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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
*Intro music*
InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare 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!
*Intro music*
Amanda Williams, MPH:
[00:00:40] When it comes to our immune system, sometimes things can go haywire, and today I want to talk about a autoimmune condition that commonly affects women. So 9 out of 10 people who are diagnosed with lupus are women, and we know that just according to statistics, we recognize that there’s roughly about one and a half million Americans who have a form of lupus. Certainly, men can be impacted by this. Children, teenagers. But for the most part, we find that a good 90% are going to be women. Between usually the ages of 20 and 40 is when the initial diagnosis occurs with lupus. So I want to talk a little bit about what exactly lupus is and what you can be doing if you yourself have been diagnosed with this, or if you happen to have a friend, a family member, a coworker who has been diagnosed with lupus.† [00:01:43]
[00:01:43] So I’m Amanda Williams, MD, MPH, Scientific Director here at InViteⓇ Health and lupus is a incredibly detrimental systemic disease. Whenever our immune system decides that it’s going to rear its ugly head and create havoc for us, that is a big problem. And there are so many different autoimmune conditions. You can look at things such as lupus, we can look at rheumatoid arthritis, we can look at diabetes. We know that there are many different ways to which our immune system can go from being a very protective thing in our, in our body to something that can be very destructive.† [00:02:30]
[00:02:31] Now we know that lupus has a common driving force, and that is inflammation. Now when you look at lupus, this is… We usually just shorten it to lupus, but we’re talking about systemic lupus erythematosus and SLE. Now we know that when it comes to SLE, hence just lupus, we’re dealing generally with multiple areas in the body. So the skin, kidneys, heart, the entire cardiovascular system, the nervous system, connective tissue, the skeletal muscular system, as well as other areas that can be impacted because of the significant inflammation that occurs. So when people have lupus, oftentimes the way that they present and many of the complications is that there are multiple organ systems that have been impacted by this. So this puts someone with lupus at a higher risk of having a heart attack, having diabetes, having chronic kidney disease, bone loss, osteoporosis, as well as different blood disorders.† [00:03:44]
PAINFUL KIDNEY STONES – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 44. Listen Now>>
[00:03:46] We can see that there are certain areas in the country to which lupus diagnosis can be at a higher rate. So we know that there is a Vitamin D connection to lupus. So you’re going to see higher rates of lupus being diagnosed throughout the Midwest, as well as the Northeast than you do in other parts of the country, including the the west coast of the country, as well as the Southeast. So we know that Vitamin D, which remember, Vitamin D is critical to our immune system. We know that Vitamin D is definitely playing a significant role. We recognize that not only is it geographically driven, but it is also very much so race driven. And we are going to see higher rates of lupus in those who are African-American, Asian-American, Native American as well as Latina women. You see this in a much greater rate, the incidence in these women, much more than you do in Caucasians. This is an area where I think it’s commonly overlooked as a public health issue, and there are so many things that should be done and can be done to improve upon the health outcomes for anyone who is diagnosed with lupus and many of the signs and symptoms of lupus can vary from one person to the next.† [00:05:18]
[00:05:19] Now, the actual diagnosis is going to come down to serum blood levels of those autoantibodies. So looking at the antibodies in the blood. But we know that sometimes people or people present with just really extreme fatigue. They may have painful, swollen joints, muscle pain. Many times people know the famous butterfly rash, but it is a rash across the cheeks. Now, that doesn’t mean that every person who has lupus will develop that because there are different types of lupus and the different systems or organs to which lupus attacks can vary from one person to the next. For some people, they can experience it with pain in their chest when breathing. So there’s many different ways. Headaches is another one that sometimes people will present with, you know, swollen joints and headaches, and it’s like what is actually happening? And then they do the serum tests and then they can see, yes, indeed, this is a case of lupus.† [00:06:27]
[00:06:28] Now, conventional treatment for lupus is very… It can be very beneficial, but it can also come with a whole host of different side effects. So many of the anti-malarial drugs, which are antiparasitic drugs, are oftentimes prescribed to those who have lupus. Now, those come with a whole host of different side effects, including significant damage that can occur within the liver. We can definitely look at the overuse of anti-inflammatory drugs, the NSAIDs, so chronic use of NSAIDs in someone who has lupus can lead to damaging effects once again when it comes to the health of the kidneys, as well as the liver, just depending upon which NSAID someone is using.† [00:07:19]
[00:07:20] So what can be beneficial in terms of what someone with lupus can do? We know that looking at the diet, making sure that we’re not adding insult to injury by having a pro-inflammatory diet foods that are going to drive up even more inflammation, so you want to have an anti-inflammatory diet. Fruits and vegetables. High antioxidant foods. Healthy fats. Things that are going to help to lower your inflammatory burden. Understanding how much stress plays a role into this. Remember, stress will drive inflammation as well. So management of stress, whether this is, you know, finding ways to do meditation or yoga or exercise, all of these make a big difference.† [00:08:08]
[00:08:10] And then we have to look at different natural interventions. Knowing that Vitamin D is directly linked to this… If you look at people who have lupus and you test their serum Vitamin D levels, you are likely to find significant insufficiency and even deficient Vitamin D levels. But we can also look at how Vitamin E, you know, inadequate Vitamin E intake can be another driving factor for this inflammation that drives up in the system. We can look at how omega-3s, so by incorporating in fish oil or krill oil, how beneficial this can be for easing inflammation. Of course, we can look at hormonal pathways, and they’ve been able to show… There’s a very important adrenal hormone known as DHEA, and low levels of DHEA have been observed in patients who have lupus, as well as other inflammatory diseases. So oftentimes you will find doctors who will prescribe DHEA to help to improve upon the health of those who have these inflammatory autoimmune conditions.† [00:09:27]
LOW DHEA LEVELS MAY EXPLAIN CHRONIC INFLAMMATION – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 229. Listen Now>>
[00:09:28] So lupus itself, we know it’s a systemic autoimmune disease driven by inflammation, so the immune system is attacking tissues in the body. We know that when it comes to which system is going to be affected most, this is going to vary from one person to the next. We know that there are different types of lupus. You have SLE, which is systemic lupus, meaning that this is affecting multiple systems in the body. You have discoid lupus. Now this is… Generally speaking, discoid lupus is only affecting the skin. Then you have drug-induced lupus. So this is when you were on a particular medication that then triggers an autoimmune response. There are different drugs that are frequently associated with creating this drug-induced lupus. So this can be many of the cardiovascular drugs antiarrhythmic drugs, hydralazine, which is a blood pressure lowering drug. So we can see how it is that lupus can present in different ways for different people.† [00:10:42]
[00:10:43] But at the end of the day, what we need to do is make sure that we are doing everything in our power to lower that inflammatory burden in the system. So we want to make sure that when it comes to the dietary intake that you are adhering to an anti-inflammatory diet so that Mediterranean diet really comes into play. We know that we don’t want to have to continuously turn to the anti-malarial drugs and the high dose NSAIDs in order to try to regulate this. So we want to try and help our immune system out ourselves by giving the immune system adequate nutrients, key vitamins and minerals. Those omega-3 fatty acids that we know are so key. So Vitamin D is going to be the number one thing that you look at. We know that when it comes to lupus, deficiency of Vitamin D is going to be incredibly high. And if someone with lupus doesn’t have Vitamin D deficiency, it’s pretty much guarantee that they will have insufficiency, meaning low levels, but not to the level of complete deficiency. So having your serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level tested is incredibly important so that you’re supplementing with the right amount of Vitamin D every day to get you back into a healthy range to once again help to regulate the immune system response. Remember, when you’re taking Vitamin D, it’s always advantageous to take magnesium to help with that proper absorption. We want to incorporate in our fish oil or krill oil, or if you want to use the vegetarian option, using flaxseed. I always encourage anyone who has been diagnosed with lupus to incorporate Vitamin E. We know that Vitamin E certainly plays a essential role in terms of stabilizing cellular membranes. So we want to make sure that those immune cells have that support, and we know that Vitamin E certainly can block that autoimmune attack just through that action of stabilizing the cell membrane. They’ve done studies where they’ve shown how Vitamin D supplementation can actually reduce the level of autoantibodies in lupus patients.† [00:13:22]
[00:13:23] We have to look at other herbal extracts. There have been many studies done with curcumin and understanding that the bioactive components those curcuminoids can do a wonderful job in terms of easing that inflammation through targeting and suppressing or lowering different cytokines that are directly linked with lupus. So looking at things like different interleukins and tumor necrosis factor alpha. We can look at the clinical trials where they’ve given curcumin extract to patients with lupus, and they can start to see an improvement across all different markers, including those who have significant impact to their kidneys. Remember, lupus is going to attack multiple organ systems. When it attacks the kidneys and creates kidney disease because of lupus, so you get nephritis, so inflammation within the kidney, they can see how it is that that curcumin can help to stabilize that kidney function. So a lot of different things that we can be looking at. We can look at that hormonal component. And if your DHEA levels are low, then looking at supplementation with DHEA can help to create that balance once again within that adrenal stress response, but at the same time helping to heighten the body’s immune system, so it’s not going into this self-destructive mode. So lupus is something that you definitely want to make sure that if you know someone, if you, you yourself have lupus, that you take action in terms of diet, exercise and proper supplementation to have a better management of this autoimmune condition.† [00:15:21]
[00:15:22] So that’s all that I have for you for today. 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. Now do make sure that you subscribe and you leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @invitehealth and we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.† [00:15:22]
*Exit music*
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gabapentin
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Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
Hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
*Intro music*
InVite Health Podcast Intro: Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed healthcare 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!
*Intro music*
Jerry Hickey, Ph.:
[00:00:40] Gabapentin is an important drug. It’s commonly used for nerve pain, and it really does work. They use it for nerve pain related to diabetes. They use it for nerve pain related to shingles. We’ll talk about this a little bit later in the episode. It does have side effects. It also has important nutrient depletions. And interestingly, some of these nutrients are needed for nerve health. So welcome to my podcast episode, Gabapentin Used for Nerve Pain Can Deplete These Important Nutrients.† [00:01:15]
[00:01:17] Hi, my name is Jerry Hickey. I’m a nutritional pharmacist. I’m also the Senior Scientific Officer over here at InViteⓇ Health. Thanks for tuning in today to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen or visit invitehealth.com/podcast. Please subscribe and leave us a review. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @invitehealth. The information on this episode is linked at the episode description, so I really want to get going here.† [00:01:43]
[00:01:45] So gabapentin was originally created for epileptic seizures. It works by reducing inflammation and over excitation in the brain. It’s a GABA analog. GABA is gamma aminobutyric acid. That’s a neuro inhibitory neurotransmitter, so it’s used for, for, for seizures. So we’re not discussing that here. We’re not going into anticonvulsant medications here. I’m strictly talking about gabapentin here for nerve pain. It’s also known as Neurontin. Now, normally it’s used for herpes zoster infection nerve pain, that’s shingles. It’s called shingles. So when you were a kid, you had chickenpox. Chickenpox never leaves your system. Later on, for whatever reason, your immune system isn’t working up to snuff and the chickenpox comes back, but this time it’s called herpes zoster, and it could cause very bad nerve pain. Especially, it depends on where it is, you know, behind the ear, near the eyes. It could be quite dangerous if it comes out in the lungs. So when it comes out like in your chest or in your face or on your shoulders or something, it causes this burning stabbing pain. Now, the pain can last for months and some people, it lasts for years.† [00:03:13]
[00:03:15] There are supplements, by the way, that help with nerve pain. Alcar with ALA. We’ve already spoken about that in previous podcast episodes. Alcar with ALA. It stands for acetyl-L-carnitine and alpha lipoic acid. They work really well together for nerve pain. They’re also good for energy, and they’re good for your brain and memory. That’s a winner. And another one would be benfotiamine, which is a form of Vitamin B, one that’s very good for nerve pain.† [00:03:40]
CAN NUTRITION HELP WITH SHINGLES PAIN? – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 362. Listen Now>>
[00:03:42] But let’s get back to gabapentin. So it’s normally used for shingles-related nerve pain. They have a time release, an extended time release, one called horizant that’s used for restless leg syndrome. Now, we don’t know how it works for that. We don’t know how it helps restless leg syndrome. Restless leg syndrome usually happens at night when you’re trying to sleep and you get this vague pain in your legs and you have this irresistible urge to move the legs to get comfortable, it could last for hours. So they do use gabapentin, that extended release, the time release one, for restless leg syndrome. For post-traumatic neuralgia, which is the shingles pain, it seems that the gabapentin changes the way your body senses pain. They also use it for diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is that tingling and that numbness that you get from nerve damage in people with diabetes. They do use it for hot flashes. You know, the sudden strong feelings of heating and sweat… Heat and sweating that you see in women being treated for breast cancer.† [00:04:53]
[00:04:56] Now, gabapentin, one of the problems with it is it makes some people really fatigued, really drowsy. It could cause serious drowsiness. So you don’t want to take it with marijuana, which is legal in some states. You don’t want to take it with alcohol, you don’t want to take it with any drug that makes you drowsy. That could be dangerous. Another problem is if you take an antacid with it, like the aluminum and magnesium antacids, it can block its absorption so you don’t want to take it at the same time as antacids. It can increase your risk of thinking of suicide. We call that suicidal ideation. I’ll get into this a little bit more later. So if you’re first trying gabapentin and you don’t know if it’s going to make you drowsy, you better be careful if you’re driving. So common side effects with gabapentin, I’ll tell you a weird one. Nystagmus. Nystagmus means dancing eyes. Your eyes are bouncing or they’re jerking, of your eyeballs so it can cause that it could cause drowsiness, of course. Dizziness. Anything that causes drowsiness because dizziness. Fatigue, obviously. Ataxia means you’re kind of wobbly and dizzy. You could fall over. Sedation. And it could cause swelling of like the arms and legs. We call that peripheral edema. Now, if you’re finding you’re take the drug for pain because you don’t want the pain from shingles, it can really hurt. It can really lost a long time. It can be horrible, but you start to get like mood changes, like you get confused or you’re becoming depressed or sad or fearful, or you start to think of suicide. Anything unusual like that you really should call your doctor right away.† [00:06:29]
[00:06:31] Now, here’s why we’re having this conversation. I’ve been doing a number of episodes, podcast episodes on drugs, how they interact with herbs and nutrients, are there nutrients that you should avoid if you’re on a drug, are there nutrients that make the drug work better, are there nutrients that the drugs are taking out of your system that can lead to health problems that you better replete your body with these nutrients. So it turns out that gabapentin does deplete the body of nutrients, and gabapentin is very commonly prescribed. There’s a lot of people with nerve pain. There’s a lot of diabetics, a lot of older people that suffer with shingles.† [00:07:06]
[00:07:08] So the drug can deplete biotin. And that’s a problem. It’s an important nutrient. Biotin was… Is involved with controlling your blood sugar. And there are studies showing that when you give biotin to people with diabetes, it can help improve their blood sugar control. But biotin’s also needed for nerve health. That’s why they’re thinking that biotin might help people with multiple sclerosis and multiple sclerosis, the coating of the nerves is damaged. It’s called the myelin sheath. The myelin sheath insulates nerves and makes messages travel quicker from your body to your brain. And in people with multiple sclerosis, the, the coating of the nerve is getting damaged. You need biotin to help correct that. So it doesn’t mean you have to stop gabapentin. But I think if you’re on gabapentin, you should be taking about a thousand to 2000 micrograms of biotin every day. Biotin’s also called Vitamin H. Now biotin is also involved with your nails. If you lack biotin, your nails get brittle. It doesn’t mean that if you have enough biotin, you could take more and get better nails. If you like it, you get brittle nails. But it’s also involved with unruly hair. There’s actually a syndrome called uncombable hair syndrome that runs in families. They can’t comb their hair. It looks like wool. Biotin helps that. If you lack biotin, your hair thins. Also, if you lack biotin, you tend to develop seborrheic dermatitis. It’s, it’s a kind of dandruff where it’s kind of like big, greasy, yellow, scaly stuff on your forehead. In fact, there’s some relationship to a lack of biotin and cradle cap in children, which is basically like seborrheic dermatitis. So if you are on this drug for neuropathy, gabapentin also called Neurontin, you need to take some biotin.† [00:09:12]
BIOTIN FOR MORE THAN YOUR HAIR AND NAILS – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 394. Listen Now>>
[00:09:13] But you also probably need calcium and Vitamin D. The research is showing that when you take gabapentin, you’re depleted of calcium and Vitamin D. Now, calcium and Vitamin D obviously are needed for bone health. They’re not the only thing for bone health. We’ve done podcast episodes on that also, but they’re a major part of bone health. But calcium is also at the core of using calories for energy. Your mitochondria that use oxygen and calories for energy won’t work if you lack calcium. Your muscles don’t work well if you lack calcium. Your nerves don’t work well if you lack calcium. You become fatigued if you lack calcium. You also have a higher risk of colon cancer and in women breast cancer if you lack calcium. Calcium is a very important nutrient. So if you’re on… And Vitamin D, I mean, Vitamin D seems to be involved with everything in the human body, including the immune system, building bone. It just, it just has so many different effects. Reducing inflammation, helping to fight and helping to prevent cancer. Helping treat diabetes. You need for activated Vitamin D to help regulate your blood sugar. It interacts with the mineral magnesium and the mineral zinc to regulate your blood sugar. So if you’re on gabapentin, not only should you be taking some calcium and Vitamin D, you should be taking some biotin.† [00:10:34]
[00:10:35] There’s also evidence that gabapentin depletes two major B-vitamins, Vitamin B12 and folate. That’s really important. B12, methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin in your body. That’s what it converts into. B12 is needed to help prevent your brain from shrinking and memory loss with age. And B12 is needed to create red blood cells. Without, without B12, you develop megaloblastic anemia, where your red blood cells get too big and they don’t work well and you become very fatigued. But B12 has also been shown to lower the risk of developing colon cancer, and B12 is one of nutrients involved with energy production your heart needs. But B12 is also needed for nerve health, so here’s gabapentin being used for nerve pain and it’s depleting biotin, and it’s depleting B12, both which are needed for nerve health, and they’re both needed for brain health. Now gabapentin also depletes folate, and that’s a problem. Lacking folate increases the level of a molecule in the brain called homocysteine that damages the brain that can lead to brain inflammation and depression. But it’s also a big risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Now, beyond that, folate is needed to help prevent heart disease by once again regulating homocysteine. But folate’s also needed to create good genes and healthy cells. So if you lack the active form of B12, which which is called methyltetrahydrafolate, I’m sorry, not B12, folate, we’re talking folate here. If if you like the active version of folate, methyltetrahydrafolate, you have a higher risk of cancer because methyltetrahydrafolate helps block the first two steps in the cancer process called initiation and promotion. Like, like a combination of a virus and radiation can damage your DNA inside your chromosomes so badly it can lead to the cancer process. Methyltetrahydrafolate helps prevent that, so you need methyltetrahydrafolate for a healthy heart. You need it for a healthy brain and to lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and you need it to lower your risk of cancer, yet gabapentin is depleting it. Simple. Take it. Now, normally in a multivitamin you get folic acid, synthetic folate. Folate is named for foliage. It’s ubiquitous in plants, but it’s not easy to derive out of plants. So they add inexpensive folic acid to multivitamins because they can make a better profit like that. But it doesn’t work for everybody. A lot of people have trouble converting it to the active form. So look for a vitamin that has the active B12 methylcobalamin because that creates all the forms of B12 in your body and look for a folate that’s the active form of folate called methyltetrahydrafolate. You’ll be better off.† [00:13:26]
[00:13:26] So if you’re on gabapentin, it really should help with your nerve pain. Just be careful because it can make you feel sleepy, sedated, and you need to take the following nutrients separate, at a separate time from the gabapentin just to make sure they don’t collide in the intestines and cause a problem. Biotin, calcium, Vitamin D, active B12, which is methylcobalamin, and active folate, which is methyltetrahydrafolate.† [00:13:52]
[00:13:54] OK, thanks for listening to today’s episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts. We have hundreds, hundreds of them on our website. I think it must be approaching 500 by now. So that’s invitehealth.com/podcast. Subscribe and leave us a review, if you could. You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @invitehealth and I hope to see you next time on another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. This is Jerry Hickey signing off.† [00:13:54]
