“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information!” (TM)
No matter what people think, there’s not been enough medical testing of drugs that enter into the marketplace, especially recently, and much of the testing has been either paid for or conducted by the drug companies themselves. Then, it’s been “rubber-stamped” by the FDA (Federal Drug Administration – America’s federal governmental ‘health watch-dog’ agency). That’s why there has been an increasing number of reported problems with various drugs, for various conditions, from various companies. Universities and other government agencies and even health workers are now investigating and revealing more problems.
Health reporter, Alice Wessendorf, mentions the following alert:
You may “… be the victim of a commonly prescribed drug combination that’s now been found to cause blood-sugar spikes. And getting in this drug-side-effect crossfire is not as unlikely as you may think, since experts estimate that anywhere between 500,000 and 1 million people in the United States alone are on the two-drug combo.“
It was Stanford University researchers who accidentally made the shocking discovery when they were poring over the data from the FDA’s adverse-event-reporting database (AERS). And they were concurrently combining that data-search with the electronic medical records from 3 medical institutions.
Unexpectedly, the Stanford group found a significant number of patients who were on the common antidepressant Paxil along with the common cholesterol-lowering drug Pravachol had unexpected, unexplained spikes in their blood-glucose levels.
And the really frightening part is that patients very well may not have even known it because there was not a single report of the unusual levels was found in the AERS database!
It wasn’t until the researchers bumped the AERS data up against the electronic medical records that the relationship reared its ugly head, and it highlights the problem that this information, as it comes in, needs to be investigated, not just “archived”.
The archived data showed that 135 nondiabetic patients on the dangerous drug combo had an average increase in their blood-glucose levels of 19 mg/dl. Disturbingly, that’s more than enough of a jump to push a nondiabetic person right on over into the diabetes zone. So, arguably, there are people “diagnosed” as diabetic, who aren’t really; they’re sympromatic because of this medicine combination.
And now, what about the real diabetics, already-diagnosed-ahead-of-combo use? What about anyone for whom maintaining blood-sugar control is critical? The Stanford researchers were able to identify 104 of them, too, on the two drugs who had on average a shocking spike of 48 mg/dl!
Just to be sure of the ‘drug connection to blood sugar spikes’, they tested the drugs individually and then in combination on prediabetic lab mice. The Stanford group saw a dramatic spike in the sugar levels of the mice that were given both Paxil and Pravachol together—from around 128 mg/dl to a staggering 193 mg/dl.
If you happen to be on these two drugs — especially if you’re diabetic, then run —don’t walk — to your doctor’s office and ask him about getting off them ASAP (now)!
You know I always favor the most natural approach (as does Alice) and she suggests your physician consider alternatives like vitamin D, fish oil and exercise to ameliorate these conditions instead of the aforementioned drugs or to lessen the dose needed of the drugs.
It’s not as if these drugs have been shown to be all that helpful any way. One of the drugs has already been revealed to likely be no better than a sugar pill and to possibly cause thickening of the arteries and the other one to most likely be unnecessary. Your goal should be to get off them regardless of their effects on your blood-sugar level. Discuss how with your physician.
Lots of Food for Thought here. Make sure you act if you are taking this drug combo. You may even find out you’re not diabetic after all.
Best to all — Em
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