thelastoutpost.com/site/1516/default.aspx for some disturbing details. Big pharma would like to see all of our kids on drugs for life. Under the influence of Big pharma programs such as "teen screen" http://www.teenscreentruth.com/ have been set in place to label and drug more of our kids. Ask yourself what is going to happen to society when this generation of kids grow up.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Blue - The Alternative to Red
Everyone has heard of the health benefits of red wine. But do you know that blueberries also contain resveratrol, the compound in red wine thought to be responsible for heart health. Blueberries also contain many other potent antioxidants. For more information on the goodness of blueberries visit: http://www.realage.com/news_features/tip.aspxv=1&cid=17853#MI
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Are your soap and water safe
A new study published on the Environmental Science & Technology research website found that triclosan, a widely used ingredient in antibacterial hand sterilization products, combines with chlorine in tap water to make the toxin chloroform. The researchers found that people using these products would be exposed to chloroform levels 40 percent higher than that found in tap water. Chloroform is a toxic chemical and a probable carcinogen. Previous studies have shown that the overuse of antibacterial soaps produces "super bacteria" that are able to survive exposure to antibacterial products. It is recommended that such products be used on limited and minimal levels. http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4535.cfm Note that some toothpastes also contain triclosan.
And as far as your water is concerned, if you are not as lucky as I am to have well water instead of chlorinated and fluoridated tap water you may want to consider adding a filter. My friend Jim McMahon is an expert in water and air purification and he will be happy to help you with your filtering needs. You can check out his website at http://www.cleanairpurewater.com/ I also recommend point of use filters for shower and bath from http://www.rightstuffone.com/
As always remember to use organic and chemical free body care products to help keep the earth clean from toxic chemicals in traditional body care products. My favorite line is MiEssence from Australia, For more information about the problems of chemicals in body care and to order MiEssence products check out my website www.blissfullyorganic.com
And as far as your water is concerned, if you are not as lucky as I am to have well water instead of chlorinated and fluoridated tap water you may want to consider adding a filter. My friend Jim McMahon is an expert in water and air purification and he will be happy to help you with your filtering needs. You can check out his website at http://www.cleanairpurewater.com/ I also recommend point of use filters for shower and bath from http://www.rightstuffone.com/
As always remember to use organic and chemical free body care products to help keep the earth clean from toxic chemicals in traditional body care products. My favorite line is MiEssence from Australia, For more information about the problems of chemicals in body care and to order MiEssence products check out my website www.blissfullyorganic.com
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