Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Millions of Americans are on the drug levothyroxine (also known as Synthroid) to help support their thyroid, but did you know this medication can impact your overall nutrition?
Metformin is often the first treatment option given to type 2 diabetics. While it has many advantages, this prescription medication can also deplete several nutrients that are essential to proper functions within the body.
statin drugs
InViteⓇ Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey, Ph.
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Clogged arteries in the heart are very dangerous. It’s called coronary heart disease and it’s a really scary condition. They give statin drugs in an attempt to prevent this and it is helpful.†
Statin drugs are cholesterol-lowering therapy. They’re used in patients with a history of heart disease, but they’re also used in people with clean arteries to help prevent it. When you lower a type of cholesterol called LDL, there’s a relationship to not building up plaque in the arteries. This plaque leads to horrible things like strokes and heart attacks.†
What exactly is the plaque and what is it doing? It’s thickening and stiffening the blood vessels in the heart. It is made out of cholesterol, mostly LDL. Arteries are bigger blood vessels that take the oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and the heart and deliver it all over the body. This allows oxygen to reach the brain, muscles, organs and tissues. Even though the heart is pumping blood, it also needs its own blood supply. The heart also has its own arteries that are actually smaller and like veins. When they get thickened and stiffened with deposits of cholesterol, it’s very dangerous. This is where statin drugs come to the rescue, to a certain degree.†
The problem with statin drugs is that they tend to interfere with a number of really important nutritional supplements. Most of the symptoms of problems with using a statin are related to the lowering level of important nutrients.†
One thing that happens with statin drugs, and it’s dose-dependent, is problems with your mitochondria. In other words, statins can short-circuit energy production. There are a number of studies showing that statins can lead to fatigue, muscle cramps and a drop in endurance and stamina. One reason why statins can affect your muscles and your nerves is if you lower your cholesterol too much. You need cholesterol for the health of your muscles and nerves.†
This also occurs because you are disrupting energy formation. It seems to block the ability to recycle energy. Every day, we recycle our energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). It is recycled by something called creatine monohydrate, which is a very safe nutritional supplement that’s been used by bodybuilders and athletes for decades, as well as in patients with heart failure and for memory and brain energy in elderly people. Studies have shown that creatine also helps to make the body’s shuttle for energy function properly to allow for energy recycling. Statin drugs can inhibit an enzyme that prevents the body from recycling energy properly and this leads to muscle pain. I mix beta-hydroxy-beta methylbutyrate (HMB) with creatine and whey protein in elderly to help support muscle strength, balance, coordination and mobility.†
ATP: THE ENERGY ATM MACHINE OF THE BODY – INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 255. Listen Now>>
Vitamin D is also involved. There are a number of studies now that show if the Vitamin D in your blood is below 30, you have a much higher risk of having muscle pain and muscle inflammation when on a statin. If you’re using a statin or know someone who is, you want to get your Vitamin D levels above 30. This is also important for supporting your immune defenses and respiratory health.†
There is also evidence that statin drugs reduce the level of many nutrients in your body and that’s not a good thing. You don’t have to stop the statin, but you do have to replete the nutrients that you’re losing. For instance, statins deplete lutein, an orange-red pigment from vegetables that is needed for vision and memory. Statins also lower Vitamin K, which is needed for your heart health and bone strength, as well as ubiquinol, which is needed for the power of your heart and muscles and your energy in general. There is evidence that statins lower fish oils, so I tell people on statins to take Krill Oil.†
In this episode, Jerry Hickey, Ph. discusses statin drugs, a commonly-prescribed medication often used for heart health and cholesterol levels. He explains that while these drugs are important, they can also negatively impact other important nutrients in the body.†
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There are certain classes of drugs that people are commonly prescribed that can actually affect, in a very negative way, someone’s cognition or memory over time. Here’s what you need to know.
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash According to the 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Hypertension Guideline, lifestyle changes are the first step in reducing high blood pressure. So many individuals – 72 million Americans – struggle to maintain normal blood pressure. High blood …
The answer to the age old question of, “Can I use my prescription drugs past their expiration dates?”, has usually been answered by healthcare professionals with a stern “No.” To figure out why you can’t use your old drugs after they are said to expire, it is first important to understand how the system that determines when the product will expire works.
In the late 1970s, the FDA began requiring prescription and over-the-counter medications to have expiration dates clearly printed on the bottle or box of the product. The agency states, “To assure that a drug product meets applicable standards of identity, strength, quality and purity at the time of use, it shall bear an expiration date determined by appropriate stability testing.” The FDA permits manufacturers of these medications and prescriptions very little say in this and is very strict in determining the presence of an expiration date on a label stating, “As long as the medication that is marketed in the U.S. contains between 90 to 110 percent of the amount of active ingredient claimed on the label”, it must provide an expiration date to patients and consumers.
The FDA’s legal code also states that manufacturers “must account for storage conditions (and reconstitution conditions for certain drugs) in the expiration date.” Pharmacy Times reports that the expiration date of most medications is 12 to 60 months after it has been manufactured. However, the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette reports that “pharmacists further shorten the time a medication can be used when they add their own “discard after” or “beyond-use” date to the prescription label itself to provide maximum safety.”
Here is an informative video, uploaded to the FDA’s YouTube account on Expiration Dates:
However, in the mid-1980s, in an article in Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, the FDA approved the extension of expiration dates of certain drugs that the Air Force wanted to stockpile for future use for both military and civilians. The process, though very expensive, involved the planning, storage and replacing of the expired drugs over time. The program tested 56 drugs and found that it was possible to safely extend their shelf-life. By 2006, a program named SLEP had investigated the shelf-life of 122 different drug products that resulted in a “lifespan extension of at least one year beyond the original expiration date for 88 percent of the lots. The average additional time added to each drug was 66 months.”
In 2009, The Medical Letter, a non-profit organization that provides recommendations to professionals on drugs, decided to review the recent data regarding the safety of extending expiration dates for shelf life. In their study, the authors found one reported case of a patient harmed by taking an expired drug. They also discovered that storage in heat and high humidity shortened the “life-expectancy” of a drug. However, the authors of the study reported, “Many drugs stored under reasonable conditions in their original unopened containers retain 90 percent of their potency for at least 5 years after the expiration date on the label and sometimes much longer.”
According to Harvard University Medical School’s website, The Family Health Guide reports, “The expiration dates are very conservative to ensure you get everything you paid for. And, really, if a drug manufacturer had to do expiration-date testing for longer periods it would slow their ability to bring you new and improved formulations. The next time you face the drug expiration date dilemma, consider what you’ve learned here. If the expiration date passed a few years ago and it’s important that your drug is absolutely 100% effective, you might want to consider buying a new bottle. And if you have any questions about the safety or effectiveness of any drug, ask your pharmacist. He or she is a great resource when it comes to getting more information about your medications.”
Source: http://www.medicaldaily.com