Dangers of Over-the-Counter Drugs & the Nutrients That May Get Depleted. Invite Health Podcast, Episode 633
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DANGERS OF OVER-THE-COUNTER DRUGS & THE NUTRIENTS THAT MAY GET DEPLETED, INVITEⓇ HEALTH PODCAST,
EPISODE 633
Hosted by Amanda Williams, MD, MPH
*Intro Music*
InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed health care professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that Invite Health has to offer at www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code podcast at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started.† [00:00:34]
*Intro Music*
Amanda Williams MD, MPH: [00:00:40] We’ve all seen the commercials that come on promoting a new pharmaceutical drug and it comes with a whole list of different side effects. By now you probably recognize that prescribed medications at times can be warranted, but also come with a great risk of potential problems. Did you also know that over-the-counter medications are often a major problem too when it comes to side effects? I focus often on the impact of different prescribed medications when it comes to the nutrients that get depleted when you are using different medications. But over-the-counter medications certainly can create havoc for us as well, too. So, I want to zero in on that, talk about things to hone in on when it comes to taking any type of over-the-counter medication and why alternatives, taking a natural supplement is oftentimes the preferred choice. So, I am Dr. Amanda Williams, Scientific Director at Invite Health. And when it comes to drug induced nutrient depletions, we know that this is a very common thing. We certainly can see this with different blood pressure medications, diabetes medications, cholesterol lowering medications. But oftentimes people are unaware of the fact that medications that they get over the counter can create a whole heck of a lot of nutrient depletions. When you look at nsaids, the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, this certainly can create a lot of problems when it comes to kidney and liver issues. Certainly, we have all heard of someone who maybe took a over-the-counter pain reliever and ended up with an unwanted side effect. From that, we can look at how aspirin, for example, can lower levels of vitamin C, folic acid, zinc and we clearly can see that acetaminophen, also known by the name of Tylenol, can actually lower your glutathione and CoQ10 levels, which is what makes it so detrimental, if someone takes too much acetaminophen, why they can go into acute liver failure because it’s depleting the liver of its key antioxidants that are required to maintain the health of those liver cells but antacids are also a commonly used over-the-counter medication. Maybe you go out to dinner, you have a little acid reflux you have indigestion, you stop by your local big box pharmacy, you get yourself some over-the-counter antacids, this can lead to problems especially if you’re using them long term. when it comes to bone loss, kidney dysfunction, certainly we can recognize that, part of the reason why this occurs is because of the nutrients that are depleted, things such as B vitamins, vitamin D, calcium, magnesium, zinc, all of these are known potential nutrients that get depleted when you are utilizing this. We can look at the over-the-counter acid blockers, things like Pepcid, Zantac, for example we know that really does a walloping on your B Vitamins, vitamin D, zinc, iron levels. And this is why we always want to be able to zero in on what we can be doing when it comes to making smarter choices.†[00:03:59]
[00:04:01] If you have acid reflux instead of running off to your local pharmacy and taking an over-the-counter acid reflux medication, we need to try to figure out what is the actual root cause of this. How can we change our diet? What can we be taking naturally to help soothe and ease the digestive tract? Are we taking a probiotic? Are we taking natural nutrients that help with the coating of the upper and lower GI tract? Something like the MinAcid formulation, which is containing things like slippery elm and marshmallow root extract, things that are calming and soothing as opposed to detrimental that we are finding with all of these over-the-counter medications. Now, you can be told by people in traditional medicine that, oh, you have to be very careful with taking dietary supplements. You know, there are so many different problems and side effects that can occur from these but we have to look at the science, and we have to understand that there is no science that shows that taking slippery elm extract is detrimental to your health or comes with a whole host of side effects. It doesn’t come with any of those side effects that we see with the over-the-counter and the prescribed medications. This is something that we have to recognize. We can look at the scientific studies,The American Gastroenterology Association came out with their findings over a decade ago showing that long term use of NSAIDS,causes severe intestinal damage, severe intestinal damage, this was from the main association in the United States for Gastro Health. This was published in their Clinical Gastroenterology Journal, that the chronic use of nsaids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs has an increased risk of bleeding and visible, just not guessing, visible damage to small intestines. This is a problem folks, because how many people are taking nsaids on a regular daily basis? You know, there was a report that came out a couple of years ago in Time magazine where they were talking about, you know dietary supplements and how this can create all of these problems and so they they populated all of the data from the FDA between the years 2004 and 2015. And this was looking at individuals who were younger in age. So this was actually published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. And they said, you know, out of all of these individuals, they found some of them had these side effects from taking dietary supplements. And you have to question what supplements were they taking and how were they taking these supplements. Was this also in accordance with bad diet? At the end of the day, it did not result in deaths, it did not result in multiple hospitalizations. You’re talking over ten years of data and they found 166 hospitalizations in ten years,now, let’s take a look at what actually occurs when you start to look at NSAIDs. When you look at those over- the- counter medications, what are the actual statistics when it comes to that. That is where we have to really stop, pause, scratch our heads and say, hmm this is a problem, we know that prescribed medications are known to create significant, severe adverse drug reactions leading to, you know, over a million hospitalizations each and every single year and leading to over 100,000 deaths per year because of prescribed drugs, drugs that just came with a bad side effect that can lead to severe problems, complications, hospitalization and even death. So, I just gave you something that came out that was supposed to scare everyone from Time magazine, that they looked at the data of adolescents utilizing dietary supplements and in an over ten-year period, 11 years, they had 166 hospitalizations, we look at one year in this country and we have over a million hospitalized individuals. And this is where we have to pause and say, what can we be doing better? † [00:08:43]
ICYMI:DIURETICS AND NUTRIENT DEPLETIONS – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 509>>LISTEN NOW!
[00:08:44] First, we need to educate ourselves, we need to understand that prescribed medications, as well as over-the-counter medications, come with a whole host of negative side effects. Clearly, we know that there is the nutrient depletions that can occur with all of these medications. So, if we have to be on a medication or if we have to take one of these over-the-counter drugs. What can we do to offset that? This is one we want to look at that drug induced nutrient depletion chart and really follow that say, okay, if I’m taking this medication, I’m taking this over-the-counter medication and it’s going to lower my CoQ10, that means that if I’m taking this medication, I need to also be taking Coenzyme Q10 to remedy that problem. So that’s one aspect that we have to look at. We have to understand that over-the-counter drugs, prescribed medications, are certainly a major problem. Harvard University came out and they talked about this. They talked about the mis- prescribing, the overdosing, the self-prescribing, leading to all of these potentially deadly risks. And we can see in this country the uptake of use in prescription medications. You now see different celebrities out there promoting these different drugs that they take. “I take this because I have migraines”, “I take this because I have acid reflux”, “I take this because I have psoriatic arthritis”, and they’re almost sensationalizing these medications. and that’s a very unfortunate thing as I always mention, there’s only two countries in the entire world where direct to consumer marketing is allowed by pharmaceutical companies, and that’s in the United States as well as New Zealand. † [00:10:26]
[00:10:27] We have to do better as far as our awareness of these different problems that can arise, and one of the things that we do is we get to the root cause. We try to determine why is it that I am relying on a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug every day? Why am I in so much pain? Why do I have so much inflammation? What can I do differently in terms of my diet, exercise, the supplements that I’m taking, what can I replenish in my system so I’m not in pain, so I don’t have inflammation and we know how to achieve this. We just have to make those modifications. With those modifications, we get wellness. Without those modifications, we get risk. And the risk comes with the use of those medications both prescribed and over-the-counter so when we want to zero in on problem specific issues, we need to get to the bottom of what’s causing that and what type of solution and resolution can we achieve? Through the use of different nutrients, dietary supplements and of course, those key lifestyle modifications. So, I just wanted to bring that to your attention. I encourage you to check out our drug induced nutrient depletion chart, which includes the list of over-the-counter, non-prescription medications that come with the whole host of significant nutrient depletions. Check that out, pass it off to a friend, to a family member, anyone that you know who is taking either a prescribed medication or something that’s over the counter and they’re using it on a regular basis.† [00:12:09]
[00:12:10] The more you know, the better informed you are, the better your overall health and wellness will be. And at the end of the day, that’s the goal that we should all be seeking out. I want to thank you so much for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts, or by visiting, invitehealth.com/podcast. Do make sure that you subscribe, and you leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast † [00:12:10]
ICYMI: TURN BACK THE CLOCK ON SKIN AGING, INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 632>>LISTEN NOW!
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