Warning: Vitamins!

Did you know…that vitamins and supplements may shorten your life?  What?

Ok, so this article talked about how they studied typical antioxidants (Vit A, C, E, and selenium) to see its effect on life span.  They found that there was anywhere from a 4-16% increased chance of dying (depending on the specific vitamin).  What?  How do you explain that one?  They can’t.

My initial reaction to this article is that the ’science’ behind this study is flawed.  I mean…how can essential vitamins which we don’t enough of…hurt us?  True…very high doses of Vit A and E are bad.  They can do damage.  Assuming, however, people are taking normal amounts…I just don’t get it.

To me, this seems like another attempt to badmouth vitamins and supplements because they take money away from the pharmaceutical companies.  People that take vitamins tend to be generally healthier than people that don’t.  This can be multifactorial, of course (for instance, people who take vitamins tend to be more health conscious anyway.

Simply just eating the right foods to get these nutrients don’t work as well as they did 50 years ago.  Our soils are depleted from over-farming and using chemicals on our plants.  By not using pesticides, you actually increase the health of the plant, and consequentially increase human health.  Plants would become more nutritious per bite.

Anyway, I honestly don’t see how vitamins decreasing life span has to do with anything.  Look at the effects of vitamins.  Does it increase overall health?  Does it decrease colds, flus, other illnesses?  Does it promote a sense of well-being?  These are the things to study.  There are too many factors in determining why people die in the first place.  Sure, you take vitamins…you can still die of heart disease, get cancer…etc.  It’s not a magic cure-all pill.  A well balanced diet and exercise program is still key.  I don’t think anyone has said take Vitamin C and you’ll never die.  Quality of vitamins and supplements is also another factor.  I would never tell anybody to buy the cheapest brand of vitamins at CVS or Rite-Aid.  That does not cut it for me.  I always recommend a food based supplement because our body can better utilize food than chemicals.  I’m also not saying to spend hundreds of dollars every month either.  There has to be a middle ground.  Everybody should definitely eat more fruits and veggies (more veggies than anything else).  Americans don’t eat enough.

That’s my rant!

Gardasil Gardasil

I know there is a lot of interest in the HPV vaccine by Merck. There is a lot of controversy, and I’ve written a couple blog posts about it, noting the potential side effects. NVIC has a great article they put out a couple years ago, and there are quite a number of news stories surfacing reporting on the side effects women have already had around the world.

Now, the short term clinical results for Gardasil have been relatively good. Depending on where you find the information, it has been reported to be anywhere from 92-100% effective in preventing the types of HPV it is supposed to. Let’s consider this: there are about 40-60 types of HPV…some that cause cancer and some that don’t and resolve on their own. About 20 or so are known to cause cervical cancer. Gardasil only protects against 4 of those strains. 4!! This is not a miracle vaccine. Just because someone has received the Gardasil vaccine does not in any way mean they won’t still contract HPV. When you take into consideration how many people are infected with HPV in the U.S. alone…the vaccine does not guarantee safety.

Let’s also…take into account the efficacy of a pap smear. I was reading a book (How Doctors Think), and it mentioned how a pap smear was only 60% effective. And…inter-examiner reliability was astonishingly low. Meaning…that if two doctors looked at the same sample, they would disagree more than half the time. I forget exactly what this figure is. So…maybe we should redouble our efforts to making a more effective screening test.

About 3700 lives are lost due to cervical cancer in the U.S. This is very unfortunate to be sure. On the flip side, how many young girls could end up with autoimmune diseases because of the vaccine that take their lives? The answer is…we don’t know. I bet you its a high number.

For those parents or young women thinking about getting the vaccine, consider this: those 3700 deaths each year and the 10,000 new cases of HPV each year are largely women from a lower socio-economic class. They don’t have regular access to health care and don’t get those 60% effective pap-smears every year like the other 80-90% of us do. If screening programs (with a more effective pap test) could reach those additional 10-20%, those 3700 lives could probably be saved. Interestingly enough, the Gardasil vaccine can cost anywhere from $300-$800 for the whole series. This vaccine still isn’t reaching the people with the highest likelihood to die from it.

Will Gardasil save us all? No, it won’t. It can cause more problems than we know about, and the women that need regular care aren’t getting it. Most types of HPV, even the cancer causing kind, can resolve on its own. Even a CIN 1 or CIN 2 (different gradings of dysplasia) can still resolve with a healthy lifestyle. A CIN 2 has a 75% of clearing on its own with no invasive procedure.

And…dysplasia is NOT a death sentence. I know it can be scary. I consoled a 23 year old young woman last summer who just found out she had HPV. Luckily, there was no high grade dysplasia and not even a need for a biopsy. You know what she will do, though? Go see her doctor every year to keep tabs on it. That is the biggest thing with preventing cervical cancer from developing. Checking its progression. I spoke with a doctor close to downtown Detroit who works at an OB/GYN clinic. She says most of her patients end up with more serious complications because they do not follow recommendations and don’t keep their appointments.

The thing that will save us women:

• More effective pap tests
• Reaching the 10-20% who do not have regular access to health care
• Checking any progression on cell dysplasia before a LEEP, conization, etc is performed

I truly believe that the power of positive thought can go a long way in preventing sickness. Of course, we can still get sick…but the power of our attitude certainly helps to shape the outcome.

Exporting Our Health

I read an article recently (I think in Business Week) talking about how insurance companies were going to start sending patients overseas for procedures.  When I came across this, I did that double take that Bugs Bunny or some other Looney Tune character does.

Supposedly, America has the best health care system in the world with the most advanced technology one could ever find.  So…why on Earth, would you want to go to India or Thailand for a complex medical procedure?  Even if you go to the best facility in that country, how does it compare to what we have right here?  Now, I know this is cheaper…and insurance companies are all about the business of money, not health.  If they were in the business of health, people would be getting better without worrying whether or not their insurance would continue to cover them.

For example, with chiropractic, the best insurance companies will usually only allow a patient 20 visits and have them pay a $15 co-pay.  Now, when my mom worked at a hospital when I was still in high school, we had the great fortunate to get amazing chiropractic benefits (about 50 visits/yr at a $7 co-pay).  Yet most insurance companies cap it at 20, and HMOs are even worse, capping it at about 5 visits.  Now…20 visits sounds like a lot.  From my perspective, patients usually require more visits.  So, just when the patient may be getting better and seeing improved health gains, their insurance quits paying…then the patient has to decide whether to continue paying cash for visits or wait until the following year.  There are many studies showing the efficacy of chiropractic and how patients with regular chiropractic care have fewer medical bills overall.

I digress…so, you may be able to get a colonoscopy, dental work, some surgery, etc…at a cheaper price in some other country.  The insurance company would even pick up airfare for you.  One good thing is that they would only send you to an approved hospital in another country.  On the other hand, they could still send you to some shady doctors.  If something were to go wrong, let’s say…you would have no way to sue for malpractice.  In some places, the medical boards aren’t as strict, so you might have a harder time filing a complaint with the licensing board and actually getting some discipline for a bad doctor.

Fine, the insurance companies have to pay more for complex medical procedures here.  As I said earlier, they are in the business of making money…not in the business of deciding health care.  Yes, they have doctors on staff to approve or not approve health claims, but they make mistakes and don’t know the patients complex medical history.  I don’t know that I would want some doctor who has never seen me deciding which country I go to for medical treatment.

Michael Moore’s movie, Sicko, illustrates some of the problems with America’s great health care system.  It’s not one of his best documentaries, but pretty interesting nonetheless.

People are complaining about how many jobs are being sent overseas…we can add our health care to that list now.

Soda Bad

That’s all I have to say after reading this blog my husband found.

I know it’s not the most insightful thing in the world, but it really makes me want to not drink soda anymore.

Vaccines and Autism

I’m not going to say a whole lot about the link between vaccines and autism.  There is a lot of evidence out there to support both sides of the argument.  Who is right?  Only the future can tell us that one.

I’ve stated on other posts the reasons why vaccines may not be the best thing for a young and fragile immune system.  Mothers are told not to take their babies out of the house for extended trips for about 6-8 weeks.  Why?  To protect their fragile immune system.

I guess one of the big things I don’t understand about vaccines is well…for one…why they have to contain toxic chemicals (mercury related chemical- which is still present in the flu vaccine and probably any vaccine that was made before 2002)..and second…why newborns are given so many shots at once.  I had a grandmother in the office a month ago not fully understanding why her new granddaughter was given about 5 or 6 vaccines at a time.

Anyway, here is a related article I found about a case that was ruled in favor of the family of a 9 year old who developed autism after receiving vaccines.

No Need For the Pharmacy Anymore

That’s right. Recently the EPA has found traces of prescription drugs in our drinking water.

The pharmaceutical companies have said that trace amounts of the various drugs they’ve found (anti-depressants, anti-convulsive, cholesterol, blood pressure, sex hormones, etc) won’t have an affect on human health and should be fine. I don’t really believe that.

If there was such media hype over mercury in fish and how we should all be careful, isn’t this worse than that? We need water to live and the current filtration methods (except for reverse osmosis) don’t filter out prescription drugs. So that means you could be drinking your neighbor’s heart medication or a family member’s anti-depressant.

The human body can only take so much, and if we’re constantly ingesting this through our drinking water, it only stands to reason there would be some reaction between the many drugs, even if it’s on a small scale. Recently, there’s been an outbreak of the flu through the south, mostly in Tennessee. Could it be attributed to the trace amounts of drugs we’re being exposed to every day? Our bodies just can’t fight it off anymore? How about the superbug that affected kids this past fall?

I guess there are too many what if’s and many hypotheticals we could make. To me, it just doesn’t make sense that the human body could withstand such an onslaught of chemicals. The pharmaceutical companies say that unlike heavy metals (mercury and lead, which are toxic to humans and therefore heavily regulated), prescription drugs are made to act on the human body. I would agree, they do act on the human body. However, you can’t take a prescription drug without there being side effects. Some of us need them, so I’m not disputing that. I even take a prescription medication, but I do think about the potential harm it could cause me later.

I digress…here is the article for your enjoyment.

The moral of the story…reverse osmosis water seems to filter out many of the chemicals.

More Gardasil Controversy

I found this story on an Australian news site yesterday.   I found it interesting because it talks about some women who have had side effects from having the Gardasil vaccine.

I put it out there just in case there might be someone you know having side effects of the Gardasil vaccine, that they aren’t alone and it certainly isn’t a coincidence.

Vaccine reactions DO happen.  Doctors do need to be notified, and if they don’t listen, find someone who will.  Even a fever is a reaction and should be reported.  This goes for any vaccine too…not just the Gardasil vaccine.

If anyone feels like they may have had a reaction to the Gardasil vaccine, I’d be interested to hear your story, as I’m sure many other women reading this blog would also.  Thank you for your input!

Selective Publishing

I came across this article on antidepressants and some of the studies they’ve done on them.   What was pointed out in this article was that antidepressants aren’t nearly as effective as we, the public, think they are.  Many unfavorable studies that indicate the antidepressants didn’t work don’t ever get published.

Whose fault is this?  I guess there is no one in particular to blame.  Let’s say I was trying an experiment like how to bake the perfect chocolate cake (I’m on a sugar ban for 2 weeks, can’t you tell?).  If it took me 10 tries to bake that perfect chocolate cake, why would I care about the first 9 results?  On the other hand, I could’ve learned from some of my mistakes in the first 9 cakes and used that to progress.  If I don’t recognize those mistakes, I might never have made it to the perfect one.  Does that make sense?  If it doesn’t, it might be the lack of sugar in my brain. 

As a people…maybe as Americans…human beings, I don’t know…we want to see positive results that lead us somewhere.  Who cares about the failure, just give me success!  There are perhaps many medical journals that wouldn’t want to publish those ‘failed’ trials.  That doesn’t make news after all (unless it’s something really big).

Then the drug companies…well, we can guess what their aims might be to hide flawed data.  There is no financial incentive.  If all of a sudden we find out that the purple happy pill doesn’t work like it says it does in the ad, that drug company loses all kinds of money.

It seems just kind of scary that some of this data was never published.  This fails both the doctor and patient.  If the doctor reads a glowing article about the next green happy pill, they might recommend it to all of their depressed patients.  The doctor, however, may not know that it wasn’t as effective as perhaps some other drugs…and the patients never get better.  Meanwhile, the patient is expecting to get better and may be experiencing side effects from the green happy pill.

Personally, I think antidepressants are given out way to easily now.  I know a few people that have gone to see a therapist after a breakup…the doctor converses with them for 30 minutes, and out the patient goes with a prescription in their hand for an antidepressant.  I don’t think your average relationship breakup needs an antidepressant.  Sadness is normal in those situations, and I think…should be experienced fully.  I’m not saying antidepressants are useless, because some people really do need them.  Others may just be experiencing a normal stage in life.

What this article also showed to me was that if there’s pressure to suppress some kind of data in order to move ahead with clinical trials, it can happen.  Then no one is safe.  Aspartame, for example, is one such chemical (I know it’s not a drug, per say…) that got approval through the FDA when it wasn’t shown to be absolutely safe.  There’s a whole controversy about that!

Anyway, enjoy the article!

Yet Another Reason…

To make sure your consumption of omega-3 fish oil stays up there.

Researchers have found that consumption of omega-3, more specifically DHA (an essential fatty acid), can help to prevent Alzheimer’s.  DHA is an essential amino acid because our body can’t make it, so we need to consume it from an outside source.  DHA is particularly important to a developing fetal and newborn brain, but it seems as if it can destroy some of the plaque buildup in the brain that causes Alzheimer’s.

Here is the full article for you to read!

Random Kitty Craziness