Healthy Connections » Daniel Bannard

Change in drug classification immediatly makes more people sick

Daniel Bannard — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:55:45 +0000

Many people who were considered to be in perfect health in the early 1990s may now very well be called sick, unhealthy or in need of medical treatment based on the standards of the 2000s.
Why? Very simple! The major pharmaceutical companies cleverly influenced changes to the systems by which diseases were classified to make more people appear to have medical difficulties requiring treatment when no problem previously existed. The motive? Sell more drugs to more people.
Do you want to sell more cholesterol lowering drugs? Here’s how you do it. First, get nationally recognized associations to establish a lower healthy number. Next, get doctors to buy into the lowered standard and start writing their prescriptions accordingly. Finally, heavily market the new number to the public, create worry and send them to the doctor. The big pharmaceutical companies continue working to reclassify the levels for more health concerns and soon it’s gravy train time in the boardrooms.
Researchers at Dartmouth Medical School recently found that this was indeed happening. They estimate that during the 1990s, tens of millions more Americans were reclassified as having hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes or obesity simply because the definitions of those diseases were changed. As a result, tens of millions more Americans were reclassified with a serious health problem.
This research points out that currently, due to the expanded diagnosis parameters, as many as three out of four Americans technically have at least one of these commonly medicated diseases. The truth be told, millions of these people are not really sick at all. Dr. John Kitzhaber of The Foundation for Medical Excellence in Portland, who was also Oregon’s governor from 1995 to 2003 stated, “We have a system that nobody but Big Pharma is happy with.”
Every time the boundary of a disease is expanded, such as the hypertension blood-pressure threshold lowered by 10 points or the guideline for obesity lowered by 5 pounds, the market for drugs expands by millions of consumers and billions of dollars. The result is skyrocketing sales of prescription drugs, soaring health-care costs and escalating patient anxiety. Worst of all, millions of people are now taking drugs that may carry a greater risk than the underlying condition. The treatment, in fact, might make them sick or even kill them.
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch is a Dartmouth medical professor and editor of Effective Clinical Practice, a journal of the American College of Physicians. He, too, voiced his concern that more healthy people are being classified as sick only to increase drug sales. “You can’t tell me that three-quarters of my population is sick before I start. That just doesn’t pass the laugh test. Our business is in a hard place right now. A lot of docs know it’s not right.”

No related posts.

Comprehensive neck pain study finds alternative treatments work best

Daniel Bannard — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:40:10 +0000

A recently concluded 7-year study points persons who suffer from the discomforts of neck pain toward alternative therapies and away from medical intervention when seeking help. Researchers named Acupuncture, neck manipulation and massage as the preferred treatments. Improvements through exercise, neck mobilization and continued education were also among recommended interventions.
This long-term study was undertaken by The Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010 Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders. The organization produced a 236-page review of the current research on neck pain and published its results in the journal Spine.
A multi-national and inter-disciplinary study team included Canadian, American, South American, Australasian and European researchers.

“Neck pain is not a trivial condition for many people,” says Task Force president Dr. Scott Haldeman, clinical professor, Department of Neurology at the University of California, Irvine, and adjunct professor, Department of Epidemiology University of
California Los Angeles. “It can be associated with headaches, arm and upper back pain and depression. Whether it arises from sports injuries, car collisions, workplace issues or stress, it can be incapacitating. Understanding the best way to diagnose and manage this
problem is of high importance for those who are suffering and for those who manage and pay for its care.”
Researchers suggested that people suffering from neck pain should avoid using neck brace devices in an attempt to handle the condition. Also, they failed to find favor with corticosteroid injections and surgery. Treatments with corticosteroid injections and surgery for neck pain relief should only be considered when there is associated extreme pain in the arm or in the case of a fracture or a serious disease. Surgery should be seen only as a last resort for severe and persistent pain.
Which alternative therapy a neck pain sufferer should embark upon was not designated by researchers. They did advise that alternative treatments to manipulate the neck should be considered. Often, relief can be provided through Chiropractic adjustments as well as the intervention offered through Acupuncture and massage.
Researchers cautioned consumer awareness toward anyone that makes a “big claim” to solve neck pain. They also suggested that some relief should be noticed within 2-4 weeks of beginning treatment. If there is little or no relief after this amount of time, another
form of alternative therapy should be considered.

Knowing About Diet Influenses Can Lead To a Healthier Heart

Daniel Bannard — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:26:22 +0000

The health of the heart and the death rate due to heart disease has made an interesting increase over the past 150 years. In the 1800s, death by heart attack was almost unheard of. Now, it has taken the position of the single largest killer of American men and women.

According to statistics provided by the American Heart Association (AHA) in a “2007 Update on Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics,” cardiovascular disease accounted for 36.3% of all deaths in the United States in 2004. The AHA says that some 80 million US adults have cardiovascular disease.

Statistics say that nearly 2,400 people die in the US each day as a result. An interesting evaluation of these statistics over these past 150 years and how the rate of death increases have correlated to changes in food intake and lifestyle was recently presented in a booklet by chiropractor Kurt W. Donsbach, DC. One study pointed out in the materials shows heart failure statistics collected from 1855 to 1985 in the area of Yorkshire, England.

From the years 1855-1900 the death rate from heart failure was only 1 in 22,000 people. From 1900-1925, the figure rose to 5 deaths per 22,000. From 1925-1985, that death figure jumped to 35 per 22,000 people. Understanding some of the changes that occurred during these years and taking a look at lifestyles and food intake today can provide some very enlightening insights into making wellness lifestyle choices.

Two significant changes occurred around 1880:

The introduction of bleached white flour which replaced whole wheat flour in most households who could afford it
Machine-made cigarettes were introduced around this time and were enjoyed by about 80% of the male population.

These two factors likely accounted for the increase in heart failure from 1 to 5 deaths per 22,000.

The next major change occurred after 1925 when American homemakers began replacing lard with oil, and margarine became a substitute for butter. By the 1950s it was standard procedure to use hydrogenated margarine, shortening and liquid oils like corn and canola in place of lard and butter.

Donsbach points out that it was during this period that deaths from heart disease increased most dramatically.

Two additional negative factors affecting the health of our population are the reduction of magnesium and vitamin E in our daily diets, both of which contribute to general heart health.

Magnesium reduction occurs in two ways: One is through the use of bleached white flour and the other is drinking soft water. Hard water generally contains a higher concentration of minerals in general but notably a greater quantity of magnesium. Finally, wheat bread is a reasonably good source of vitamin E, yet bleached white flour is basically stripped of this health-producing vitamin.

Certainly exercise and wellness activities can go a long way to producing a healthy body, but knowing this interesting historical perspective can shed some light on good heart health choices. Wise choices include no smoking, the use of wheat flour, a careful look at oils and margarines and making sure that adequate levels of magnesium and vitamin E are included in the diet. For persons with questions about health and diet, a consultation with an alternative medical practitioner such as a chiropractor or an acupuncturist about a comprehensive healthy lifestyle would be an excellent place to begin.

Common Painkillers Raise Heart Risk

Daniel Bannard — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:40:43 +0000

Over-the-counter painkillers including aspirin, ibuprofen and particularly acetaminophen, can raise blood pressure and thus the risk of heart disease among men, according to an article in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The new research, which covered four years among more than 16,000 healthy men, reinforces an earlier 2002 study that found the same commonly used non-narcotic analgesics raised blood pressure in women.
Men who used analgesics 6 to 7 days per week were compared with nonusers. The study also observed similar results when the number of pills per week was analyzed rather than frequency of use in days per week.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, which include ibuprofen and naproxen, created a 38 percent greater risk of hypertension (raised blood pressure) among the participants than among men who did not take analgesics.
Those taking similar amounts of acetaminophen, which is sold generically, and as Tylenol TM, were 34 percent more likely to develop hypertension. Similar dosages of aspirin caused a 26 percent greater incidence of raised blood pressure.
More NSAIDs, even more hypertension Men who took 15 or more NSAID pills a week were 48 percent more likely than nonusers to have high blood pressure. The drugs can affect the ability of blood vessels to expand, and may also cause sodium retention –– two factors that can both raise blood
pressure.
Being overweight reduced the risk from acetaminophen, but raised the risk from NSAIDS, the researchers found.
“This is a potentially preventable cause of high blood pressure,” Dr. John Forman of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who led the study, said in a statement.
Men who are advised by a doctor to take an aspirin a day to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke should not stop taking them without first discussing the risks and benefits with their doctor.
SOURCE: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/167/4/394

Dr. Leavitt: It is never too early to have a chiropractic treatment.