Weekly Wellness

Antidepressants: Many drugs exist which are prescribed to treat depression. Atypicals, SSRIs, XR, ER, and MAO inhibitors. There is even electroconvulsive therapy for those resistant to medications. Why we need any new ones is a mystery to me. Many of the drugs lead to increased appetite and or decreased metabolism and thus weight gain and in some cases diabetes. Many also have been found to be equally as effective as exercise or placebo. Or in other words, exercise has been found in clinical studies to reduce rates of depression with the same efficacy of pills. Sometimes the pills make one unhealthy physically which in my opinion, contributes to depression. So when the FDA did not approve company’s FKP and GSKs new drug application for gepirone ER I didn’t shed any tears.

Supplement Xcess: Ok, why would you buy a supplement to improve bone or joint health that also boosts energy? I can see why you might add energy boosters to your long acting Cialis or erectile dysfunction drug of choice, but your joint pill?

TFA: Months ago we reviewed the need to be cautious when buying these “new snacks” which may be trans fat free but still high in fat or calories. Funny the Wall Street Journal just this week warns of over consumption of these not necessarily low calorie foods. The writer also reiterates, zero does not always mean zero. See the side panel to your right and always read your labels for the actual ingredients. Well you might not ALWAYS have to scrutinize your labels but you might consider it now and again.

Oregon Rocks: Taxing a product that has no business being sold, in order to pay for preventative and sick care for children, who pray God, never get an option to buy said product is pretty ingenious in my book. People argue about cigarette taxes in that they seem to imply we need the smokers to keep smoking in order to keep that revenue stream. Others say, well, if those 20 to 25 % of the US population stop smoking and one in five people stop dying slow painful deaths from the consequences of smoking……. Well, we might just have more money for health care without having to make a special tax. I’m with that group! Might I just add here that the surgeon general of the USA has stated that there are 250 chemicals in second hand cigarette smoke that are considered toxic or cancer causing. One of them is lead. Now if cigarettes were toys from China, well, they would be recalled wouldn’t they?

Golden Wheat: NOT> Enriched wheat buns made the menu at a local Chik filet (I think). An alert ready told me this story. She ordered the sandwich with the “golden” wheat bun but later learned that it was enriched wheat, not whole wheat. (Hey Ellen, you were right about those little toastie breads thought they ARE whole wheat J) . Anyhoo, my friend was upset and rightly so. For many people that bun is going to be one of their main sources of whole grains for the day. Myself, I usually just use bread to hold my protein and get my whole grains elsewhere so I choose which ever bread has the lowest calories, like merita lite wheat. I have whole grain fiber in abundance and I do not have diabetes. If however, you are diabetic and must limit your high glycemic and processed, refined grains an enriched flour product is not an acceptable substitute for whole grain whether they call it golden wheat or not.

Weights and Health: Oh my, give people a little leeway and they are off to the races. This refers to hearing the HEADLINE that overweight doesn’t increase death rates over normal weight. There is a lot more to that research than the headline would imply. But right away, the airways were rife with stories about how model thin is a scourge and being overweight was better than being rail thin……. Hello? Does the general public realize that the number of model thin and likely unhealthy because of it people, is a MINISCULE percent of the population where as, the overweight obese category has become a public health crisis? This research does not in any way debunk the science behind exercise and caloric moderation. What it says is, overweight people, 25 lbs was the research number, do not die at greater rates. What they do have at greater rates is chronic illness and disability. Being overweight leads to diabetes, hypertension, arthritis and cancer as does sedentary behavior. So let’s just not fool ourselves into thinking that models are to blame for the admonishment to maintain a health promoting weight. It is just as dubious a response as saying I am not going to lift weights twice a week because I don’t want to bulk up…… give me a break.

Drug Trials: An article I read this week about a drug trial gave me something to consider. It regarded the recent news about Pfizer’s drug that was in a stage 2 trials I believe, 2 or 3, where the target population was taking the drug in a controlled fashion compared to two other similar groups taking nothing or a different drug. Anyways, the new drug is meant to not only lower LDL but to increase HDL. It is an interesting new drug compound actually that other companies are also working to make into a super cholesterol drug. There is a protein in the body that takes the HDL we have and turns it into LDL and if they can turn that mechanism off, the HDL might go higher. Otherwise, you might have to ……………………EXERCISE>>>>>>>>>> scare me. So the drug was really having a significant effect, on both LDL and HDL, the way we’d like, but some people died or had another adverse event. The independent board that oversees that study halted it. Now Pfizer is thinking that the drug is good, but it’s the dose of the drug that needs to change. (wait, didn’t’ they say that about Vioxx at first?!) So if they lower the dose and then sell the drug, will they say it was 40% effective in clinical trials over placebo, but not tell us that they mean the OTHER dose. That is my contemplation.

Wishing you wellness and a life with the least amount of pharmacotherapy possible!