the road to new health - Health Forensics

the road to new health - Health Forensics

Cross-country walk aims to trample diabetes

I have been very blessed to be involved in a major project that began in February and ended in the last few days.

While I was not able to participate directly I provided support by posting "The Diabetes Diary" daily throughout the walk.

The Diabetes Diary

Over the course of the Longest Walk 3 thousands participated from coast to coast.  Because I am closest to Portland, Oregon where the Northern Route began my support for them was a focus.  It was pretty amazing, even on a virtual level.

You can learn more by reading this recent article -

Other resources are here -

Diabetic Health

Hands Free Hazards

Here's a new report on the same study that was completed 3+ years ago


Distracting hands-free devices are 'as dangerous as a mobile'
Read more:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012393/Distracting-hands-free-devices-dangerous-mobile.html#ixzz1SHBNK7WY


Selections from Natural Health News


Natural Health News: Hands Free Not Free From Hazards

Jul 01, 2008

The new findings, reported in the journal Brain Research, cast further doubt on the idea that hands-free cell phones are safer for drivers. Just the act of listening, researchers found, appears to divert much of the...

Natural Health News: Could Your Cell Phone Be Hacked?

Aug 03, 2010

and Could Your Cell Phone Be Hacked? At a recent conference, a hacker revealed a cheap, homemade device that has the potential to intercept calls from a variety of cell phones. How to tell if you're at risk. ...

Natural Health News: Health Risk: Cell Phone Danger Exposed At Last

Oct 11, 2010

Several years ago I was working with a fellow who had been in the construction industry and was an early-on cell phone user. He developed a parotid tumour on the side of his face that was exposed to his cell phone. ...

Natural Health News: Cell Phones, Other EMF Exposure and Your Health

May 01, 2010

The possible health hazards from long-term use of mobile phones are finally being taken seriously by agencies in the UK and USA after years of denials that there was any risk. In the USA, the Federal Communications ...

Natural Health News: Dirtiest Find in the Hospital: Cell Phones

Aug 02, 2010   EMF generated by cell phones and other similar EMF producing appliances creates a static charge that draws bacteria to these units. As the doctors go from patient room to patient room they collect and transport ever more 

Natural Health News: Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking'

May 29, 2009

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile 

Just because it comes from a med school doesn't mean it is good advice

I receive the Johns Hopkins newsletters. I receive many others too so I am up to date on what information is going around in mainstream medical channels.  This one was in my email this morning -

Nine Ways to Eat Better With Diabetes 

Here are nine ways to change your diet that will help you manage your diabetes better and improve your health. These tips apply to people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, but the specifics of your nutrition management will differ depending on which type you have and should be discussed with a qualified nutritionist. 

Diabetes tip #1:  Choose plant-based foods over animal-based foods. Eating a Mediterranean-style diet -- which is high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and olive oil and low in red meat, poultry and animal fats -- has been found to reduce the need for blood-glucose lowering medications in people with type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes tip #2:  Go for whole grains rather than refined ones. Refined grains such as white flour, rice and pasta don’t offer much nutritional value and can send blood glucose soaring. Whole grains like oat flour, brown rice and whole-wheat pasta, on the other hand, are rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  

Diabetes tip #3:  Use a healthier spread on bread. Avoid products that contain a lot of saturated fat, like butter and cream cheese, and regular margarine, which contains trans fats.  Your best substitutes are trans-fat-free margarines or those that contain plant stanols or sterols.  

Diabetes tip #4:  Get your D from dairy. In addition to providing calcium, dairy products are a good source of vitamin D. Recent research has linked vitamin D deficiency with a greater likelihood of developing serious complications like cardiovascular disease if you have type 2 diabetes.  

Diabetes tip #5:  Substitute a sweet potato for a white one. Sweet potatoes recently made the American Diabetic Association’s (ADA) list of “superfoods” and it’s easy to see why: They have a lower glycemic index than regular potatoes, meaning they don’t raise your blood glucose levels as much. They’re also rich in carotenoids, which are important for eye health; the natural plant compound chlorogenic acid, which may help reduce insulin resistance; and potassium, which lowers blood pressure.

Diabetes tip #6:  Cook with canola oil instead of corn oil. Canola oil is low in saturated fat and high in monounsaturated fat, which can lower harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and maintain beneficial high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.  

Diabetes tip #7:  Favor fatty fishes. Eating fish that contain omega-3 fatty acids helps to lower triglycerides and raise HDL cholesterol as well as cut down on inflammation in the blood vessels, which raises heart disease risk.  

Diabetes tip #8:  Use alcohol cautiously. Alcohol taken in moderation can benefit some people and has been associated with longer lifespan. However, alcohol can cause hypoglycemia, especially if you are taking a blood glucose-lowering medication. 

Diabetes tip #9:  Shake the salt habit. Excess sodium causes the body to retain fluid, which can raise your blood pressure as well as your risk of heart attack and stroke. Instead of sprinkling table salt on food, try spices, herbs, or a squeeze of lemon; avoid processed foods like jarred spaghetti sauces, luncheon meats, canned soups and condiments.   

Posted in Diabetes on July 14, 2011   Johns Hopkins Newsletters

I get my feathers in an uproar when I read these because -in this one - the information is really not good.

Here's what I sent in as a comment on some but not all of this "health" tip -

I read an article recently about health care providers whose knowledge is sorely out of date, or they just don't keep up with current research. This is the reason I am commenting on some items in your list about diabetes and eating.

Flour is NOT a whole grain.

Many people with diabetes actually have gluten intolerance and therefore it is not a good idea to suggest a processed food like whole wheat pasta.

Margarine regardless of what or how it is manufactured is NOT a health promoting food. The suggestion that plant sterol based fake fat is healthier is vacuous because plant sterols come from genetically modified soy and canola. GMOs cause a range of health problems. Soy in any form except fermented is bad for health. Canola is TOO monounsaturated for health and it IS a transfat as well as being hepatotoxic (not good for people with diabetes. MUCH better to use unsalted butter from dairy with NO rGBH and make it into "spread" by mixing it with olive oil. New research shows that healthy fat includes butter.

Dairy allergy should be evaluated before suggesting dairy as a source for Vitamin D. This is usually low efficacy Vit D2 in milk and it is D3 that is the more effective source. Do a 25 OH and make sure the level is 50-80, 80 is better.

If you undercook white potato it will not have as high of a glycemic index as in over cooked baked potato or mashed etc.

Corn and canola oil are bot more likely than not GMO. Both are sold in plastic and this increases the risk of exposure to xeno-estrogens and increased cancer risk. Canola is a trans fat and hepatotoxic O-9 - too unsaturated for health.

If you choose Celtic salt is is a very health choice and unlike boxed salt it is low in sodium and contains many minerals. Because it is mineral rich you don't use much.

I could write more but this is enough for starters. All I have written is backed by REAL science.

I hope you'll be more of a sleuth when it comes to believing what you read on the internet, even when its coming from what you believe to be a reputable source.

Thinking caps on please.

 

Selections from over 30+ from Natural Health News

Natural Health News: The Diabetes Industry

Jun 07, 2011

Natural Health News has over three dozen articles on diabetes and related topics. Our main domain since 1991, www.leaflady.org, has numerous pages on this topic. CHI-Creating Health Institute on facebook has posted to ...

Natural Health News: New-Onset Diabetes With Statins

Mar 28, 2011

Now more studies shoe increased risk of diabetes among other health problems from statins. And the cookie cutter medicine machine wants YOU to take this drug if you have diabetes. Its doing the same as aspartame. ...

Natural Health News: Reversing Diabetes: 2011

Mar 13, 2011

Also, I'd say a highlight for today was definitely running into a diverse group of people who are walking across the country. Go figure! The event is called "The Longest Walk 3". It's to raise awareness for Diabetes. ...

Natural Health News: Cancer Risk Higher with Diabetes

Mar 02, 2011

LONDON (Reuters) - Doctors know that diabetics have a higher than normal risk of dying of heart attacks or strokes, but new research on Wednesday showed that having diabetes also ups the risk of dying from many cancers ...

Anthrax Experiment: HHS, CDC New Attack on Children

You may want the latest information on this new experiment using anthrax vaccine (unproven) on your children.

Alliance for Human Research Protection
A Catalyst for Debate
www.ahrp.org
The National Biodefense Science Board, convened a two day meeting of the Anthrax Vaccine Working Group at the request of the Department of Health and Human Services (July 7 and 8). The July 7 meeting was open to the public: the July 8 meeting was closed.
The Alliance for Human Research Protection took the lead in speaking out against this medical travesty. This US government-proposed anthrax vaccine experiment would expose children to a controversial vaccine whose efficacy is unproven but whose risks of harm are serious and even life-threatening.
The FDA-approved label for ANTHRAX VACCINE ADSORBED (BIOTHRAX™) 31 JAN 2002 states:
"Approximately 6% of the reported events were listed as serious. Serious adverse events include those that result in death, hospitalization, permanent disability or are life-threatening. The serious adverse events most frequently reported were in the following body system categories: general disorders and administration site conditions, nervous system disorders, skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders, and musculoskeletal, connective tissue and bone disorders. Anaphylaxis and/or other generalized hypersensitivity reactions, as well as serious local reactions, were reported to occur occasionally following administration of BioThrax. None of these hypersensitivity reactions have been fatal.
Other infrequently reported serious adverse events that have occurred in persons who have received BioThrax have included: cellulitis, cysts, pemphigus vulgaris, endocarditis, sepsis, angioedema and other hypersensitivity reactions, asthma, aplastic anemia, neutropenia, idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, lymphoma, leukemia, collagen vascular disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, polyarteritis nodosa, inflammatory arthritis, transverse myelitis, Guillain-Barré Syndrome, immune deficiency, seizure, mental status changes, psychiatric disorders, tremors, cerebrovascular accident (CVA), facial palsy, hearing and visual disorders, aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation, syncope, glomerulonephritis, renal failure, spontaneous abortion and liver abscess. Infrequent reports were also received of multisystem disorders defined as chronic symptoms involving at least two of the following three categories: fatigue, mood-cognition, musculoskeletal system.
Reports of fatalities included sudden cardiac arrest (2), myocardial infarction with polyarteritis nodosa (1), aplastic anemia (1), suicide (1) and central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma (1)."
http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/05n-0040-bkg0001.pdf 
Under US law, an experiment that exposes children to greater than minimal risk is unethical and illegal. The proposed experiment would sacrifice children's welfare, much as canaries sent into the coal mines were sacrificed.
Read the written two-minute allotted public comments submitted by AHRP board members, Meryl Nass, MD and Vera Hassner Sharav. http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/827/9/  
Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
veracare@ahrp.org  212-595-8974

selection from Natural Health News Vaccine Vacillations

Oct 02, 2007

BioThrax - Anthrax Adsorbed BioPort Corporation 517.327.1500 * nonencapsulated strain of Bacillus anthracis aluminum hydroxide, benzethonium chloride, and formaldehyde. DPT - Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis GlaxoSmithKline 800.366.8900 ...

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/

Fluoride Risks Hit Supermarket Mag

I've been interviewed a few times for 'for women First' magazine, one of the supermarket mags for women.  I don't usually purchase it but I had to succumb today when I saw their front page story about a thyroid discovery.  The discovery is fluoride and how it slows down your thyroid, (page 40, July 18, 2011 issue).

The problem with this is that fluoride is a known endocrine disruptor that's been known for about 70 or more years.

This means clear your shelves of fluoride tooth paste and all the dental products laden with it.  Don't get any fluoride treatments at the dentist either.

Watch for fluoride is prescription drugs like antibiotics (fluorquinolones)  and antidepressants (SSRI,SNRI) , as well as others.  Many foods like soy and others sprayed with pesticides and herbicides contain fluoride too.  And you'll find bromine (in bread), chlorine, and any halogen will suppress your thyroid too, just like mammogram, that pink salt, and your cell phone. 

Selections from Natural Health News

Natural Health News: Dr Paul Connett World's Leading Expert on ...



Apr 05, 2011


For example, rodent studies show that fluoride exposure can cause free radical damage to DNA molecules and cells in areas of the brain that are essential for cognition, as well as structural brain changes and ...


Natural Health News: Getting Too Much Fluoride? Better Check Your ...


Jan 11, 2011


The New York Times just reported that a "political battle" is brewing on EPA's decision to phase out the use of sulfuryl fluoride as a food fumigant in the US. According to the Times, Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla. ...


Natural Health News: Top 10 Drugs: Violence and more Fluoride

Jan 12, 2011


Related information about fluoride is found here as well, and now you know mainstream media is finally suggesting you have been getting too much. Here are the 8 top true "conspiracy theories". ...


Natural Health News: The Fluoride Glut: Sources of Fluoride Exposure

Dec 05, 2010


Yes, your so called Himalayan health salt is full of fluoride. You may learn more here, and be prepared to be surprised! Graphic by DEES The American Dental Association has a budget of $100 million (with over $1.4 ...

SSRI Drugs in Pregnancy Linked to Heart Abnormalities

UPDATE: 6 July 2011

It has been announced that prescribing antidepressants to pregnant women are at risk for their child to develop autism.

Children born to mothers who received a prescription for any antidepressant in the year before delivery were twice as likely to have an ASD (6.7% versus 3.3%; OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.6), according to Lisa Croen, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland, and colleagues. SOURCE

It also speaks of the push to durg all pregnant women in a ridiculous effort to try to prevent  postpartum depression. In this sense it probably has more to do with causing PPD.

Nutritional and thyroid issues do not seem to be considered in the way of very closed minded and limited thinking.

Find more than 30 posts related to this topic using our search box.

Originally posted 11/2008

Prozac use has shown that women who took the SSRI (and fluoride based) antidepressant during the first three months of pregnancy gave birth to four times as many babies with heart problems as women who did not. The levels were three times higher in women taking paroxetine(Paxil, also containing fluoride).

Two Antidepressants Taken During Pregnancy Linked To Heart Anomalies In Babies

ScienceDaily (2008-11-26) -- Women who took the antidepressant fluoxetine during the first three months of pregnancy gave birth to four times as many babies with heart problems as women who did not and the levels were three times higher in women taking paroxetine. ... > read full article

Once again, if you regularly follow the topics of discussion on Natural Health News you will recall that we posted these two articles earlier this year.

Fluoride is not a cure for mothers or babies, March 2008

Nutrition and Preventing Post Partum Depression, May 2008

We would also like to call your attention to the top 14 drugs identified by the FDA as requiring much more study for off label use. Of these 14, nine are SSRI or similar antidepressants (excepting Trazodone, a triazolopyridine derivative, which has its own unique set of problems). 

14 Drugs Identified As Most Urgently Needing Study For Off-label Use

ScienceDaily (2008-11-26) -- Physicians and policy-makers know that drugs are frequently prescribed to treat certain diseases despite a lack of FDA approval, a practice known as off-label prescribing. Now researchers have developed a list of 14 widely prescribed medications most urgently in need of additional study to determine how effective and safe they are for their off-label uses. Antidepressants and antipsychotics are the most prominent classes of drugs on the list. ... > read full article

We do hope that Tom Daschle and Barack Obama take note of these additional damage points for the proposed use of SSRI antidepressants to allegedly meet some crazy notion that the drug use will stave off post partum depression.

Mr Obama, just like Oprah, as we have said, you can do better!

Finding Fibrillation

For years its been know that NSAIDS can cause quite an array of side effects from kidney failure to liver failure, even silent bleeding.


Now NSAIDS are linked to atrial fibrillation.  Fibrillation  is the rapid, irregular, and unsynchronized contraction of muscle fibers. An important occurrence is with regards to the heart (atrial or ventricular fibrillation).


A Fib can also be a symptom of thyroid imbalanced and this should not be overlooked.  Magnesium can help correct A Fib and low levels of the mineral are associated with exceesive of long term use of NSAIDS.


Ibuprofen and aspirin linked to irregular heart rhythm
Commonly used painkillers including ibuprofen increase the risk of developing an irregular heart rhythm by up to 40 per cent, according to a new study.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8615998/Ibuprofen-and-aspirin-linked-to-irregular-heart-rhythm.html

What is atrial fibrillation
Atrial fibrillation (AF or A-fib) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm), and involves the two upper chambers (atria) of the heart. Its name comes from the fibrillating (i.e., quivering) of the heart muscles of the atria, instead of a coordinated contraction. It can often be identified by taking a pulse and observing that the heartbeats do not occur at regular intervals. However, a stronger indicator of AF is the absence of P waves on an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), which are normally present when there is a coordinated atrial contraction at the beginning of each heart beat. Risk increases with age, with 8% of people over 80 having AF.
In AF, the normal electrical impulses that are generated by the sinoatrial node are overwhelmed by disorganized electrical impulses that originate in the atria and pulmonary veins, leading to conduction of irregular impulses to the ventricles that generate the heartbeat. The result is an irregular heartbeat, which may occur in episodes lasting from minutes to weeks, or it could occur all the time for years. The natural tendency of AF is to become a chronic condition. Chronic AF leads to a small increase in the risk of death.
Atrial fibrillation is often asymptomatic and is not in itself generally life-threatening, but it may result in palpitations, fainting, chest pain, or congestive heart failure. People with AF usually have a significantly increased risk of stroke (up to 7 times that of the general population). Stroke risk increases during AF because blood may pool and form clots in the poorly contracting atria and especially in the left atrial appendage (LAA). The level of increased risk of stroke depends on the number of additional risk factors. If a person with AF has none, the risk of stroke is similar to that of the general population. However, many people with AF do have additional risk factors and AF is a leading cause of stroke.
Atrial fibrillation may be treated with medications which either slow the heart rate or revert the heart rhythm back to normal. Synchronized electrical cardioversion may also be used to convert AF to a normal heart rhythm. Surgical and catheter-based therapies may also be used to prevent recurrence of AF in certain individuals. People with AF are often given anticoagulants such as warfarin to protect them from stroke.

Heart disease, No. 1 killer, can sneak up on women

Aspirin is a risky pill to swallow

Antimicrobial Wipes and Soaps May be Making You (and Society) Sick

I've been covering the issue of triclosan for a good decade or longer by now. Many articles about this toxic and infection promoting chemical can be found here at Natural Health News.  Now we see a new article that points to the expansive growth of "wipes" type products to clear away 'germs', and making us all much more at risk in the long run.

In closing the writer points our that hand washing with soap and water can, as I have said so often, do a much better and safer job without the chemicals.

The problem with the chemicals is that is removes the protective bacterial protection on your skin, dries out your skin, and leads to higher risk of infection.  And the infection can be pretty serious if you get one.

In all of my articles I promote the use of mild, unfrangranced soap, dying your hands thoroughly, and applying a simple natural lubricant to your skin to help prevent drying (which perpetuates the problem), coconut oil works very well.

You can easily make your own wipes if you think you need these waste producing items using pure essential oils like lemon, sweet orange, or even eucalyptus.  The essential oils do a much better job of killing bacteria, and they don't lead to ineffectiveness as the chemical antibacterials do.  Even apple cider vinegar is anti infective and it is an odor eliminator as well, plus much less expensive.

More on skin.

The really intriguing news--a kind of breakthrough--is that the main compounds in antibiotic wipes, creams and soaps, triclosan and/or the chemically similar triclocarban, have also been sprinkled around our lives more generally. A recent study notes that triclosan is now used to "impregnate surfaces and has been added to chopping boards, refrigerators, plastic lunchboxes, mattresses as well as being used in industrial settings, such as food processing plants where walls, floors and exposed machinery have all been treated with triclosan in order to reduce microbial load." You can now go home, wipe your world down and live a happier life, surrounded by an antibiotic force field. Be especially sure to wipe your children down. Children are just about the grimiest thing in the world....
It turns out that although we know that washing our hands prevents a range of illnesses and are incredibly eager to buy products marketed to kill germs, we don't actually take the simpler measure of washing hands in the first place. A study of nearly eight thousand individuals in five U.S. cities found almost half of the participants failed to wash their hands after going to the bathroom. In this light, no mystery salve is necessary, no miracle cure, special wipe, or magic. We need to wash our hands, because soap does the body good, at least in all the ways studied so far. It is not fancy. It is not expensive or heavily marketed and yet it works, as it long has, even though as of yet, no one can conclusively, unambiguously, tell you why. SOURCE

Selections from Natural Health News (from 30 related posts on this topic)

Natural Health News: FDA Looking into Triclosan?


Aug 29, 2010


In a claim filed Tuesday, the National Resources Defense Council says the FDA didn't regulate the levels of triclosan and triclocarban in the soap, two toxic chemicals that can cause problems with reproductive organs, ...


Natural Health News: Hand Sanitizers: UPDATE


Nov 01, 2009


Many recent studies have raised serious concerns that triclosan may promote the emergence of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. So while alcohol based sanitizers may not cause super bacteria. ...


Chloroform Danger With Antimicrobial Soap


Apr 16, 2005


The main reason for my advice has been that these chemicals, such as triclosan, disturb the balance of naturally occuring staph bacteria on the skin's surface (epidermis). Now here is more convincing evidence. ...


Another "Green Living"© writer warns of hand sanitizers


May 26, 2008


But I did already know that certain hand purifying gels contained, among other undesirables, the hormone disrupting antibacterial/antifungal agent triclosan, which can form dioxins when it comes into contact with water and has some ...

 

Chantix Risk Rises Again

Natural Health News has been covering Chantix since 2006.  There are at least a dozen articles here that speak to the dangers of this drug.

Now it is announced that there is a risk of PAD and other cardiovascular diseases caused by the drug, and the study shows about 62,000 people are affected.

The report follows an FDA announcement last month that prescribing information for varenicline will be revised to include a warning about an increased risk of second heart attack and peripheral artery disease in people with a history of cardiovascular disease.  SOURCE

If you are interested in stopping smoking using natural options please contact us or Health Forensics. 

Prevention and Health Forensics

Here's a very good example of why Health Forensics was created.

• Natural and nutritional support can prevent hardening of the arteries.
• Thorough evaluation of your medications can identify nutrient depletion that can lead to other health risks and also problems with poly-pharmacy (drug interactions), risky side effects and more.

Autopsy reveals Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage died of natural causes
By Chris Chase
An autopsy revealed that wrestling great Randy "Macho Man" Savage died from heart diseaseand not from any injury sustained in hisMay 20 car crash.The St. Petersburg Medical Examiner's Office found that the 58-year-old had an enlarged heart with hardened coronary arteries. He became unresponsive while driving his Jeep Wrangler on a Florida highway in May and crashed into a tree. While the auto accident left minor cuts and bruises, the heart problems were the official cause of death of the wrestler.

At the time of his death, it was unknown whether the former wrestling star had died because of the heart issue or because the heart issue caused him to crash. The coroner said Savage was found with therapeutic levels of a number of prescribed drugs in his system and that alcohol wasn't a factor. There was no evidence he was taking any heart medication, leading to the assumption that Savage may not have known about his condition.

His wife, Lynn, was riding in the car during the accident. Their Jeep Wrangler flipped over a concrete median into oncoming traffic before skidding into a tree. The couple were married in a beachfront ceremony in 2010.

Born Randy Poffo, the future Macho Man had a brief minor league baseball career before joining the wrestling circuit. He grew to fame in the 1980s with the WWF where his bouts with Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and George "The Animal" Steele made him a star. Advertisements with Slim-Jim and his signature catchphrase, "Ooh yeah!," helped him become a household name.

Doctors 'too reliant on prescribing drugs'

UPDATE: 2 July 2011

E-Prescribing Far from Error-Free By Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today
More than 10% of electronic prescriptions contain an error, according to a new study that determined that prescriptions sent electronically are just as likely to contain mistakes as handwritten ones.

E-prescribing has been heralded by health reform experts and policymakers as a way to reduce medication errors, and the federal government is devoting billions to foster it.

Although most evidence suggests enthusiasm for a more paperless medical system is well-founded, new technology can also introduce new potential for medication errors, Karen Nanji, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, wrote in a paper published in the Journal of American Medical Information Association. SOURCE

Posted 3/17/09
While doctors are medicalizing patients at a rapid rate, especially the elderly, new moves to force E-Prescribing may promote a downturn in the quality of health care as it moves more to rationed and tick box care (knee-jerk, cause/effect, lineal thinking).

Is this yet another call to you, my readers, to make stong efforts now to be more active in your own health care?

GPs are medicalising healthy elderly people, professor warns. Elderly people are being turned into patients by GPs blindly following guidelines to hand out pills for high blood pressure and cholesterol, a professor has said.

by Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor, 03 Mar 2009
The ‘paternalistic society’ and medicine by ‘tick box’ has overtaken personal advice, Michael Oliver, emeritus professor of cardiology at Edinburgh University wrote in the British Medical Journal online.

He said many of the drugs including those for high blood pressure and statins for raised cholesterol have side effects which many elderly people find debilitating.

Prof Oilver wrote: “Nowadays few elderly people are allowed to enjoy being healthy. A bureaucratic demand for documentation can lead to overdiagnosis, overtreatment, and unnecessary anxiety. Preventive action may be irrelevant and even harmful in elderly people. More than 30 years ago, in his book Medical Nemesis, Ivan Illich called this trend “the medicalisation of health.”

He said the GP incentives to diagnose and treat patients, known as the Quality and Outcomes Framework, which means a proportion of the practice income is dependent upon hitting target, has meant many elderly people who considered themselves healthy are being put on pills.

Prof Oliver said: “Many older people, often retired, are summoned by their general practitioner for an annual health check. They may feel reasonably well, but the NHS does not always permit such euphoria. They may be told that they have hypertension or diabetes or high cholesterol concentrations; that they are obese; that they take too little exercise, eat unhealthily, and drink too much.”

He warned that the practice of medicalising the elderly can be harmful and many of the guidelines for treating high blood pressure and cholesterol are based on much younger people or on evidence that the drugs reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke, but only by a small amount.

He added: “Are those people who have now been turned into patients warned sufficiently about side effects? Are minor side effects, which can be debilitating in this age group, reported to health authorities? More importantly, are doctors willing to discontinue treatment and permit these patients to return to their previously unencumbered and reasonably fit lives?”

David Stout, director of the Primary Care Trust Network at the NHS Confederation, said: “It is important to have procedures in place to ensure a high standard of healthcare for all patients, irrespective of their age. However there is no such thing as ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to healthcare. All GPs treat elderly patients on an individual basis and this should remain the case. Guidelines are exactly that and should not be taken as a binding instruction.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/4932032/GPs-are-medicalising-healthy-elderly-people-professor-warns.html

E-prescribing to soar with new spending By Will Dunham, Mon Mar 16, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As many as 75 percent of U.S. doctors will be writing electronic prescriptions within five years, thanks to new federal spending to encourage e-prescribing, according to a forecast released on Monday.

The economic stimulus bill signed by President Barack Obama last month included about $19 billion to promote the use of healthcare information technology, including e-prescribing.

"Broader health IT (information technology) adoption will create a safety revolution in American healthcare," Pharmaceutical Care Management Association President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Merritt said in a telephone interview.

An estimated 13 percent of U.S. doctors prescribe drugs electronically, leaving the vast majority writing paper prescriptions, according to Surescripts, which operates the largest U.S. electronic prescribing network.

The report projected the figure would increase to 75 percent in five years and to about 90 percent by 2018.

The report, prepared by the healthcare research firm Visante for PCMA, projected that e-prescribing would save the U.S. government $22 billion over the next decade, more than covering the $19 billion in spending in the stimulus bill.

Among other things, the savings would come from increased use of cheaper generic drugs and the prevention of medical errors such as patients getting the wrong drug because a pharmacy misreads a doctor's handwriting, the report said.

Greater use of e-prescribing also will prevent 3.5 million medication errors and 585,000 hospitalizations by 2018, the report projected.

Seventy-six percent of U.S. retail pharmacies can handle prescriptions electronically.

The advantages of e-prescribing -- sending a prescription electronically to a pharmacy -- are widely recognized, but the costs of adopting it have dissuaded many doctors.

The drive toward greater use of e-prescribing and electronic medical records is part of Obama's plans for a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system.

In addition, Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, in January began to offer financial bonuses to doctors who use e-prescribing.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Walsh)
Copyright © 2009 Reuters Limited

Doctors are too reliant on prescribing drugs for heart disease at the expense of helping their patients to lead healthier lives, a new study suggests.

by Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent, The Telegraph, UK, 12 Mar 2009

Some patients are receiving too little advice about cutting down on smoking or reducing their weight as doctors increasingly reach for pills to treat them, according to the study, published in the Lancet medical journal.

The report comes just a week after a leading expert warned that millions of elderly patients were being prescribed drugs that they did not need, for conditions ranging from high blood pressure to high cholesterol or diabetes.

Professor Michael Oliver warned that a "tick-box culture" was leading to overtreatment and unnecessary anxiety for many older people.

The latest study looked at the treatment of heart disease across 22 European countries.

It found that one in five people diagnosed with the condition continued to smoke, in spite of the well-known problems that smoking can cause for the heart.

Researchers also found that sufferers were twice as likely to have diabetes as 12 years ago, partly because of the growing problem of obesity.

Only around one in three patients surveyed were referred to programmes designed to prevent heart attacks by focusing on lifestyle changes.

At the same time researchers found that doctors were prescribing greater numbers of drugs.

"The results of the study should be a cause for concern for all health policy makers, physicians and other healthcare professionals," according to its authors, led by Professor David Wood from Imperial College London.

Heart disease is Britain's biggest killer and every six minutes someone dies from a heart attack in this country.

Supplements Support Brain Recovery after Stroke

If you're a regular reader of Natural Health News you'll already be aware that we've written extensively about vitamins and other natural support for brain health, not only here but in our other print and on-line publications.

We don't endorse the low doses referenced in this article but we call your attention to the fact that our recommendations seem to be more prevalent in the news these days.

We suggest 2800 mcg B12 and proper thyroid support  and other select nutrients.  Other providers often use an extensive IV nutrient blend and refer to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.  Certainly I wish this had been offered to my mother, and most likely would have been available to her has she been under the care of a neurologist.

A combination of low dose B-vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids may help improve brain function in people who have suffered a stroke, according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The new study looked at 1,748 people aged 45 to 80 with a history of heart attack, angina, or stroke. They were assigned to one of these groups:

• 56 mcg of folic acid (as 5-methyltetrahydrofolate), 3 mg of vitamin B6, and 2 mcg vitamin B12 per day,

• 600 mg of the omega 3 fatty acids, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), in a ratio of 2:1 per day,

• B vitamins and omega-3s, or

• placebo.

For four years, the participants continued their supplements, and their thinking (cognitive) function was assessed at the end of the study. No significant effects on brain function were found in the different supplement groups, but looking just at people who had had a stroke yielded different results. Post-stroke, people who took a combination of B-vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids were significantly less likely to score low on a test of the ability to accurately name the month, date, year, day of the week, and time of day (temporal orientation task) than those who took placebo.

While this study only found relatively slight evidence, it makes a good starting place for further research. “These results could be useful in interventions aimed at preventing cognitive decline in high-risk individuals,” said lead study author, Valentina Andreeva, of the University of Paris XIII.

An aging problem

As the world’s population continues to get older, problems related to aging also grow, including the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Alzheimer’s currently affects 1 in 8 people aged 65 and older.

Advancing age is the foremost risk factor for developing dementia. Addressing other risk factors—those that you can actually do something about—might be the most effective way to prevent the disease from developing. Modifiable risk factors for dementia include

• high blood pressure (hypertension),

• obesity,

• high levels of homocysteine in the blood, and

• inflammation.

If these risk factors look familiar, it’s because they’re some of the same ones for heart disease. In fact, about 30% of people who experience a stroke will go on to have dementia.

What you can do to help prevent dementia

While there is no cure for dementia, studies point to the power of prevention. See your doctor if you are concerned about your memory, and try these tips to keep your brain healthy for the long haul.

• Maintain a healthy weight. This will help lower blood pressure, too.

• Eat a diet rich in brightly colored fruits and vegetables. These foods contain powerful antioxidants thought to combat the effects of aging. The spice, turmeric, might also help prevent dementia, so be sure to enjoy your curries.

• Get your B vitamins and omega 3s. Eat plenty of leafy green vegetables, bell peppers, shrimp, scallops, and cold water fish to boost the levels of these nutrients in your diet.

• Have an active social life. People who are more involved in their community are less likely to develop dementia.

• Get your daily exercise. Physical activity comes with many benefits, including weight loss, protection from dementia, lower blood pressure, and better mood. No amount is too little. Work your way up over time to at least 30 minutes on most days of the week.

• Keep your brain busy. Learn a new instrument, do crossword puzzles, play a game of hearts; whatever you can do to exercise your mind will help keep those neurons firing.

(Am J Clin Nutr 2011;doi:10.3945/ajcn.110.006320)

SOURCE: Health Notes newswire

Overprescribing the Healthy Elderly

As far as I know my mother was not prescribed statins during the last - highly drugged and controlled - years of her life.  She was over prescribed unnecessary psychiatric drugs.  None of the prescribed drugs were relevant to her closed head injury.  She was never referred to a neurologist in spite of my many requests, and she never received speech therapy for the expressive aphasia that kept her even more imprisoned.  My brother, a salesman for MetLife, ignored my requests for proper care  and later claimed I refused to collaborate on my mother's care.

Bentley Care Center threatened my brother if my mother was taken off the half dozen+ drugs, telling him she would be forced to move.  And most likely Medicare picked up the high priced tab for these drugs, a fraud in itself.

Elders aren't the only people who are over prescribed drugs by people who are not paying attention to the risks and hazards over time.  Health Forensics helps prevent this.

Why Funding Research and Drug Safety is Paramount

By Laura Newman | Jun 30, 2011 

My frail, 92-year-old mother was prescribed 80 mgs of the cholesterol-lowering drug, or statin, simvastatin for years. She fell four times in the last four years of her life: the last fall was the least forgiving. Doctors diagnosed her with rhabdomyolysis, a life-threatening condition, and acute kidney failure; she was dead within 8 weeks.

Source: Laura Newman

The MedlinePlus encyclopedia defines rhabdomyolysis as "the breakdown of muscle fibers and release of their contents (myoglobin) into the bloodstream." In severe case, "the myoglobin breaks down into potentially harmful compounds, blocking the kidneys, causing damage such as acute tubular necrosis or kidney failure. Dead muscle tissue may be caused by any condition that results in damage to skeletal muscle, especially trauma."

The FDA Safety Alert states that symptoms to watch for are: "muscle pain, tenderness or weakness, dark or red-colored urine, and unexplained fatigue" and should be brought to the attention of a health professional. Further, it advises doctors to inform patients taking that dose that they are at risk for rhabdomyolysis.

Rhabdomyolysis is a medical emergency. It is not uncommon after crush injuries, falls, and athletic feats. FDA’s safety warning that 80 mg simvastatin is linked to myopathy, issued on June 8, 2011, struck a chord in me because the 80 mg dose of simvastatin was the same given my mother.

An article in the Nov. 13, 2010 Lancet sounded an alarm that high-dose simvastatin could be hazardous. In a blinded randomized trial of more than 12,000 survivors of acute myocardial infarction, investigators found two (0.03%) cases of myopathy in patients taking 20 mg simvastatin daily, compared with 53 (0.9%) cases in the 80 mg group.

This finding could not be ignored. FDA pressed forward in further analyses. Even as my mother was in crisis, doctors told me that they were astounded that such a high-dose statin was given to a low-risk, frail, elderly women. By low-risk, she had no history of cardiovascular disease and she met the widely used and time-testedFramingham Risk Factor criteria. She did not smoke, had low-level, well-controlled hypertension, but a high cholesterol. I sensed deterioration months before she was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis. Before she developed life-threatening rhabdomyolysis, she walked everywhere.

The Author and her mother in Canadian Rockies celebrating her 90th birthday. Source: Laura Newman

She called me, saying: "All of a sudden I feel exhausted, like my legs won’t support me, and I keep stopping and sitting down. I just don’t think I can do it anymore." Who knew whether it was normal aging? Her doctor did not think much of these changes.

FDA’s Simvastatin 80 mg Warning

FDA’s Drug Safety Communication: New Restrictions, Contraindications, and Dose Limitations for Simvastatin to reduce the risk of muscle injury state:

- Simvastatin 80 mg should not be started in new patients, including patients already taking lower doses of the drugs.

- Patients taking simvastatin 80 mg have an increased risk of myopathy compared to patients taking lower doses of this drug or other drugs in the same class.

- Muscle problems typically occur in the first year of use.

FDA is taking a major step to improve the public’s health. Whether it is far enough is debatable.

The consumer health advocacy group, Public Citizen considers 80 mg simvastatin unsafe and wants it off the market to protect the public. On its Worst Pills, Best Pillswebsite (subscribers only), it presses for a recall of 80 mg dose and urges consumers, no matter how long they have been on it, to ask their doctor for an alternative that is weaker.

According to FDA’s Safety Communication, approximately 2.1 million patients in the US were prescribed a product containing 80 mg simvastatin in 2010.

Prescribing Simvastin in the Elderly

Rodney Hayward, professor of public health and internal medicine at the University of Michigan, told me that sometimes, fatigue and muscle weakness are attributed to aging, when the culprit might be excess dosing. He said: "Unfortunately, people don’t realize that an excessive dose might be causing loss of appetite, muscle problems, and not eating enough. The most common adverse event with the high-dose statins are the myopathies, pain in the muscles." And if the old are not doing well, the sensible thing is to taper down."

Also, of critical importance, "as people age, the risks and benefits of people being on medicine change," said Hayward. "Processing through the kidneys especially is increasingly less effective. You want to be aware of how many medications, and how many doses people are on, and reconcile that with the amount of benefit and risk."

I thought that my mother had an eating disorder. She ate very little; it was all low fat, low cholesterol, and low salt. She ate like that for decades. She was 5’ 1" and weighed about 105 pounds. Her refrigerator was pretty empty.

Rita Redberg, MD, director of women’s cardiovascular services, the University of California San Francisco, points out that many trials of hyperlipidemia have not included enough women to determine gender-specific benefits and harms. Therefore, meta-analyses and systematic reviews become imperative. But particularly glaring is the reality that most studies have never demonstrated a survival benefit for statins at all for low-risk women like my mother, yet some doctors go so far as to put them on high-dose statins.

So one could argue that the benefit-risk ratio shifts towards harm in such women, particularly when they are given high-dose statins. Both Redberg and Hayward said that they know of no studies showing that low-risk people taken off statins are at increased risk for cardiac events. Hayward, Redberg, and many other physicians argue that doctors should be far more cautious in prescribing medications for the elderly.

"High-dose statins should almost never be used in the elderly," said Hayward. "In fact," he added: "I almost always use low doses of statins in people over 75 unless they have known heart disease, since most of the benefit of statins is achieved with low doses and there are good reasons to be concerned about the safety and tolerance of higher doses of statins in the elderly." People over age 75 are under-represented in clinical trials, leaving physicians in the dark as to safety.

Moreover, said Hayward: "With stepped-up dosing, the risk for harm escalates disproportionally. Most of the benefit from the simvastatin is in the initial dose. "

Factors in Overtreatment

Another issue of concern is whether overtreatment with high-dose statins has become widespread because of how heavy marketing, according to Hayward. Marketing of some statins promised achieving very low levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (a.k.a. "bad cholesterol"). It proved a valuable selling point. Setting targets this low may be inappropriate for the elderly, according to numerous pharmacoepidemiologists.

Also adding to the problem of overmedication are pay for performance (P4P) programs, which set specific targets in cholesterol-lowering to payment. Target setting is controversial because they may be too low for many individuals, yet they are widely used for assessing quality of care. One notable exception that may actually help keep the healthy elderly is that in HEDIS performance measures, people over age 75 are excluded from lipid-lowering targets.

Differences in the Elderly, in Women

Arguments pressing for treating the elderly differently have been commonplace for decades because the elderly have been under-represented in clinical trials; hence, guidance on practice are not science based (Zulman, Sussman, Chen, Cigalle et al., 2010; McMurd, Witham, Gillespie, 2005; Scott and Guyatt, ).

We are really in new terrain now, with an aging boom and more pills available for any symptom than could ever have been fathomed America’s shifting demographics in the United States, as evidenced by the most recent US Census Bureau report (Table left). The number of people in the oldest age group, namely age 85 and over, is rising, projected to grow from 5.8 million in 2010, to 8.7 million in 2030, and 19 million by 2050, according to the US Census Bureau. Not only have people age 75 and over been largely excluded from clinical trials, subgroup analyses in the aged have barely begun.

These should be compelling reasons for FDA, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Congress to back drug safety initiatives in the elderly. Many health researchers are also urging further study of potentially inappropriate medications (called PIMs) in elderly patients. Archives of Internal Medicine highlighted the problem in its June 13, 2011 issue, and there is a growing literature on it.

A recent study of elderly ICU survivors found that 85 percent were discharged with 1 or more potentially inappropriate medicines, with more than 50 percent in that group discharged with medications deemed more harmful than beneficial (Morandi et al, 2011). The authors press for more attention to appropriateness reviews, with the rationale for starting each therapy in the ICU, and discussion of when it can be stopped.

Brian Strom, MD, professor of public health and pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania, describes the issues this way: "The problem is Congress and our research agencies. They fund so little work on the pharmacology of the aged and other demographic subgroups, and their risk of drug interactions. And, there is phenomenally small, and shrinking by 60% (down to $5.1 million/year), amount of money being spent supporting the Centers for Education and Research and Therapeutics, who are charged with doing studies that industry would not fund, and with changing prescribing to be more rational."

Caregiver Remorse

The entire experience of trying to find quality care for my mother was made especially difficult because of the dearth of good clinical practice guidelines and science guiding chronic care for the elderly. I think it is way too much to ask family and caregivers to take this on. Now both my parents are dead. I see friends and family struggle under impossible odds, yet physicians who care for the elderly have little science to guide them.

This is where Congress, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the FDA must step up, expand funding, and beef up post-marketing drug surveillance. FDA has a treasure trove of safety data that has been deemed proprietary, some of it preferentially published, that could improve the public’s health. "No one has the right to respect this data except the FDA,"said Hayward. "Most of the trials data is industry-supported and the industry can hide safety data," he said, "but with public pressure, ineffectiveness and harm may be detected."

Without well-funded research and analyses of subgroups of the aged (age 85-100), and postmarketing surveillance, the US is operating in too much darkness and uncertainty for the public’s health. Many generations of Americans will continue to suffer.

The aged take disproportionally more drugs than every group, and as a result are more at risk for drug-drug interactions. It will take a significant commitment from the federal government to marshall science and surveillance of drugs in this population.

References:

Rhabdomyolysis. Accessed on June 27, 2011.

FDA Simvastatin 80 mg drug safety. Accessed on June 27, 2011.

Armitage et al. (2010) Intensive lowering of LDL cholesterol with 80 mg versus 20 mg simvastatin daily in 12,064 survivors of myocardial infarction: a double-blind randomised trial, Lancet: 376(9753):1658-69. Epub 2010 Nov 8.

Morandi et al. Inappropriate Medications in Elderly ICU Survivors: Where to Intervene? Arch Intern Med.2011; 171: 1032-1034.

Risk Assessment Tool for Estimating Your 10-year Risk of Having a Heart Attack Ten-Year Cardiovascular Disease Risk Calculator. Third report from the Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol. Downloaded on June 27, 2011.

Walsh JME, Pignone M. Drug treatment of hyperlipidemia in women. JAMA 2004; 291(18):2243-2252. Abstract

Scott IA, Guyatt GH. Cautionary tales in the interpretation of clinical studies involving older persons.Arch Intern Med. 2010 Jun 14;170(11):927.

Jerry H. Gurwitz; Robert J. Goldberg. Age-Based Exclusions From Cardiovascular Clinical Trials: Implications for Elderly Individuals (and for All of Us): Comment on "The Persistent Exclusion of Older Patients From Ongoing Clinical Trials Regarding Heart Failure" Arch Intern Med, Mar 2011; 171: 557 - 558. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.33

Cho S, Lau SWJ, ; Tandon,V; Kumi K, Pfuma A, Abernethy DR Geriatric Drug Evaluation. Where Are We Now and Where Should We Be in the Future? Arch Intern Med. 2011;171(10):937-940. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.152

Vincent, Grayson K. and Victoria A. Velkoff, 2010, THE NEXT FOUR DECADES, The Older Population in the United States: 2010 to 2050, Current Population Reports, P25-1138, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC.

Hamilton H, Gallagher P, Ryan C, Byrne S, O'Mahony D. Potentially Inappropriate Medications Defined by STOPP Criteria and the Risk of Adverse Drug Events in Older Hospitalized Patients. Arch Intern Med. 2011 Jun 13;171(11):1013-9

Schnipper J. Medication Safety: Are We There Yet?: Comment on "Potentially Inappropriate Medications Defined by STOPP Criteria and the Risk of Adverse Drug Events in Older Hospitalized Patients". Arch Int Med 2011 Jun 13;171(11):1019 

About the Author: Laura Newman writes about medicine, health policy, and clinical outcomes research. She has a long-term interest in healthcare reform and what matters to patients. She has written news in health and medicine in peer-review journals, on the web, and for newsletters. Laura blogs at Patient POV, is active on twitter at  @lauranewmanny, and she is especially interested in integrating patients into health reform efforts. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.  SOURCE

Selections from Natural Health News 

Too many Drugs, Too High Doses: Too Much for Elders

Dec 23, 2009

Old heart patients 'over-drugged' Elderly patients are being treated too aggressively for high blood pressure, researchers claim. They say the "oldest olds", meaning patients aged 80 plus, are being given too many drugs and in too large ...

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/

Natural Health News: The Case of a Sequestered Mind

Dec 18, 2010

The drug interaction profile will tell you that many of these are NOT supposed to be given together, and the research tells you that Zyprexa is not for Elders, especially women. My younger brother, a MetLife salesman, ...

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/

Natural Health News: Is CODEX for Killing the Elderly?

Jul 13, 2005

Remember that AARP supported the Bush drug plan for Elders. This plan is about the biggest corporate welfare plan to come along in years; it surely doesn't do much for health. I'm not sure why Bill Sardi no longer is the ...

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/

Natural Health News: Bone Health and AntiAcid Drugs

May 26, 2010

Please note that these drugs are not good for babies and young children which is a common practice today. Elders may have more problems with the drugs because of delayed metabolism times. In the May 10 Archives of ...

Natural Health News: Adverse Drug Events in Seniors

Jun 14, 2011

A new set of criteria for identifying potentially hazardous medications in elderly patients accurately predicted serious adverse drug events, a prospective study found. from Natural Health News ...

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/

Natural Health News: Drugs Slow Elders' Recovery

Mar 30, 2010

Sedating Drugs May Slow Elders' Recovery By Ed Susman, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today, January 15, 2010. Elderly patients sedated with morphine or haloperidol (Haldol) were less likely to to be discharged to their ...

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/

Natural Health News: Call to end exclusion of elderly from drug trials

Feb 02, 2010

Zyprexa is questionable for the elderly, especially for use in elderly women, and it can precipitate diabetes. The case in point is that regardless of the number of drugs prescribed, and failure of the center to evaluate...

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/

Anti-convulsant Drugs Increase Suicide Risk in Elders

May 10, 2010

This article points out problems with anticonvulsant drugs. It is important to be because the gabapentin mentioned in the article showed suicide was increased with gabapentin and the increased risk was greater in Elders. ...