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Jumat, 27 Mei 2011

It May Not Be a Wise to Take Polypills

As if we aren't taking enough medication, "combination" pills are now being made. Normal healthy people don't need to take "just in case" medication. After all anyone could be knocked down by a car and killed. Furthermore, many medications clash with each other producing dangerous chemicals when mixed.

The latest polypill is for heart attacks. It contains statins, aspirin, and two blood pressure drugs. Tests show that the incidence of heart attacks can be reduced by half if the multi-pill is taken regularly due to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. It is also claimed that colon cancer will be less frequent in test subjects, which seems rather odd considering the slim relationship between cholesterol and cancer.

If a person is fit and healthy it would probably be wise to leave things as they are because all medications have side effects, and tests done so far are only looking at short term results. Tests were only for 12 weeks. How can one draw such conclusions for only a three month period? A test for frequency of heart attacks needs to be done for at least ten years.

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Health

Jumat, 15 April 2011

Pharmcists Should Stay Out of Mental Health

Pharmacists should stay out of health treatment and do what they do best - glorified clerks. They have no training in curing disease. Their education is solely based on chemical analysis. They are scientists not physicians. Ask their advice and they tell you what is written on the packet.

Now the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia is saying pharmacists are qualified to treat people with mental illness. They may "give" drugs to such patients but they do not prescribe them. Heaven help us if they get involved will-nilly in advising those with mental disorders. Having someone continually talking in your ear about how to take your prescription medicine it not going to help one recover.

Doctors need direct contact with a patient to give the greatest assistance. Having a pharmacist in the middle is only going to mess things up. A mental patient is already stressed. Saying pharmacists will reduce medication errors is implying that they have qualifications to oversee physicians. Obviously, they do not have such expertise.

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Health

Senin, 28 Februari 2011

Herbalists Should Be Tightly Regulated

Everything in society is controlled to make it safe, right? Wrong! Herbal medicine can be consumed freely without restriction even if it kills you. Try to buy opiates which can be taken for a lifetime without harm and all sorts of restrictions apply. Drug addicts die of illnesses such as aids and hepatitis.

Recent tests were done on an Australian who took Ayervedic medicines. His body had eight times the maximum safe level of lead in it. The mistake he made on a visit to India has ruined his life. Ayervedid herbs are normally contaminated with heavy metals. Whether this part of their "healing" function is not known. Imagine taking lead, arsenic and mercury, daily.

In Australia, Indian and Chinese herbs are monitored for dangerous levels of heavy metals. That's where it ends: the efficacy of the "medication" is not tested. You can buy such herbs on the Internet from countries where product quality is not regulated.

It is surely time for the herbal medicine market in Australia to be tightly regulated. Herbs should be vetted by a qualified physician before the herbalist dispenses them. Only then will sham treatments be stamped out.

~~~~~Health~~~~~

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Jumat, 04 Februari 2011

Patients Do Not Take Medications Correctly

With probably one of the best prescription medicine schemes in the world which is heavily subsidized it is surprising that many people do not take their medications when they should. A third of patients just forget to take them.

An odd finding is that 67 per cent do not usually miss a dose but 71 per cent take less than the prescribed amount.

New schemes where pharmacists give advice will probably not help because listening now does not affect behavior later. Hospital admissions due to taking more and less than the prescribed medication amount will continue. With the pressures of daily life people seem to have more important concerns than their health.

~~~~~Health~~~~~

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Sabtu, 15 Januari 2011

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Gives Money so Flood Affected Pharmacists Can Get Back into Business Quickly

Talk about looking after your own - the better off looking after each other. The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia is setting up a register of pharmacists affected by the floods. Pharmacists in unaffected states are offering to give financial help.

This is disgraceful! What about patients who cannot get necessary supplies, now? This is a case of a privileged group looking after themselves. It should be condemned. It is okay for them to give money to each other. The ordinary person gives a general donation and it is given to recipients based on need.

At a time like this some people think only of money. Getting food, warm clothing and needed medications should be the main priority. The PSA should be giving millions of dollars to welfare organisations for this purpose, not thinking of setting up shop as soon as possible to make money.

The truth is pharmacists don't compete with each other. It is like a "buddy" club.

~~~~~Health~~~~~

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Minggu, 26 Desember 2010

New Medical Treatments Take Forever to Perfect

Major medical advances are a long time coming. Development of a reliable blood sugar level monitoring method for type 1 diabetes is a case in point. It has been claimed as a revolutionary achievement. It consists of a monitor connected to an insulin pump. With all the money being poured into research this should have been done years ago.

Heart surgery hasn't moved much further forward than the first transplant in South Africa decades ago. Stents are still the primary treatment. The number of heart transplant recipients remains very small indeed. Artificial hearts are still not safe enough for general use.

Cancer shrinking techniques have been identified but they have not been perfected. DNA treatment is a long way down the track. Much hope had been raise over stem cell research. This has slowed right down.

Surgical "tricks' have been done in one-off procedures. Getting them into general hospital systems is not happening though. Drug companies are pushing very expensive medications, far too costly for most economies who have to target the general public, i.e., the poor.

Old medications like paracetamol have been lauded for prevention of heart attack due to its inhibition of an enzyme causing attacks. People still get heart attacks and die before they get any decent treatment. Improving the efficiency of health system would save more lives than new medical treatments.

~~~~~Health~~~~~

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Senin, 08 November 2010

Pharmacists Want the Same Rights as Nurses and Midwives

I have been down this path before, but I shall visit it again because of changing circumstances - or should I say because some people perceive that things have changed. Nurses, particularly those in the outback where there is no general practitioner have been given prescribing rights by the Federal Government.

This is a great move forward. Doctors cannot be drawn to the bush no matter haw much they are paid. These nurses save lives. Indeed, they even do serious operations as they are the only ones who can help in an emergency. They should be paid just as much as doctors. They are providing medical services almost equivalent to General Practitioners living in rural communities and helping in any way they can.

What is irksome is that some other "professionals" are getting on the band wagon and demanding rights they surely do not deserve. Pharmacists are condemning midwives and want to take away their authority to prescribe in order to gain the right for pharmacists to prescribe "willy nilly" as defacto doctors. Pharmacists are no more than glorified clerks. Anyone can distribute medications particularly as 99 per cent of drugs are prepackaged in factories. What advice do you get from a chemist - nothing more nor less than what is written on the packet. They often do take liberties and give patients "near enough" medications when they run out of a particular line so as not to lose profit. They do have a vested interest in convincing patients to pay for more expensive medications.

As I have said before, pharmacists learn chemistry in great depth. They do not need such intensive training in one discipline to provide medicines. When has a pharmacist been sued for giving the wrong medicine? They are not held to account and mistakes do occur, but doctors are held responsible. It is like expecting jet pilots to have physics degrees. Pharmacists are over-qualified and this should not be rewarded. If they are to deal with people directly in the prescribing process they should have relevant communication courses in their training program.

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Senin, 06 September 2010

Calls for Change in Pain Relief May Not Be Possible

When you go into hospital for an operation you either get a "feel good" pain clinician who believes that no one should be in pain when medications are available, or you get an "ethical" physician who gives pain relief when he/she deems it to be "right". The problem is moral judgement differs from person to person.

Another issue is - Can pain be a disease in itself? Some calculate the failure to treat pain in working days lost. The problem is, taking analgesics will reduce some pain from the flu, for example, but you are still too sick to work. Furthermore, taking high levels of analgesics can make for a euphoric state where one does not want to work. Looking at it in terms of days lost is questionable.

Specialists are also calling for pain relieving medications to be shipped in large amounts to poorer countries where medical treatment is not widely available. Considering the drug problem in virtually all countries this may not be a good thing to do. In Africa UN staff have to give some provisions to rebels in order to operate in particular regions. Would these controlling parties want analgesics? Common sense would indicate that they would.

Physicians who specialise in pain relief may be drawn to the profession because they have strong ethics in this area, but they need to look at the big picture. Some illnesses are just so bad that even strong doses of pain relievers have little effect. To fully remove the pain a high dose causing death would be needed. Long term use of such medications leads to resistance. I other words, pain is no longer reduced, and certainly for drug addicts there are no more highs. Distribution of analgesics need to be dealt with on a national basis. Change in this areas may seem necessary - it may not be possible.

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