Tag Archives: medications

Cabondale Chiropractor on Heartburn Medications

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Are Your Heartburn Medications Killing You?

Vol 15 Issue 47

If you’re suffering from heartburn, acid reflux and other digestive problems, you’re not alone. Nearly 100 million Americans have digestive problems, and they account for 37 million doctor’s visits every year. But almost everyone who is taking the drugs most doctors recommend is getting sicker with each pill they take.

When you go to the doctor for stomach problems, the solution offered you is usually a class of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). These drugs reduce stomach acid and include Prilosec and Zegerid, available by prescription or over-the-counter (OTC), as well as Nexium and Prevacid, and their generic counterparts, omeprazole and pantoprazole.

Annual sales of OTC Prilosec as of a few years ago were $400 million; Zegerid is over $200 million. There were also 92 million prescriptions written for PPIs in 2010, which made their manufacturers more than $14 billion, the fourth largest sales for a class of drugs. Numbers 1, 2 and 3 on the money-maker scale, in case you’re curious, are antipsychotics, cholesterol-lowering statins, and antidepressants.

How are these drugs killing you? When stomach acid is reduced, it stops your digestive system in its tracks. Since the proper function of every organ and system is dependant upon the nutrients extracted from the food and liquids we ingest – which process begins with stomach acid – you can count on a deterioration of general health.

Some of the consequences of taking PPIs include:

* low magnesium levels – which can cause seizures, irregular heartbeats, and muscle spasms
* an increased risk of hip, wrist, and spine fractures, especially for patients over 50
* pneumonia
* serious infections caused by the a bacteria that causes inflammation in the intestines

All of these risks have been the subject of FDA advisories – although it’s doubtful that someone going to a drug store to get Prilosec is aware of them.

To top it all off, the drugs may also be habit forming. If you try to quit taking them after only a month, the body reacts by producing excess stomach acid. This excess acid can trigger such severe heartburn it forces people back on the drugs.

Digestive upsets are a sign of something wrong with the digestive system – it needs to be fixed. Fortunately, digestive problems are often easily corrected with alternative healthcare. Unlike the medical model, alternative healthcare looks for the cause of the problem and fixes it. That’s a real solution, and one that could improve your health immensely.

Sources: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/Boston/dailydose/2011/08/are-heartburn-drugs-habit-forming/7AIrPFCm087ZX31prv9z9M/index.html; http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-04/lifestyle/29380757_1_acid-reflux-inhibitors-prescriptions

Are Flu Shots Necessary for your Family?

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DO YOU KNOW ENOUGH TO DECIDE IF YOUR FAMILY SHOULD GET FLU SHOTS?

Vol. 6 Issue 132

With flu season soon upon us, you should consider the following information before deciding if your family will get the flu shot.

Each year a “flu shot” is prepared based on the guess-work of Federal health agency officials, who try to determine which of three flu strains will be prevalent in the U.S. during the following year, so they can select which strain to include in the vaccine.

The flu vaccine is prepared from fluids of chick embryos that have been inoculated with a specific type of influenza virus. The virus is then activated with formaldehyde and preserved with thimerosal — a derivative of mercury.

If health officials select the correct strain of the virus, the vaccine is thought to be 70-80% effective in preventing the flu in healthy persons under 65 years of age — the efficacy drops to only 30-40% among those over 65 years. Health officials don’t always make the right prediction, which lowers the effectiveness for that year.

According to the National Vaccine Information Center’s fact sheet, “Influenza is a respiratory infection that produces fever, chills, sore throat, muscle aches and cough.” Symptoms can last for a week or longer and can be deadly for the elderly or those suffering from diabetes, kidney dysfunction and heart disease.

The vaccine does not protect against throat, respiratory, gastrointestinal and ear infections caused by bacteria or other kinds of viruses; it serves only to provide temporary immunity against the three specific viral strains included in the year’s vaccine.

Adverse reactions typically being within 12 hours of vaccination and last for several days; these include fever, fatigue, painful joints and headaches. The most serious reaction, which occurs within two to four weeks of vaccination is Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which is characterized by muscle weakness, unsteady gait, numbness, tingling, pain and sometimes paralysis of one or more limbs or the face.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, those at high-risk include any person who is sick with a fever, has an impaired immune system, has an egg or mercury allergy, and has a history of Guillian-Barre Syndrome. Pregnant women should be aware the flu vaccine contains the mercury-derivative thimerosal, which has been linked to causing brain damage and developmental delays in babies whose mothers were exposed to high levels of mercury during pregnancy.

SOURCE: National Vaccine Information Center, NVIC, www.909shot.com/Diseases/influenzafacts.htm; 800-909-shot.

Weight Gain With Children

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WEIGHT GAIN, OTHER HEALTH PROBLEMS CAUSED BY MEDICATIONS GIVEN TO CHILDREN

November 13, 2009 — More research appears to confirm recent results of a large, prospective cohort study that the use of atypical antipsychotics (AAPs) increases the risk of significant weight gain and varied metabolic changes in children and adolescents with mental illness and behavioral disturbances. According to Dr. Panagiotopoulos, a growing body of evidence in adults demonstrating that AAPs cause significant weight gain, hyperlipidemia, and insulin resistance has raised concerns among the medical community in general, and the psychiatric community in particular, about whether these drugs may increase the risk of premature cardiovascular disease in children and adolescents. [http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/712079]