Drug Safety: Balance and Discretion Needed
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Most of us have had a bad reaction to a medication or at least an unexpected side effect. You may even know someone who died from a reaction to a drug. At least one report* claims the number of people killed from a drug reaction at more than 100,000 a year. And of course we are all familiar with drugs like Vioxx which were pulled off the market.
The July issue of Discover magazine has an article by Jeanne Lenzer titled “Medicine’s Magic Bullets?”. In it she discusses the issues of harm caused by medications. Some of the problems she points out include doctors not having the time to look up detailed information about drugs from the manufacturers and that doctors are not scientists and do not necessarily have well-honed critical thinking skills to be able to fully evaluate the science.
Other studies such as one published in JAMA found that “industry sponsored research was positive 87% of the time compared with 65% positive for research that was not industry sponsored”.
Balance
My personal opinion is that most likely pharmaceutical companies are skewing the results in their favor at times. On the other hand there is the issue of study sizes. Phase I and II trials for drugs only have a few hundred people in them and even the Phase III trials only have at most a few thousand. Side effects and other complications may not be apparent until many thousands or millions of people are taking a medication.
Experience in science and working for a company with a pharmaceutical division (although I did not work in the pharmaceutical division myself) tells me that these companies have put millions of dollars and many years into developing these drugs. And they have lots of well-educated scientists that have families to support who need to be paid each week (and who are already not getting paid as much as they should). Somehow the drug companies have to make a profit if we are to get any new medications for anything – unless it becomes publicly funded.
On one hand there is criticism for releasing drugs that may not have been fully or properly tested and on the other hand the push for approving drugs even faster – particularly for those for people who are dying or suffering greatly.
A balance needs to be achieved for making certain that new drugs are well tested with the more urgent needs of those who don’t have that kind of time to wait. Better public understanding of the costs of developing these medications also needs to be considered to understand the motives and pressures that companies have for exaggerating their safety and efficacy claims.
One possible solution would be an increase in the number of publicly funded studies to help offset the tendency of companies to skew and exaggerate their own studies.
Discretion
Doctors and patients need to use more discretion when considering new medications. In many cases lifestyle changes could eliminate or reduce the need for some drugs. Doctors need to educate their patients better about these changes and they need to do so before the problem is too severe and results in medication becoming a necessity as it does in some cases. It would also be helpful, when time and ability permit, for doctors to examine more carefully the claims of pharmaceutical companies.
Patients need to take more responsibility for their own health as well. Following their doctor’s advice for lifestyle change needs to be taken more seriously. A self evaluation of the severity of their symptoms should also be encouraged. The heart risks associated with a medication like Vioxx may be appropriate for someone who would otherwise be disabled by severe arthritis, but not for someone for whom weight loss and exercise may eliminate or sufficiently reduce their discomfort.
More Information
For more information you may want to read some other articles on this topic by Jeanne Lenzer such as Drug Secrets – What the FDA isn’t telling or her paper published in PLoS: What Can We Learn from Medical Whistleblowers?.
Also of possible interest is the blog Eye on FDA.
* according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998 and mentioned in the Discover Magazine article
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June 9, 2008
Women’s Health Weekly Review: June 1 – June 7
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Women and alcoholism
A study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that when women start drinking at a younger age we are at a higher risk of developing alcohol dependence. According to Richard A. Grucza, first author of the work, “An early age at the onset of drinking is a strong predictor of subsequent alcohol dependence. About one in three individuals who start drinking at age 17 or younger become alcohol dependent. For those who wait until age 21 or older, that number is one in ten.”
Breastfeeding
Baby girls may benefit more than boys from breast-feeding. Based on research conducted at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center while baby girls who were breast fed got just as many respiratory infections, the infections were less severe and they were less likely to need to be hospitalized.
More women for research trials
Scientific American’s 60-Second Science says that more women are still needed for medical trials.
Osteoporosis
A committee met recently to update the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) Clinician’s Guide to Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis. The new Clinician’s Guide incorporates the World Health Organization (WHO) absolute fracture prediction algorithm (FRAX®), a computer-based tool expected to increase the identification of patients at risk for osteoporosis. The algorithm tells clinicians how likely a patient is to fracture a bone due to osteoporosis or low bone mass in the 10 years following examination, also known as 10-year fracture risk.
Breasts hurt when exercising?
Another of the Scientific American’s 60-Second Science says that breast pain is related to the speed of movement, not the degree of up and down and recommends sports bras that cup each side individually.
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Related Posts:
- Bone health in the news
- Women’s Health Weekly Review: June 8 – June 14
- Women’s Health Weekly Review: May 25 -May31
June 6, 2008
Friday Favorites Part 2
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I have some new women blogger friends whose feeds I ran out of time to read again this week so I wasn’t able to add them to my Friday Favorites. A bunch of severe storms went through here this afternoon then, but now they seem to have past. So I have more time again and decided to do a part 2 of Friday Favorites this week to hightlight some fellow bloggers posts.
Health
At JoLynn Braley’s blog it has been No Excuses Week!
Sally has news about her blog – a new domain! She used to blog at interactivehealth.com.au but now is at InDenialHealth.com!
Environment and Nature
Kim Woodbridge write a really informative post called Green Twitter – Environmental Resources
Judy Haley has a post with the cutest pictures of baby geese: A Family Outing!
Business Ideas
Anita Bruzzese wrote this week about Understanding Why You Really Get Distracted at Work. She points out that it may not be the fault of the other people, it may be your own fault – ask yourself what you do and what you have in your office that sends the message that it is ok to come and talk (and take up your time).
Crystal Clayton explain how businesses can form customer service relationships in You Scratch My Back And I’ll Scratch Yours And You Scratch My Back And …
Denise Wakeman wrote this week about how Public Speaking Can Build Your Business. Unfortunately, I’m way too shy to do it!
Kristen King was featured as Business of the Week on Business on the Mound! Congratulations Kristen!
Elizabeth Potts Weinstein asks us if we Are you stepping up to your own brilliance?
Kids and Parenting
Nicole is always coming up with ways to kids to eat things they wouldn’t normally (or at least I wouldn’t as a kid!) – now she tells us about The Great Big Vegetable Challenge!
Ria has a toddler with severe allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, and penicillin and today she wrote My Kid with Nut Allergies.
Writing and Blogging
Sharon Hurley Hall has a new series of posts on her blog: Promotion Is Free – Part 1: , Part 2: A Web Presence, Part 3:Forums and Part 4: Article Marketing.
Arachne Jericho wrote a post about Confessions of a Blogger: My Life As Though ‘Twere a Flowchart. Pretty cool. I should do something like this someday.
Top 5 Web Tools to Create Your Own Online Quiz – from Rebecca Leaman. I’ve thought about adding a quiz someday – I’ll have to remember this post and come back to it someday.
Barbara Ling has a series on her blog titled: 21 Days to a More Profitable Blog – the last post was Day 18.
Ellen Wilson blogged about Writing the Wild Within: Part 4 – Standing Out From the Crowd.
Social Media
Daisy Olsen has written a great new post about the social media site Plurk: Plurk. Another Twitter Clone with a really crazy name.
Ruth Marie Sylte gave some advice for using Facebook Facebook: Getting started — and/or taking it further
Personal Growth, Communication and Relationships
Loraleigh Vance gives some really good advice in these posts: How to get the Alcoholic Advantage: Part 1, How to Get the Alcoholic Advantage: Part 2 and How to Stop Playing the Blame Game.
Tammy Lenski asks us this week: The moment you choose to fight: Do you recognize it?
Karen Swim tells us that we should Be Unstoppable!
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Friday Favorites
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Happy Friday!
Cool Science in the news!
Deep in the Amazon
Hard to believe that there are still groups of people who haven’t had contact with the outside world yet isn’t it? Or at least very little contact. Look at these pictures from Brazil – and notice how they are trying to shoot arrows at the plane/helicopter flying over them: PHOTO IN THE NEWS: “Uncontacted” Tribe Seen in Amazon. Learn more about uncontacted groups here: Photos Spur Debate on Protecting “Uncontacted” Tribes. More photos. And mostly unrelated – but I find this picture fascinating: Indigenous Brazilians Protest Dam
Cemetaries and Insect Zombies
So – stonehenge was originally a cemetary: Stonehenge Was Cemetery First and Foremost, Study Says.
Don’t read this is you get grossed out really easily – female jewel wasps find roaches, they sting them twice, not to paralyze them but to make them move sluggishly, the wasps then can grab the roach by its antennae and walk it around like a dog on a leash, lead it to its nest, where it seals it up and lays an egg on its belly for its larva to eat alive: The wasp that walks cockroaches – video included! Parasites are fascinating aren’t they?
Latest News from Mars
Mars Phoenix dug a few centimeters into the Martian soil this week and has taken in some soil samples to analyze! Follow Mars Phoenix on Twitter.
Don’t make me look at you – I’m learning!
This is interesting – when people are trying to figure out something that is difficult to understand they tend to look away from the person who is talking – it is called ‘gaze aversion’. New research shows that “children aged 4-6 are more likely to avert their gaze when they are carrying out a task that they find difficult, or new to them“. This could be very helpful for parents and teachers. When kids look away when trying to grasp new information, it is a good sign that they are learning.
Women, Childcare and the Environment
NPR story: Women’s Rights, Healthy Planet Go Hand-in-Hand
Making Child Care More Affordable: the Family Tax Relief Act of 2008 bill was introduced which would “improve the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for millions of families, especially the low- and moderate-income families who most need help obtaining affordable, high-quality child care”.
Health in the News
Cool stuff for the future!
A monkey was trained to be able to control a robot arm to feed itself! National Geographic has a video. This is so cool – it could help people who have lost limbs or the use of them someday!
Longevity
It was reported this week that eating less is more important than exercise to live a long life.
Avoid pain!
If you are over 60 – be sure to get a shingles vaccine! Shingles is apparently very painful so why take a chance of getting it if you can avoid it? See: Shingles Pain Prompts Call for Adult Vaccinations
What does your doctor owe you?
JC is continuing the discussion about what patients want from their doctors: Patient Manifesto: Communication and Accessibility.
Weight Loss
Kristen King has had a few posts recently about weight gain and loss: Gaining Weight and Don’t Know Why? 7 Things It Could Be. Then she wrote an informative series on weight loss surgeries: Wrapping Up the Lively Women Weight Loss Surgery Mini-Series: When Is Surgical Weight Loss Really Appropriate?
Healthbolt Carnival
Lastly – you want more good health posts to read? Welcome to the First Ever ‘Healthbolt Carnival’.
Thought for the week from Erika Jurney:
I think in fact that there are 3 weeks of every month when women are pumped full of hormones which mask just how completely irritating other people are.
Have a great weekend!
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June 5, 2008
Overcoming Underearning: Book Review Part 5
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This week I’ve read Chapter 4 of ‘Overcoming UnderEarning’ by Barbara Stanny.
Starting with this chapter Barbara goes through the 5 steps to make you a ‘doer’.
Step 1: Tell the Truth
“Telling the truth is a prerequisite for higher pay.”
There are 4 exercises* in this chapter.
Exercise 1: Pinpointing the Problems
In this exercise she has a Problem Indicator Checklist. It seems to be mostly points about how you handle your money. Now for me that isn’t the problem. I can take care of the money I have quite well. My problem is not being able to make more.
Exercise 2: Digging Down to the Roots
These have to do with how you feel about money and where you may have learned these responses. She also quotes in this section from Oliver Wendell Holmes “All limitations are self-imposed”. Now I don’t think this is literally true – there are just some things I wouldn’t be able to do due to size, age and other things. But, what I really would like to be able to do at this point in my life I’m pretty sure I am capable of doing.
Exercise 3: Replacing Beliefs
Here we are supposed to list everything we believe about ourselves and money and write a new belief to replace the old one. In my case I wouldn’t really know what to write here. I think my problem has more to do with my inability to be able to see myself as the type of person who could be earning that much money. As much as I want it, people who are really successful seem somehow different from me and I have doubts about if I can really do what they are doing.
Time for my favorite quote from this chapter:
“The truth is the only safe ground to stand on.”
Next time – Chapter 5.
*the first exercise had 2 parts, I think that is how she counted 4 exercises
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Related Posts:
- Overcoming Underearning: Book Review Part 10
- Overcoming Underearning: Book Review Part 7
- Overcoming Underearning: Book Review Part 9
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