July Newsletter 2013
Death by prescription drugs…the year 2012 is the first time in our history that death resulting from improper use of prescription drugs became the leading cause of death in American adults. Following are the previous ‘top ten’:
1900--1. Pneumonia 2. TB-a lung disease 3. diarrhea/intestinal ills 4. heart disease 5. stroke 6. kidney diseases 7. accidents 8. cancer 9. senility/Alzheimer's 10. diphtheria 1997--1. heart disease 2. cancer 3. stroke 4. lung diseases 5. accidents 6. pneumonia & flu 7. diabetes 8. suicide 9. kidney diseases 10. liver disease 2010--1. heart disease 2. cancer 3. chronic lower respiratory diseases 4. stroke 5. accidents 6. Alzheimer's 7. diabetes 8. kidney diseases 9. pneumonia/flu 10. suicide
Looking at these statistics caused me to wonder, not just about the order in which things move and where they end up, but also about what causes are or are not resolved over a period of time. Tuberculosis ‘disappeared’, but other lung diseases took its place; albeit a bit lower, but still in the top five. Stroke has consistently been in the top 5. Diphtheria, a
disease of the mouth and throat caused by a bacterial infection, isn’t heard about much anymore. Accidents surprised me. In 2010, even with improved safety standards and the use of special safety equipment, accidents are ranked fifth, whereas in 1900 they were only ranked seventh. Perhaps the speed of modern life is the main reason. I was similarly surprised by heart disease because in the 1900’s cholesterol was unknown, CPR did not exist, nor did pacemakers. None of these things we now see as commonplace were present, yet death from heart disease showed up as only fourth on the list. A footnote in one of the research tables said that in 2005, according to the American Cancer Society, cancer surpassed heart disease to become the leading cause of death for Americans under age eighty-five. Evidently, that switched back to heart disease by 2010. Also surprising to me was the following statistic about risk factors: in 2009, twenty-one percent of U.S. adults smoked cigarettes, and this has remained unchanged in recent years.
Drug warnings…last month I examined cholesterol and prescription drugs. In my research, I also found information about some other drugs that I thought worthy of sharing. Among
the most commonly used and therefore highly relevant, would be sleep medications. Prescription sleeping pills can triple your risk of death, even if you hardly use them: as few as eighteen pills a year! Doctors seem to be ignoring the risks, prescribing these drugs to more than ten percent of the adult population. One hundred thirty-two sleeping pills a year has been shown to increase the risk of death by five times. Two of the drugs specifically named were zolpidem and ternazepam, as well as other benzodiazepines. Mortality rates
were compared with 23,676 people who did not take these types of drugs.
There are some other problematic drugs worth mentioning. One is the diabetes drug ACTOS, which increases risk for bladder cancer and has a class action lawsuit pending against the manufacturer. Another is the hair loss drug finasteride (Propecia), which can cause depression and suicidal thoughts.
Daily use of aspirin: some research has shown that even one a day may take your vision and hearing away. This may be startling to hear, since doctors have been recommending that many people take a low-dose aspirin daily for cardiovascular health. Two studies have identified possible serious negative health risks linked to regular ingestion of aspirin. The Beaver Dam Eye Study correlated age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with the use of aspirin at least twice a week for more than three months. The sample population was comprised of 4,926 subjects, ranging in age from forty-three to eighty-six. The presence of vision and hearing loss in the aspirin users was 1.76% compared to 1.03% in non-aspirin users; a seemingly small, but statistically significant increase in risk. Loss of micro-circulation could be the cause, and there is a Standard Process supplement called Cyruta to mitigate this. The hearing loss study was done with 26,917 male subjects between the ages of forty to forty-seven who were then monitored for twenty-four years. The hazard ratio for hearing loss was 1.33% for regular aspirin use, 1.61% for NSAIDs and 1.99% for acetaminophen.
Diuretics and statin drugs have been linked to diabetes. It has been reported that within six months of the use of the blood pressure medication hydrochlorothiazide (HCT or HCTZ), some people develop diabetes. It is postulated that these individuals had high blood sugar tendencies before the drug was prescribed. Years were needed to find the correlation. Statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs such as atorvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin can raise blood sugar levels and even trigger diabetes in susceptible patients. Women over fifty taking statins may be assuming a significant risk of developing diabetes when taking statins (published in the Lancet Archives of Internal Medicine of JAMA).
A “morning sickness” drug called Bendectin that was pulled off the shelves thirty
years ago is back, with the manufacturer claiming it was a false alarm. Apparently hundreds of birth defect lawsuits are meaningless. The drug has been renamed Diclegis. It is
a combination of B-6 and an over-the-counter antihistamine doxylamine, found in the sleep aid, Unisom. A recent newspaper article said that U.S. obstetricians have long told nauseated pregnant women how to mix up the right dose themselves. In Canada it has been prescribed under the name Diclectin.
Another article contained information about statin drugs increasing risk of cancer by fifteen times, and diabetes by eighty percent. Tufts Medical Center in Boston analyzed data from the Framingham Heart Study that looked at 5,124 adult subjects who were not taking statin drugs. The subjects were re-tested every four years for a total period of eighteen years. People with lower serum LDL (the one they want you to lower) were linked with higher cancer risk, and were fifteen times more likely to get a blood cancer. If people with naturally low LDL had higher cancer rates, imagine what is happening to people artificially lowering LDL with drugs! Yes, cholesterol-lowering drugs do lower your cholesterol, but they do not extend your life. Researchers found no link between using a statin drug and living longer, none. Even more disturbing is the fact that, a number of studies have linked lower cholesterol levels to higher death rates.
Annual deaths in Colorado from drug- related poisoning quadrupled from eighty-seven in 2000 to three-hundred four in 2011. The drugs referenced in this statistic
are morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and fentanyl. Colorado ranks number two in prescription painkiller abuse in the U.S.A., while a 2011 survey showed that
roughly a third of our twelfth-graders had taken a non-prescribed medication at least once. The national average is 25.6%. Teens believe that prescription drugs are ‘safer’ than street drugs, and say that it’s easily accessible from the family medicine cabinet. The only ‘safer’ thing about this is that street drugs can contain unknown substances. Lock up those prescription medicines, and don’t leave them lying around in your purse or on the kitchen counter. Be aware and safe.
1900--1. Pneumonia 2. TB-a lung disease 3. diarrhea/intestinal ills 4. heart disease 5. stroke 6. kidney diseases 7. accidents 8. cancer 9. senility/Alzheimer's 10. diphtheria 1997--1. heart disease 2. cancer 3. stroke 4. lung diseases 5. accidents 6. pneumonia & flu 7. diabetes 8. suicide 9. kidney diseases 10. liver disease 2010--1. heart disease 2. cancer 3. chronic lower respiratory diseases 4. stroke 5. accidents 6. Alzheimer's 7. diabetes 8. kidney diseases 9. pneumonia/flu 10. suicide
Looking at these statistics caused me to wonder, not just about the order in which things move and where they end up, but also about what causes are or are not resolved over a period of time. Tuberculosis ‘disappeared’, but other lung diseases took its place; albeit a bit lower, but still in the top five. Stroke has consistently been in the top 5. Diphtheria, a
disease of the mouth and throat caused by a bacterial infection, isn’t heard about much anymore. Accidents surprised me. In 2010, even with improved safety standards and the use of special safety equipment, accidents are ranked fifth, whereas in 1900 they were only ranked seventh. Perhaps the speed of modern life is the main reason. I was similarly surprised by heart disease because in the 1900’s cholesterol was unknown, CPR did not exist, nor did pacemakers. None of these things we now see as commonplace were present, yet death from heart disease showed up as only fourth on the list. A footnote in one of the research tables said that in 2005, according to the American Cancer Society, cancer surpassed heart disease to become the leading cause of death for Americans under age eighty-five. Evidently, that switched back to heart disease by 2010. Also surprising to me was the following statistic about risk factors: in 2009, twenty-one percent of U.S. adults smoked cigarettes, and this has remained unchanged in recent years.
Drug warnings…last month I examined cholesterol and prescription drugs. In my research, I also found information about some other drugs that I thought worthy of sharing. Among
the most commonly used and therefore highly relevant, would be sleep medications. Prescription sleeping pills can triple your risk of death, even if you hardly use them: as few as eighteen pills a year! Doctors seem to be ignoring the risks, prescribing these drugs to more than ten percent of the adult population. One hundred thirty-two sleeping pills a year has been shown to increase the risk of death by five times. Two of the drugs specifically named were zolpidem and ternazepam, as well as other benzodiazepines. Mortality rates
were compared with 23,676 people who did not take these types of drugs.
There are some other problematic drugs worth mentioning. One is the diabetes drug ACTOS, which increases risk for bladder cancer and has a class action lawsuit pending against the manufacturer. Another is the hair loss drug finasteride (Propecia), which can cause depression and suicidal thoughts.
Daily use of aspirin: some research has shown that even one a day may take your vision and hearing away. This may be startling to hear, since doctors have been recommending that many people take a low-dose aspirin daily for cardiovascular health. Two studies have identified possible serious negative health risks linked to regular ingestion of aspirin. The Beaver Dam Eye Study correlated age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with the use of aspirin at least twice a week for more than three months. The sample population was comprised of 4,926 subjects, ranging in age from forty-three to eighty-six. The presence of vision and hearing loss in the aspirin users was 1.76% compared to 1.03% in non-aspirin users; a seemingly small, but statistically significant increase in risk. Loss of micro-circulation could be the cause, and there is a Standard Process supplement called Cyruta to mitigate this. The hearing loss study was done with 26,917 male subjects between the ages of forty to forty-seven who were then monitored for twenty-four years. The hazard ratio for hearing loss was 1.33% for regular aspirin use, 1.61% for NSAIDs and 1.99% for acetaminophen.
Diuretics and statin drugs have been linked to diabetes. It has been reported that within six months of the use of the blood pressure medication hydrochlorothiazide (HCT or HCTZ), some people develop diabetes. It is postulated that these individuals had high blood sugar tendencies before the drug was prescribed. Years were needed to find the correlation. Statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs such as atorvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin can raise blood sugar levels and even trigger diabetes in susceptible patients. Women over fifty taking statins may be assuming a significant risk of developing diabetes when taking statins (published in the Lancet Archives of Internal Medicine of JAMA).
A “morning sickness” drug called Bendectin that was pulled off the shelves thirty
years ago is back, with the manufacturer claiming it was a false alarm. Apparently hundreds of birth defect lawsuits are meaningless. The drug has been renamed Diclegis. It is
a combination of B-6 and an over-the-counter antihistamine doxylamine, found in the sleep aid, Unisom. A recent newspaper article said that U.S. obstetricians have long told nauseated pregnant women how to mix up the right dose themselves. In Canada it has been prescribed under the name Diclectin.
Another article contained information about statin drugs increasing risk of cancer by fifteen times, and diabetes by eighty percent. Tufts Medical Center in Boston analyzed data from the Framingham Heart Study that looked at 5,124 adult subjects who were not taking statin drugs. The subjects were re-tested every four years for a total period of eighteen years. People with lower serum LDL (the one they want you to lower) were linked with higher cancer risk, and were fifteen times more likely to get a blood cancer. If people with naturally low LDL had higher cancer rates, imagine what is happening to people artificially lowering LDL with drugs! Yes, cholesterol-lowering drugs do lower your cholesterol, but they do not extend your life. Researchers found no link between using a statin drug and living longer, none. Even more disturbing is the fact that, a number of studies have linked lower cholesterol levels to higher death rates.
Annual deaths in Colorado from drug- related poisoning quadrupled from eighty-seven in 2000 to three-hundred four in 2011. The drugs referenced in this statistic
are morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and fentanyl. Colorado ranks number two in prescription painkiller abuse in the U.S.A., while a 2011 survey showed that
roughly a third of our twelfth-graders had taken a non-prescribed medication at least once. The national average is 25.6%. Teens believe that prescription drugs are ‘safer’ than street drugs, and say that it’s easily accessible from the family medicine cabinet. The only ‘safer’ thing about this is that street drugs can contain unknown substances. Lock up those prescription medicines, and don’t leave them lying around in your purse or on the kitchen counter. Be aware and safe.
