***FDA Standards Good Enough for Government Work?***
Unfortunately, many people here in the US have an image of the FDA as a governmental agency that is constantly on the vigil to protect an unsuspecting public from the pharmaceutical companies. Not quite so romantic. This editorial does a nice job of outlining one of the major problems with the FDA approval process. It's not that the FDA has lax standards, it's just that their approval process does not have much application in the real world. Many times, in initial clinical trials of a pharmaceutical, the drug is compared to placebo in a patient that is at an extreme of a condition (the article illustrates this with Redux, which was tested in patients with severe obesity). But in the real world, the drug reps convince physicians to prescribe for much milder conditions, thus skewing the risk benefit ratio.
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***Association between SSRIs and upper gastrointestinal bleeding***
I must admit that this interaction never occurred to me, but it makes sense since platelets use serotonin for proper functioning. With the inhibition of the transporter that platelets use to pick up serotonin, this would affect platelet function. By themselves, the risk is not great, but add aspirin or NSAIDs into the mix, and the risk skyrockets.
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***Male rats show an indifference-avoidance response for increasing concentrations of the artificial sweetener sucralose***
Take it for what it's worth. It's a rat study. Humans sometimes display a surprising lack of common sense and self preservation inherent in other species...
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***Congenital heart defects and maternal biomarkers of oxidative stress***
Wow. Practically by the week we are finding more and more studies linking interuterine environment and risk of chronic diseases later in the newborn's life. Given that oxidative stress is such a major concern with today's poor lifestyle choices, does this mean that we will soon see increases in the numbers of congenital heart defects? The unfortunate answer is probably yes. Then, given the links with septal defects and migraine headaches and stroke, we will probably see an increase in the rates of these associated conditions as well. Quite a rosy picture for the future, huh?
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***Intake of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids and fish and risk of community-acquired pneumonia in US men***
Didn't see any headlines in the paper on this one about skipping the flu vaccine and boosting your immune system through healthy lifestyle changes. Probably not as dramatic as "Thousands predicted to die as flu vaccine shortage ravages the nation."
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***Dietary pattern, inflammation, and incidence of type 2 diabetes in women***
It's nice to see Dr. Walter Willett's name on this study, but the intro states that dietary patterns that lead to inflammation and diabetes are largely unknown. Unknown by whom? Maybe the obese family of 4 in the McDonald's drive thru for the second time that day, but I think the rest of us can pretty much guess what dietary patterns lead to inflammation and diabetes. So what did they conclude? High sugar sweentened drinks, refined grains, diet drinks and processed meat but low in wine, coffee, cruciferous and yellow veggies leads to DM and inflammation. I never would've guessed.
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***Comparative effects of hydroxocobalamin and cyanocobalamin on plasma homocysteine concentrations in end-stage renal disease***
This issue of cyanocobalamin has come up once before a few years back, but it was enough to give me cause for concern. The study suggested that cyanocobalamin actually inhibited one of the enzymes it was supposed to be helping. This study did not look at this enzyme affect, but it did find a much stronger effect of raising cobablamin levels in the bloodstream with hydroxy vs cyano (40 fold increase vs 10 fold increase).
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***Apoptosis in human pancreatic cancer cells induced by eicosapentaenoic acid***
Pancreatic cancer is definately low on the list of cancers you would want to get. There just aren't 3 yr survival rates. A few years back, Dr. Gonzalez published a small clinical trial in panreatic cancer using various approaches such as vegetarian diet, digestive enzymes, detoxification and coffee enemas and got a few patients in this trial past 3 yrs. The results were enough for the NIH to give him a grant to further his research. You can bet the the positive results from his approach is not from one single approach; rather, it is the accumulation of many beneficial components in this lifestyle. In the study here, the researchers found that EPA, an essential fatty acid, induced the death of cancer cells in the lab. Not a bad start..
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***Coenzyme Q10***
American Family Physician has been doing these reviews on natural compounds for several issues now, and, overall, they are very well balanced. This article reviews CoQ10 and is good reading for anyone wanting additional info on this powerful antioxidant. Which, by the way, is lowered with statin drugs to lower cholesterol..
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***Anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha therapies attenuate adaptive arteriogenesis in the rabbit***
Recall that TNF-alpha is a molecule that turns on inflammation in the body. More TNF-alpha means more inflammation. It works at a much earlier point in the generation of inflammation than other agents to control pain such as NSAIDs. The newest class of drugs for autoimmune conditons like rheumatoid arthritis, Crohns' and psoriasis blocks the action of TNF-alpha. While it can be very helpful for many patients with this condtion (and expensive...) I have always had concerns with long term use of this class of meds. Here, in this rabbit study, we see that it inhibits the ability of the vessels in the heart to form new branches--a process that is essential for survival of the heart when major arteries get blocked. A complete lifestyle overhaul can work very well in patients with these autoimmune conditions, without the dangers of increased infections, cancer and now ischemic heart disease.
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Dr. James Bogash, D.C.
1830 S. Alma School Rd, Bldg 7, Ste 135, Mesa, AZ 85210
(Alma School Road, just south of the Superstition Freeway/Highway 60)
Chiropractic Health Care for Chandler, Mesa and Tempe Arizona
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