isyulli: medication

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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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Rabu, 16 Februari 2011

Global Warming Has Benefits

There are some good points about global warming. If you live off leaf vegetables you won't go hungry. Weeds and vegetables such as cabbage and lettuce grow much better with more carbon in the environment. Grass will also be thicker and grow faster, so cattle will fatten-up quicker.

The problem is herbicides will no longer be effective in controlling weeds. With the price of fuel going up this means they will have to be removed by hand in the future - a very arduous and expensive process.

It is conceivable that more herbicide will be used. This will pollute the environment. Diclofenac a chemical to reduce inflammation in humans and animals was widely used in India for cattle. The native vulture was nearly wiped out by consuming dead cattle carcases. More chemicals use is quite frightening. Similar disasters will probably occur.

~~~~~Science~~~~~

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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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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, 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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Kamis, 18 Februari 2010

Pharmacists Are Trying to Get the Right to Prescribe Medications

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia is pushing for chemists to have the right to prescribe medications. There is no way this will happen, however. The pharmaceutical body which represents 75 percent of Australian pharmacists claims chemists know more than doctors about new drugs. Considering doctors purchase all the latest journals and publications on medicine this statement is untrue.

Considering chemists were given the right to provide sick notes for employees to give to their employers and they didn't give the notes when asked, gaining presciption writing privileges would not be acted upon - unless of course there is big money in it.

The Pharmaceutical Society is asking the Government to fund a training program so chemists can advise consumers on asthma, diabetes and tobacco. This would be a waste. When you ask for advice about the simplest of things they seem to give very simplistic answers. Comments they give when they sell items is certainly not academic in nature.

It is ridiculous for chemists to make a decision on extending heart medication to patients, for example. If someone has a heart attack in the street you don't call a chemist. General Practitioners will "fight like crazy" to protect the right to prescribe. In the hands of a pharmacist it would surely be a licence to print money. And what about addictive medications? People will go pharmacy shopping to get these drugs.

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