LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Drug Research

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PARACETAMOL USE IN INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD – (05-25-09)

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Association between paracetamol use in infancy and childhood, and risk of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis, and eczema in children aged 6-7 years

In today’s society, we have become so conditioned to accept chemical use as safe and only beneficial. The commercials would have us believe that only caring and loving parents with the utmost of concern for their child’s health would use these compounds. And yet we have seen studies of paracetamol (Tylenol) use in pregnancy, adults and children contribute greatly to the asthma burden in society. So were is the outrage and the public outcry over the fact that these compounds are making our children sick?

Read entire article here

CUTTING MORTALITY AND HOSPITALIZATIONS IN HEART FAILURE – (05-18-09)

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Omega-3 Fatty Acids, but Not Statin Therapy, Cuts Mortality and Hospitalizations in Heart Failure.

I think the title really states it all. Looking into the data, while not jaw dropping at preventing deaths, the data completely blows away the data on statins. Understand this…this study was done on DEATH, not heart attacks. Statins have not been shown to strongly affect death rates. To prevent even a single heart attack (NOT death) we have to treat in excess of 150 patients for 3 years.

In this study, treating 44 patients was needed for 3.9 years to prevent one DEATH. Then we consider that EFAs are beneficial for a large array of other conditions, are much safer and much cheaper. Again, I reiterate that I do not believe that the statin class of drugs should even exist, let alone generate over $20 billion / year in sales for one single drug company alone.

Read entire article here (note: link to this article may require access).

COMPARISON OF LYCOPENE AND FLUVASTATIN EFFECTS ON ATHEROSCLEROSIS – (05-18-09)

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Comparison of lycopene and fluvastatin effects on atherosclerosis induced by a high-fat diet in rabbits.

One of these days, I’ll get my deepest wish and this class of drugs will die the death it deserves. For starters, the statin class of drugs is really ineffective at lowering primary cases of heart attacks. The research is incredibly weak, so much so that fatty acids, exercise and now lycopene trump the end point of cardiovascular disease and death. Of course, lifestyle changes are also going to have positive effects that extend far beyond CVD to pretty much every chronic disease.

Read entire article here

THE ADVANTAGE SEEDING TRIAL – (5-11-09)

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The ADVANTAGE Seeding Trial: A Review of Internal Documents

A seeding trial is a trial done under the guise of research, but is actually created and administered by the marketing department. This particular study was run and published purely to get doctors used to writing prescriptions for Vioxx when it was first released.

Really. I’ve said it before that if the public truly knew how they were manipulated by drug companies with drugs with marginal effectiveness and frequent side effects for conditions THEY DON’T EVEN FIX–Chiros would be on the top of the health care pile. This also makes you wonder, if the physicians in these studies are so easily manipulated, are they truly acting as “physicians” or more like technicians being trained to give drug A for condition A?

Read entire article here

BENEFIT OF ADHERENCE DEPENDS ON AGE AND FRACTURE TYPE – (5-11-09)

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Benefit of Adherence With Bisphosphonates Depends on Age and Fracture Type

I’ve always felt that anti-resorptive therapy is the complete wrong way to approach improving bone health. A few things with this study. First, take 10 minutes or so to read through the rather extensive list of conflict of interests!! Next, look at how low the adherence is. Lastly, even with high adherence to medication use, the number of patients that need to be treated to prevent 1 hip fracture is 107.

This number would need to be much, much higher at lower rates of adherence found across the board in the people taking this drug. This is a very high number, suggesting that this class of drugs should not even be used, which is of course contrary to the huge number of scripts written for this class. I’ve always said that if the general public truly understood how useless and dangerous many of these drugs were there would be a paltry market for them.

Read entire article here

INCREASE IN DOMESTIC FATAL MEDICATION ERRORS – (5-11-09)

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A Steep Increase in Domestic Fatal Medication Errors With Use of Alcohol and/or Street Drugs

Talk about the war on drugs!! Look at the staggering percentage increases. These are DEATHS, not adverse reactions. DEATHS. We have created a culture where prescription drugs are used for everything and we have not properly educated the public on just how dangerous these drugs are. In a time when the government is looking to how to pay for everyone’s, medications, we need to stand up and point to the elephant in the room.

Read entire article here

HOW TO PREVENT DEATHS FROM CVD?

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Cardiovascular Risk Estimation and Eligibility for Statins in Primary Prevention Comparing Different Strategies

It’s always funny when we put things into perspective.  Statins are given out seemingly like candy and viewed as the best thing for prevention of CVD in this country.  Here is yet another study putting things into perspective.

For those at the very highest risk of CVD, assuming perfect compliance with medication dosage (which is NOT common), we have to treat 285 people to prevent a single death from CVD.  Keep in mind that numbers for most drugs are preferred to be on the range of UNDER 10 to 1….This really shows just how incredibly ineffective this class of drugs is at preventing CVD.

Compare this to exercise, healthy diet, stress reduction, fish oil supplementation or Vit D (let alone all combined!).  A NNT of 285 compared to these is laughable.  THEN, factor in the cost difference and we stop laughing and begin to cry…

Read entire article here

JUST HOW MUCH CAN WE BELIEVE IN THE MEDICAL RESEARCH??

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JUST HOW MUCH CAN WE BELIEVE IN THE MEDICAL RESEARCH??  There has been much concern over the past few years about how much influence the drugs companies have over the publication and dissemination of medical research.  The ways they do this are many.  Some as egregious as cancelling trials that weren’t going as planned, actually making up studies that get published, getting well known researchers to sign on to studies they did not participate in… The list is quite long.

In this particular study, the authors looked at how many studies reported positve outcomes in the title or abstract, but, in the actual study the findings were insignificant (i.e. the drug didn’t make a difference on outcomes).  In one single month, out of 72 studies reviewed, almost 60% had some type of “spin” designed to detract from the actual findings.

The bottom line is that, there is a very, very real possibilty that our entire drug-based “health” care system is built on a house of cards based only on shakey medical research.  More importantly, what is YOUR doctor reading to stay current???