HealthBeat News

Category: Drugs and Alternatives

FDA Bans Natural Human Hormone!

Women’s International Pharmacy is a compounding pharmacy that Dr. Myatt trusts to make up custom compounded formulations for her patients.

The folks at Women’s International recently contacted us with the following information and “Call To Action” – we feel that this is very important information for everyone who uses natural products, not just for people using Bio-Identical hormones (both men and women!)

CALL TO ACTION

THE FDA AND WYETH WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES (BHRT)!

Contact Your U.S. Senators and Congressperson Today!

TO SUBMIT AN EMAIL FORM TO YOUR U.S. CONGRESSIONAL OFFICIALS, CLICK HERE: SUBMIT MY COMMENTS

WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

Wyeth, the maker of Premarin® and Prempro®, wants the FDA to prevent the compounding of bio-identical hormones prescribed for you by your doctor. If Wyeth had its way, it would take away your freedom of choice in medication. With that said, the FDA recently took action to impose harmful restrictions on the compounding and dispensing of bio-identical hormone replacement therapies (BHRT), which includes bio-identical hormone prescriptions that contain estriol. Click here for more details: Home Coalition article.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

U.S. Representatives Mike Ross (Arkansas) and Jo Ann Emerson (Missouri) presented a Sense of the Congress Resolution (H.Con.Res.342), challenging the FDAs new policy. The resolution is being co-sponsored by U.S. Representatives Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), Michael Burgess (Texas), John Carter (Texas), Sam Farr (California) and Gabrielle Giffords (Arizona); deeming FDAs policy as inappropriate and is requesting reversal of this policy.

WHAT CAN YOU DO RIGHT NOW?

Submit your comments to protect your choices in healthcare by writing to your U.S. Senators and Congressperson now! Time is of the essence! Congress could act very soon! It is extremely important that you submit your comments to your U.S. Senators and Congressperson today! Please note that your comments are most effective by submitting an email form, sharing your personal experiences with BHRT (estriol) and/or other compounded medications stating the positive impact it has had on your quality of life.

Please be sure to visit The Wellness Club website for a very thorough discussion of menopause and sex hormones as well as information on hormone testing.

June 3, 2008
A Reader Disagrees With Our Green Tea Article!

We get many responses to our HealthBeats – some, as we have seen, are angry or even irrational. Others are much more pleasant and even professional in their notes to us – detailing why they disagree with our articles.
We are always happy to debate the scientific basis for our writings – for not only do we consider alternative medical research, we also use conventional medicine’s peer-reviewed research, published in major medical journals when we write our articles. Our readers know that Dr. Myatt is meticulous in her research!

George sent us the following:

F. Y. I. in reference to your HEALTHBEAT news article on GREEN TEA.

URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-green_tea.html

[The reference listed goes on at some considerable length to describe green tea, and every benefit that has ever, at any time, been ascribed to it. The reference, presented by Medlineplus, a conventional (allopathic) oriented website very supportive of the drug companies, goes to great lengths to minimize any possible benefits of this non-patentable remedy and to highlight any and all possible, even theoretical problems or interactions that might occur with the use of green tea and patent drugs – for example, warning that “Green tea may contain vitamin K, which when used in large quantities can reduce the blood thinning effects of warfarin (Coumadin®), a phenomenon that has been reported in a human case.” and even more ominously warning “Based on preliminary data, ingestion of green tea may lower LDL cholesterol and thus may theoretically interact with other cholesterol-lowering drugs.” – a warning that is considered so important that it is repeated twice within the article. (What, like someone might have to reduce their intake of statin drugs? Unthinkable!)]

Dr. Myatt wrote George back to say:

Hi There:

Medscape is conventional medicine. (Read that: “biased against anything that isn’t patentable”). You’ll note that almost every herb and supplement they review gets “c’s” or less (unless a BigDrug Company is trying to patent said supplement).

You’ll also note that our green tea page is fully referenced; the claims we make have been scientifically studied.

And don’t you fret, we use a wide variety of conventional sources, including Medscape, Medline and other conventional websites for our research on articles and webpages!

In Health,
Dr. Myatt

Then George wrote back to say:

Hi there:
Thanks for your response and mind you, I do not fret, I am an advocate of supplements, teas, herbs and of yourself and your website however, I do not believe “Green Tea” does absolutely any of the miraculous claims and in fact is probably another “Noni”…..sweet colored water.
Always a pleasure
George

And Dr. Myatt responded to George:

Hi George:

Since you already have your mind made up on the issue, I won’t try to confuse you with facts! However, if you review the literature, you’d find that green tea and Noni are definitely NOT in the same “we’ve got one study reported 307 times” category! Noni is bogus, green tea is legit.

The polyphenols in green tea are believed to be responsible for most of green teas roles in promoting good health.(1)

Green tea has been shown to lower total cholesterol levels and improve the cholesterol profile (decreasing LDL cholesterol and increasing HDL good cholesterol). (2,3,4,5).

Green tea has also been shown to protect against LDL cholesterol damage caused by oxygen.(6) Consumption of green tea also increases antioxidant activity in the blood.(7)

Anticancer effect of polyphenols from green tea have been demonstrated in several animal and in vitro studies.(8,9,10) In one study, a polyphenol called catechin from green tea effectively inhibited metastasis of melanoma (skin cancer) cells. (11) The polyphenols in green tea have also been associated with reduced risk of several types of cancer in humans.(12,13,14) In fact, there are four case reports in which certain types of leukemia or lymphoma (low grade B-cell malignancies) improved after the patients began taking green tea extracts.(15)

The polyphenols in green tea have been shown to stimulate the production of several immune system cells, and have topical antibacterial propertieseven against the bacteria that cause dental plaque.(16,17,18) [Note: an article published this week discusses the correlation between dental plaque and later development of cancer. I’ll report more on this seperately].

This list could go on a lot longer, but I’m probably nuts to bother with it. Once someone has their mind made up about something, my experience tells me I could tie them to a tree and parade scientific studies, real-person testimonials and even live demonstrations before them and I’d be unlikely to change their mind.

Suffice to say that you will NOT find a long list of studies proving anything about the over-hyped “Tahitian Noni” like you will for the 4,000-plus years of use and several decades of study on green tea!

In Health,
Dr. Myatt

References

1. Graham HN. Green tea composition, consumption, and polyphenol chemistry. Prev Med 1992;21:33450.

2. Kono S, Shinchi K, Ikeda N, et al. Green tea consumption and serum lipid profiles: A cross-sectional study in Northern Kyushu, Japan. Prev Med 1992;21:52631.

3. Yamaguchi Y, Hayashi M, Yamazoe H, et al. Preventive effects of green tea extract on lipid abnormalities in serum, liver and aorta of mice fed an atherogenic diet. Nip Yak Zas 1991;97:32937.

4. Sagesaka-Mitane Y, Milwa M, Okada S. Platelet aggregation inhibitors in hot water extract of green tea. Chem Pharm Bull 1990;38:7903.

5. Stensvold I, Tverdal A, Solvoll K, et al. Tea consumption. Relationship to cholesterol, blood pressure, and coronary and total mortality. Prev Med 1992;21:54653.

6. Serafini M, Ghiselli A, Ferro-Luzzi A. In vivo antioxidant effect of green tea in man. Eur J Clin Nutr 1996;50:2832.

7. Benzie IF, Szeto YT, Strain JJ, Tomlinson B. Consumption of green tea causes rapid increase in plasma antioxidant power in humans. Nutr Cancer 1999;34:837.

8. Suganuma M, Okabe S, Sueoka N, et al. Green tea and cancer chemoprevention. Mutat Res 1999;428:33944.

9. Weisberger JH, Rivenson A, Garr K, et al. Tea, or tea and milk, inhibit mammary gland and colon carcinogenesis in rats. Cancer Lett 1997;114:3237.

10. Yang CS, Lee MJ, Chen L, Yang GY. Polyphenols as inhibitors of carcinogenesis. Environ Health Perspect 1997;105(Suppl 4):9716 [review].

11. Menon LG, Kuttan R, Kuttan G. Anti-metastatic activity of curcumin and catechin. Cancer Lett 1999;141:15965.

12. Mukhtar H, Ahmad N. Green tea in chemoprevention of cancer. Toxicol Sci 1999;52(2 Suppl):1117.

13. Katiyar SK, Mukhtar H. Tea consumption and cancer. World Rev Nutr Diet 1996;79:15484 [review].

14. Kohlmeier L, Weterings KG, Steck S, Kok FJ. Tea and cancer prevention: an evaluation of the epidemiologic literature. Nutr Cancer 1997;27:113 [review].

15. Shanafelt TD, Lee YK, Call TG, et al. Clinical effects of oral green tea extracts in four patients with low grade B-cell malignancies. Leuk Res 2006;30:70712.

16. You SQ. Study on feasibility of Chinese green tea polyphenols (CTP) for preventing dental caries. Chin J Stom 1993;28:1979.

17. Hamilton-Miller JM. Antimicrobial properties of tea (Camellia sinensis L.). Antimicro Agents Chemother 1995;39:23757.

18. Imai K, Nakachi K. Cross sectional study of effects of drinking green tea on cardiovascular and liver diseases. BMJ 1995;310:6936.

Please be sure to review our webpage on green tea!

May 31, 2008
Allergic To “Acid Blockers”? What To Do – Try Yet Another Drug?

Digestive health and drug questions are two ever-popular topics in letters to Dr. Myatt and nurse Mark. Here is an example of both questions in one letter:

“K” writes to ask:

Have you ever heard of this? When I take Prevacid, Nexium, Zantac, I beging to burn in the vaginal area within an hour, also ears burn and tongue. Would you call this an allergic reaction? I am going to start carafate and hope it does not do the same thing. I was diagnosed with erosive gastritis.

And Dr. Myatt replies:

Hi K

NO ONE suffers from a Prevacid or Nexium “deficiency.” Regardless of the cause of your “reaction,” you should be “fixing” your GI problems instead of switching to an “alternative band-aid.”

If you haven’t read this, get on board fast – read: http://www.healthbeatnews.com/GastricAcid.htm

In Health,
Dr. Myatt

Nurse Mark comments:

Hmmm… yep, I might call that an “allergic reaction”, or I might use the more “politically correct” terminology of the FDA and Big Pharma and say it was “an adverse event”…

K, if you ever want to give yourself a good scare, read through the sheet called “Prescribing Information” that is supposed to accompany these, or any drug – that is the sheet of tiny print that tells you and your doctor more than you ever wanted to know about the drug. Most people throw these sheets away, but I find them to be entertaining reading…

Healthy, strong gastric acid is so essential to proper digestion and assimilation of nutrients that I cannot understand why any self-respecting doctor would prescribe a drug that is designed to shut down the body’s production of stomach acid! Except maybe for the fact that these “stomach acid blockers” are among the most profitable drugs of our time… Oh, yeah, how could I forget that important fact?!?

May 13, 2008
Wow! A “Safe” New Drug For Restless Legs!

FDA Proudly Announces Approval For Generic Drug To Treat “Restless Legs”

The mighty FDA (and let us all genuflect briefly at the mention of this omnipotent diety) has given us yet another way to kill ourselves through chemistry while increasing the profits of Big Pharma.

In a recent press release our “Federal Protector of Pharmaceutical Profits” has proudly announced:

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first generic versions of Requip (ropinirole hydrochloride) tablets for the treatment of moderate to severe Restless Legs Syndrome. … “This generic drug approval is an example of the FDA’s efforts to increase access to safe and effective generic drugs as soon as the law permits,” said Gary J. Buehler, director of the FDA’s Office of Generic Drugs.”

It looks like the FDA is throwing a bone to some of the slightly less giant pharmaceutical companies:

“The following companies have received approval to market ropinirole hydrochloride tablets: Roxane Laboratories Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Par Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc.”

But the FDA is still zealously guarding the patented profits of the Big Boys – for now…

“The labeling of the generic versions of ropinirole hydrochloride may differ from that of Requip because some uses of the drug are protected by patents. In addition to treating Restless Legs Syndrome, Requip is also FDA-approved to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The generic products are not approved for treatment of Parkinson’s disease because this indication is protected by patent. Manufacturers of the generic drugs may seek approval for that use once the patent for the Parkinson’s disease indication expires later this month.“

Now here’s the kicker – despite their trumpeting about their “efforts to increase access to safe and effective generic drugs”, they list the following (apparently minor) side effect: it makes people fall asleep, sometimes suddenly!

So says the FDA:

“The generic ropinirole hydrochloride tablets will have the same safety warnings as Requip, cautioning about patient reports of falling asleep while engaged in activities of daily living, including while driving. Although many of these patients reported sleepiness while on the drug, some patients perceived that they had no warning signs and believed that they were alert immediately prior to falling asleep. Some of these events have been reported as late as one year after the start of treatment.”

Oops! That must be embarassing!

What the FDA conveniently neglects to mention is that there are a whole slew of other, equally serious (though perhaps not as immediately serious as falling asleep while driving your car) side effects – little annoyances like (taken from the GlaxoSmithKline website) “The most commonly reported side effects in people taking Requip for RLS are nausea, drowsiness or sleepiness, vomiting, and dizziness.” and “It is possible that you could fall asleep while doing normal activities such as driving a car, doing physical tasks, or using hazardous machinery while taking Requip.” or “…you may feel dizzy, nauseated, sweaty, or faint, when first standing up from sitting or lying down.” That’s not to mention other little annoyances like “Some patients taking ropinirole have shown urges to behave in a way unusual for them. Examples of this are an unusual urge to gamble or increased sexual urges and/or behaviors. If you or your family notices that you are developing any unusual behaviors, talk to your doctor.” or “Hallucinations (unreal sounds, visions, or sensations) have been reported in patients taking Requip.”

Whew! If I take this stuff for my restless legs I could fall asleep while driving (or using my table-saw!), feel nauseated or even vomit, be dizzy or even faint, become a pathological gambler or have uncontrollable sexual behaviors (that’s gotta be popular at the church social!), or maybe just hallucinate my way through the day. What fun!

Of course, the fine-print prescribing information (the “doctors only” stuff) describes such other little delights as a potential for it to increase risk of developing Melanoma (a rather deadly skin cancer), retinal pathology (damage to the retina of the eye), and, get this, “Augmentation and Rebound in RLS: Reports in the literature indicate treatment of RLS with dopaminergic medications can result in a worsening of symptoms in the early morning hours, referred to as rebound. Augmentation has also been described during therapy for RLS. Augmentation refers to the earlier onset of symptoms in the evening (or even the afternoon), increase in symptoms, and spread of symptoms to involve other extremities.”

So, this stuff has all kinds of ugly side effects, and best of all, it might make my restless legs worse!

Wow – sign me up! NOT!

Shame on the FDA for exposing Americans to this kind of thing!

May 13, 2008
Lithium Orotate – Protect and Renew Brain Cells
Lithium is a unique but often overlooked mineral with many health uses. It is a natural mineral in the same family as sodium and potassium.Most people are familiar with the lithium salts (carbonate and citrate) used to treat manic-depression (bipolar disorder). This form of lithium is not easily absorbed, so extremely high doses must be used (1200mg of lithium carbonate per dose, for example). At these doses, lithium is highly toxic. The toxic salt forms are available only by prescription. Lithium orotate is 20-times more biologically active than other forms of lithium, and is extremely safe. In orotate form, lithium acts as a mineral supplement that may be beneficial for:
May 8, 2008