Posts Tagged ‘medication’

Diabetes-medication’s failure is due to the fact that this condition is based on lifestyle, and no pill can solve that. The risk of organ failure is not delayed by near-normal blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes. This shouldn’t be a surprising finding since diabetes is an inflammatory condition of the whole body.

Medication will not correct the underlining condition, which is inflammation throughout the body. Over time, diabetes damages blood vessels and is a major cause of heart disease. Inflammation damages artery walls. The longer a person has diabetes the greater the chance for complications to develop. This includes vision loss, foot ulcers, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Medication isn’t the answer and has deadly consequences for some patients. With all the drugs that are available diabetes isn’t managed very well. It is still a disease that can take years off a person’s life.

The reason is that diabetes in a condition and not a disease.

Understanding Diabetes

Understanding diabetes means taking into account that this isn’t an isolated condition. It is part of a whole body problem.

A clinical study compared the effects of intensive intervention in the control of blood sugar, blood pressure, and blood lipids to standard, less-intensive treatments. They looked at  the risk of cardiovascular events in both groups. It was a large study of 10,000 adults with established type 2 diabetes. The study was halted due to excess deaths in the group that was intensively treated.

That shows a complete lack of understanding of this condition, It doesn’t need medical intervention as much as a lifestyle change. The participants in the intensively treated group were moved to standard glucose control, as if that was the answer.

The participants had type 2 diabetes for an average of 10 years, and about one-third had pre-existing heart disease, and the remainder had at least two additional cardiovascular disease risk factors.

They also had high blood sugar as measured by the hemoglobin A1C tests. This tests shows the average blood sugar in the preceding two to three months. Half of the participants had an A1C over 8.1 percent above the currently recommended target for good control. A1C less than 6% is considered good in people without diabetes.

In people without diabetes the hemoglobin A1C should be 4.5% or lower according to Johns Hopkins researchers and the Life Extension Foundation.  With an A!C above 4.5 the more likely one is to suffer a heart attack.

Standard laboratory ranges indicate that non-diabetics can have a hemoglobin A1C as high as 5.7%. That is how we get unexplained heart attacks. Cholesterol levels appear normal and bingo there is a cardiovascular event with no known cause.

The Real Drug Failure Rate

A group of doctors have filed a suit against the Food & Drug Administration for failing to alert diabetes patients to safer alternatives to Avandia and other diabetic drugs. These increased the risk of stroke, and heart attack. It also has been blamed for the demise on some of the patients on these drugs.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the non-profit Physicians Committee for Responsible medicine.

The petition urged the FDA to require diabetes drugs to carry a warning label telling patients that a low-fat, plant-based diet can be as effective or better than drugs in reducing blood glucose and cholesterol.

These doctors saw people getting sick, because they were taking a medicine they may not have needed. In this case they said a low-fat, vegan diet is safer and just as effective.

Not only do medicines fail to help they can kill the patient.The problem is not only  a lack of knowledge, but in the retail thinking or the pharmaceutical industry. Their primary focus is profit and the primary vehicle for that is the drugs that they bring to market.

They have become disengaged from the primary purpose, and have damaged both their reputation, and the healthcare system. They are in the business of becoming more creative with production, so they don’t erode their profit margins. They produce one drug after another with an eye on returns, not on the public’s health.

Genetic drugs vs. pharmaceutical clout is a huge issue. This is especially true for third world countries. Anyone who reads the posts knows that I am not a fan of pharmaceuticals. there isn’t a good back up plan for countries such as India, Thailand, Brazil.

I am a realist that knows medications have a place in certain circumstances. In some areas of the world sanitation is lacking, pollution, poverty, droughts, and customs dictate that lifesaving intervention is needed. Medical care is no where near the scale of what we have in U.S. and antibiotics along with AIDS/ HIV medications are needed.

Pharmaceutical Clout

Pharmaceutical clout is showing up in the wrong places. The U.S. government’s decision to place India, Thailand, Brazil, and other counties on its annual trade “Watch Lists” is a tactic that threatens access to affordable generic drugs patients in the developing world, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said.

The “Watch Lists,” in the annual Special 301 Report released today by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), take action against countries the U.S. considers to be inadequately protecting intellectual property, even though they are complying with international agreements.

Thailand, Brazil and India-the world’s principal producer of quality genetic medicines were singled out for insufficient enforcement of intellectual property. The countries challenged are acting within their legal rights.

The Purprose of Pharmaceuticals $

The purpose of pharmaceuticals is what is at the heart of this debate. It is the implied purpose of providing and having available tools to treat major health threats. Offering patients the prospects of rehabilitating their health with the subsequence effect of improving their life is the implied purpose.

Mainstream medicine is the bed fellow of the pharmaceutical industry. There supposed purpose is to help humanity first and second to cause no harm. Where have all the lethal effects of pharmaceuticals come from?

Rushing to market, pandering for profit, and getting intellectual rights to more things than are defendable, everything but the planet’s well being seems to matter.

At this time global funding shortfalls for health programs, the USTR is working counter to the efforts of U.S. global programs such as its HIV/AIDS program PEPFAR, which purchases 70-90 percent of its drugs from generic suppliers.

Questioning Pharmaceutical Practices

There are laws in place that protect pharmaceutical companies, which allow them to act as a virtual monopoly. We are held hostage to price gouging, and poor performing drugs that endanger lives. Prescription drug costs have skyrocketed at a rate that exceeds inflation.

When millions of people lives depend on the availability of the few drugs that will enable them to survive, it is a blatant disregard for life. Pharmaceutical companies have no place in the business of people care, while putting profits first.

Toxicity and pharmacology are words that are joined at the hip.

Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the study of drug action and the interaction on a biological system. When a substance has medical properties they are pharmaceuticals. This field looks at the drugs property, interactions, toxicology, and medical applications. The pharmacy side is expected to be concerned with both the safety and effective use of the product.

Drug Toxicity

Drug toxicity is tied to both drug metabolism, and interactions with other prescriptions. While the pharmaceutical industry is looking to build more profits, the arsenal of drugs keep growing.

Variety in most markets is considered good. The world of pharmaceuticals is a place where they are always brewing up a new formula. Most are equivalents of some rival manufacturer. Some of these products aren’t fully validated for safety, and with little or no study of how they interact with other agents.

Research led by Wayne L. Backes, PhD, professor of pharmacology and Associate Dean for Research at Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, found that drug metabolism depends not only on which enzymes are present in an individual, but how they interact. This makes the difference in whether a drug can be safely eliminated from the body or is converted into a toxic carcinogenic byproduct. The paper is in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Dr. Backes and his research colleagues, J. Robert Reed PhD, Pharmacology Assistant Professor and Marylyn Ever, Research Associate have studied an enzyme called Cytochrome P450 which is responsible for the removal of the majority of drugs from the body by chemically breaking them down into inactive substances or metabolites. Because there are so many, there is a high degree of variability in people’s responses to a drug.

Pharmaceutical Companies

Pharmaceutical companies are on a roll. Today’s consumers want easy answers to their health problems. At the core of this are the consumer’s criteria for a healthy solution. From the prescription pad to the pharmacy the drug companies have the competitive edge.

They have the plum position of being able to control the studies, and the information that reaches the consumer. Not only can they influence and educate the doctors, they can advertise straight to the consumer.

Healthcare

Healthcare is on an incredible mission. They expect to medicate people into health. They may wipe out a symptom, without changing the condition. To me it is wheeling and dealing with the backing of the pharmaceutical industry. They change one thing and cause two things in exchange.

There are technical problems that are never addressed. How does taking 7 pills or more a day interact when given together? Since no one has tested this short or long term, detecting the changes should give every patient anxiety.

The confidence that the consumer seem to have in the medical system eludes me. Medication is not science, and every breakthrough proves that the conclusions may not be reliable. What is small, red and powerful, a raspberry or strawberry of course. However, if it is a contest with a little red pill, the drug would win hands down.

You can’t count on performance or value when you put your health in the hands of the pharmaceutical Industry.