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May17, 2001 Research Update |
James Bogash, D.C. Mesa, AZ
info@lifecarechiropractic.com
www.lifecarechiropractic.com
Androgen deficiency and replacement on prostate zonal volumes
This is an interesting article that should make many of those in the "if hormonal levels are lower as we get older, we must replace them to youthful levels for anti-aging" group think twice. In this study, androgen levels (i.e. testosterone) had no effect on the size of the prostate as patients got older. Thus, using testosterone replacement therapy to maintain a healthy prostate may not be backed by the research. Synergy : Clinical Endocrinology 54 (4), 437-445
Erythromycin as a prokinetic agent in infants and children
One of these days I may just throw up my hands in despair and give up preaching against the incoming tide. Until then... What we see here is that the pharmaceuticals may be loosing some of their business in this era of reduced antibiotic use so they are looking for another indication for their drug. Save money on R & D...just take one of the side effects of the drug and try to turn it into an indication! Truly amazing. The idea of using an antibiotic to increase motility of the GI tract goes beyond incredulous. How about using probiotics, high fiber and prebiotics (such as inulin and FOS) instead? Much safer and you are actually looking at fixing whatever is causing the decreased transit. Synergy : Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 15 (5), 595-603 http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/Journals/content/abstracts/apt/2001/15/5/abstract_apt964.asp?journal=apt&issueid=5331&artid=101890&cid=apt.2001.1& ftype=abstracts
ROS in aspirin-induced gastric damage: protection by vitamin C
Chalk up another benefit for Vit C. I would rather see patients fix whatever it is that requires the use of aspirin; barring that, I would now recommend Vit C to help protect against the damage that aspirin will cause the stomach. I personally take at least 2 grams of Vit C (1000mg X 2). Synergy : Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 15 (5), 677-687 http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/Journals/content/abstracts/apt/2001/15/5/abstract_apt975.asp?journal=apt&issueid=5331&artid=101898&cid=apt.2001.1& ftype=abstracts
Direct toxicity of NSAIDS for renal medullary cells
Much attention has been focused on the gastrointestinal side effects of NSAIDs, but frequently the damaging effects on the liver, kidneys and joints are never mentioned. An article that appeared in the NEJM several years back gave a LIFETIME accumulation of effects from NSAIDs and acetominophen. 5000 NSAIDs over a lifetime increased risk of renal failure by several fold. How many of us hit this by the time we're 20? PNAS -- Abstracts: Rocha et al. 98 (9): 5317 http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/98/9/5317
The cost to global health of drug company profits
I'm really not in a pharmaceutical-bashing mood, it's just that sometimes they're such an easy target... Would it make you feel better taking those drugs if you knew that the guniea pigs for the trials came from poor countries and not from our own? wjm -- MacDonald and Yamey 174 (5): 302 http://www.ewjm.com/cgi/content/full/174/5/302
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Kidney stones may be linked with sleep posture
I thought this was an interesting article and gives us yet another tool to aid in the avoidance of renal calculi. Other ways to avoid stones: copious amounts of water, no caffeinated beverages, calcium citrate supplements and more of a plant based diet. bmj.com Josefson 322 (7293): 1015b http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7293/1015/b
Mortality over two centuries in familial hypercholesterolaemia
I love articles like these, especially with some much energy and money being thrown at genetics these days. This article follows one family for 200 years. The end result? Environment is much more important in risk of cardiovascular disease. As a society, we would be so much healthier if we could just focus a mere fraction of the money spent on disease awareness on prevention instead. bmj.com Abstracts: Sijbrands et al. 322 (7293): 1019 http://bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/322/7293/1019
Use of Niacin in the Prevention and management of Hyperlipidemia
With the use of niacin dating back long before the use of many of today's common meds for high cholesterol levels, it is disappointing that it is not more widely used. This review article address the efficacy and safety of this time-tested treatment for hyperlipidemia. One side effect of niacin therapy, however, is the flushing that comes from the doses needed to achieve a clinical response (usualy 1500-3000 mg). I have read that using one baby aspirin 1/2 hour before taking the niacin can de-activate the histamine release and prevent the flushing.
Prog Cardiovasc Nurs 6(1):14-20, 2001 Niacin is an inexpensive drug useful in treating various forms of hyperlipidemia. Cardiac doses of niacin are effective in lowering serum triglyceride, low density lipoprotein, and lipoprotein-a levels and in elevating high density lipoprotein levels. Adverse reactions to niacin are varied and dose-dependent and range from annoying cutaneous flushing to hepatic toxicity. Patients advised to use the drug should be carefully screened and monitored. This paper reviews the pathologic and pharmacologic basis for niacin as an antilipemic agent. The biochemical and physiologic effects of the drug and its mechanisms of action are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the importance of aggressive management of serum lipids and the therapeutic uses of niacin. The use of niacin in primary and secondary prevention of heart disease is stressed. A patient education guide is included. T he current decline in coronary heart disease (CHD) in the U.S. may be attributed more to the prolongation of life among those with existing disease than to a decrease in the absolute number of deaths. Further decline in the CHD death rate will most likely depend upon successful secondary prevention of heart disease. Single or combined drug therapies together with maintenance of a healthy lifestyle are central to successful prevention of recurrent thrombotic events in coronary arteries. Ultimate success in decreasing the incidence of CHD will depend upon primary prevention of new onset of the disease.The combination of lifestyle changes and drug therapy has been shown to be effective in both primary and secondary prevention of CHD. One of the oldest drugs in the CHD armamentarium is nicotinic acid, commonly known as niacin. First used as a hyperlipidemic agent in 1955, niacin is a readily available, inexpensive mainstay of adjunctive therapy for prevention and treatment of CHD. This paper briefly reviews the pathology of hyperlipidemia and discusses the use of plain and immediate-release niacin as well as a new, extended-release form of niacin in secondary and primary prevention of CHD. Emphasis is placed on the clinical impact of the adverse effects of niacin as well as the role of the primary care provider in recommending its use.
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
This is actually a book review and do I really need to say any more?
(review) Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation may finally end America's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on the country's cuisine.In his first book, Schlosser, a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, looks at the machinery behind the making of french fries, burgers, and other favorites. The result is a fascinating, exhaustive polemic that calls on readers to connect some of the most vexing public health problems to the industrialization of food production and, ultimately, to North American cultural practices.Schlosser begins his deconstruction of fast food with an analysis of the history of such chains as McDonald's and Carl's Jr., looking at the assembly line principles that have made their success possible and their legacy of systematically marketing products to parents and children. He notes that fast food is so ingrained in our culture that working for a franchise has become a teenage rite of passage. Families converge on chains because of the clowns, cartoons, toys, and kids' meals, the idea of convenience and wholesomeness prevailing despite fat-rich menus.What is hidden under the Playland image, however, and what this book attempts to make most apparent, is the labor and the human cost of the food machine. Adolescents may troop to after-school jobs at McDonalds, but Schlosser contends that they form part of an underpaid and exploited work force. In separate chapters, he looks at obesity and the prevalence of fast food in the nation's schools, and he describes his visits to cattle ranches, potato farms, and laboratories where french fries are given that hearty beef tallow taste. He reports from the slaughterhouse, describing, for example, the work of the "sticker" who stands in a river of blood, "slitting a neck of a steer every ten seconds or so, severing its carotid artery."The details, documented in extensive notes at the back of the book, expose how ridiculous and astonishing the demands of mass consumption can be, and how dangerous conditions are for both workers and patrons. Meatpacking plants, for instance, boast an injury rate almost 35 times higher than the national average in industry. Lacerations, missing fingers, broken bones, torn muscles, and slipped disks are common in this population of mainly immigrant workers, and injury rates increase as assembly lines are sped up to supply the consumer appetite for beef.Indeed, Fast Food Nation reveals a universe made fat and strange, with children attending schools supported by soft-drink advertisers and chickens bred for bigger breasts. Moreover, Schlosser points out how ineffectual our regulatory bodies are in the face of the potential problems:The manufacture of frozen cheese pizzas is regulated by the FDA, but if a pizza has pepperoni on it, the USDA has food safety jurisdiction. Eggs are regulated by the FDA, but chickens are regulated by the USDA, and a lack of cooperation between the two agencies has hampered efforts to reduce the levels of Salmonella in American eggs. (p 264)The back-and-forth of the regulatory bodies may seem comic and even Kafka-esque, but Schlosser points out that the joke is ultimately on the consumer.For example, examining feedlots in which cattle are raised, Schlosser notes that they have become "an extremely efficient mechanism for "recirculating the manure," which is unfortunate, since E coli 0157:H7 can replicate in cattle troughs and survive in manure for up to ninety days." Or, as he puts it elsewhere, "There is [expletive] in the meat."In the age of mad cow disease and the obesity epidemic, this graphic critique should not be ignored. By exposing potential threats to public health that come as a result of our reluctance to examine the mechanisms that bring food to our tables, Fast Food Nation urges readers to question what consumers and medical professionals are willing to swallow, both literally and figuratively.