Category Archives: Drug Safety

Do Beta Blockers Prevent Death Or Contribute To It?

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Your doctor prescribes yet another drug for you, this time it’s Beta Blockers.

Do you take it?

Is it responsible to question your doctor before swallowing?

It’s tough to feel confident enough to question your doctor, but if you don’t ask questions, do you know what you are risking?

 

First, let’s take a look at the side effects you might expect from taking Beta Blockers:

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) associated with the use of beta blockers include:

  • nausea
  • diarrhoea
  • bronchospasm
  • dyspnea
  • cold extremities
  • exacerbation of Raynaud’s syndrome
  • bradycardia
  • hypotension
  • heart failure
  • heart block
  • fatigue
  • dizziness
  • abnormal vision
  • decreased concentration
  • hallucinations
  • insomnia, nightmares
  • clinical depression
  • sexual dysfunction, erectile dysfunction
  • alteration of glucose and lipid metabolism.

Clinical guidelines in Great Britain, but not in the United States, call for avoiding diuretics and beta-blockers as first-line treatment of hypertension due to the risk of diabetes.

(article originally published on News-Medical.net)

 

WOAH!  Hold the phone!  Is it worth risking all that? Continue reading Do Beta Blockers Prevent Death Or Contribute To It?

Are You Concerned About Meformin Side Effects?

Bright lights at the end the hospital corridor. The concept of l

Metformin has become down right fashionable!

Everybody is taking it!

Has your doctor offered you Meformin yet for your “pre-diabetes condition”?

Before you decide that you can’t risk high blood sugar and you need to take the drug your doctor is pushing, you really should take a look Metformin side effects. Continue reading Are You Concerned About Meformin Side Effects?

Can You Stand Up To Insulin Resistance? Is It Really That Simple?

Play to reduce insulin resistance

Insulin resistance has become a new buzz word.

It’s “PRE” diabetes, as they say.  So, you might feel like you don’t need to worry … yet.

You don’t have trouble with your blood sugar, you are just “insulin resistant”.

What the heck is insulin resistance?

 

Put it this way.  If you have any “pre-diabetes condition”, you have reason to be concerned about blood sugar.

You need stable blood sugar to fuel your body.

High blood sugar fuels the inflammation that causes all chronic illness.

You don’t want to feed bad gut bacteria, and you don’t want to feed inflammation.

Too much sugar in your blood stream feeds both!

 

What do you do to control your blood sugar short of drugging it?

You might be surprised to learn that one of the biggest problems contributing to your dysfunctional insulin is SITTING.

Yes, sitting!

Do you sit a lot?

Chances are you do!

These days technology has us looking down AND sitting down far too often!

 

Dr. Joan Vernikos, former director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division and author of Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, wants us to know why sitting has such a dramatic impact on your health, and how you can simply and easily counteract the ill effects of sitting.

Dr. Mercola is offering a recent interview with the brilliant doctor from his web site.

Below you’ll find an excerpt from the article, and the link to the video of the interview.

It’s well worth your time.

 

Dr. V found out: Continue reading Can You Stand Up To Insulin Resistance? Is It Really That Simple?

Do You Know the Risks of Long Term Corticosteroid Use?

Side effects of corticosteroids

If you take into account the long term risks of corticosteroids it will motivate you to improve your health to avoid them or get OFF of them.

If you are using steroids long term, you likely already know that it can be very harmful to stop taking them or even to miss a dose.  When your doctor attempts to wean you off of them, he or she will do it very slowly.  Rapid weaning of steroids can cause dangerous complications!

Respiratory complications can get dangerous fast!

 

The post below was curated from patient.uk.com

This information highlights the importance of notifying caregivers of your steroid use for one year AFTER you take them.

STEROID TREATMENT CARD

Notes for Patients:

  • If you have been taking this medicine for more than 3 weeks, the dose should be reduced gradually when you stop taking steroids unless your doctor says otherwise.
  • Read the patient information leaflet given with the medicine.
  • Always carry this card with you and show it to anyone who treats you. For one year after you stop treatment you must mention that you have taken steroids.
  • If you become ill, or if you come in contact with anyone who has an infectious disease, consult your doctor promptly. If you have never had chickenpox, you should avoid close contact with people who have chickenpox or shingles. If you do come into contact with chickenpox, see your doctor urgently.
  • Make sure the information on the card is kept up to date.

Adverse effects are dose-related and often predictable according to the glucocorticoid actions (eg diabetes, osteoporosis, muscle wasting, neuropsychiatric effects) and mineralocorticoid actions (eg hypertension, and electrolyte and fluid balance).
There is a wide range of adverse effects:

  • Cardiovascular: hypertension; congestive cardiac failure.
  • Central nervous system: mood disturbance (including mania), psychosis, sleep disturbance
  • Endocrine/metabolic: adrenal suppression, growth failure in children, insulin resistance, diabetes, disturbance of thyroid function, hypokalaemia, metabolic alkalosis.
  • Gastrointestinal: gastric effects (peptic ulceration, etc.), fatty liver.
  • Haematopoietic: leukocytosis and other effects (eg reduced eosinophils and monocytes).
  • Immune system:
    • Suppression type IV hypersensitivity (interferes with Mantoux’ test).
    • Inhibitory effects (leukocytes, macrophages, cytokines).
    • Suppression of primary antigen response (important with vaccines).
  • Musculoskeletal system:
    • Myopathy (especially proximal muscles).
    • Osteoporosis.
    • Avascular necrosis of bone.
  • Ophthalmic: cataracts (more common in children), elevation of intraocular pressure, glaucoma.
  • Skin and other systems: moon face, truncal obesity, dorsolumbar hump, acne, thin skin, skin striae (violaceous), impotence, irregular periods.

In addition to the disadvantages of longer-term treatment, there are several clinical scenarios worthy of special mention:

Corticosteroids and surgery

Adrenal suppression caused by steroid therapy may result in an inadequate adrenocortical response to surgery (acute adrenocortical insufficiency can precipitate hypotension and death).

Anaesthetists must be informed when patients have taken corticosteroids within 3 months of surgery

Corticosteroids and live vaccines

Live vaccines should not be given within 3 months of:

  • An adult receiving 40 mg/day of prednisolone or equivalent for more than a week.
  • A child receiving either 2 mg/kg/day for 1 week or 1 mg/kg/day for 1 month.

Corticosteroids in pregnancy and breast-feeding

The 1997 review of the CSM looked at safety in pregnancy and lactation. This stressed again the importance of weighing risk and benefit.

Corticosteroids and infection

Corticosteroids affect the severity and clinical presentation of infections as well as susceptibility to infections.

original source of article:  www.patient.co.uk

 

This information also highlights the importance of attending to your health sooner than later!

You may get sick enough to warrant the use of corticosteroids if you don’t do the work that needs to be done now!

Bless Your Heart with the Life Breath Club and you won’t need to worry about health crisis!

Bless Your Heart 

  • learn to process your emotions with your breathing
  • navigate life from your heart space
  • nurture your mind, body and spirit

In order to cause rapid healing and avoid health crisis and hospitalization!

 

Discover the truth about your healing potential and get your life back!

If you aren’t a Masters Member of the Life Breath Club, get serious about blessing your heart and join today!

Avoid Steroids -> Bless Your Heart

 

Many blessings,

Carrie Tucker, RCP

The Life Breath Coach

Heart Failure Solutions

 

PS-  Your health will improve quickly!

You’ve got to be pretty sick to consider high blood pressure and congestive heart failure to be risks worth taking!

Use your Life Breath knowledge to Bless Your Heart!  You will improve quickly!  Keep your Faith and good luck!

How Are Corticosteroids Bad For You And Why Does Your Doctor Use Them Anyway?

Side effects of corticosteroids

You’ve heard all the bad stuff about steroids and athletes, but have you considered how bad medical corticosteroids are?

Do you understand what harm steroids pose and why your doctor might choose to use them anyway?

Educate yourself about steroids so that you know what you might want to avoid and what to look for if you need to use them!

Remember, breath awareness results in increased health through better utilization of oxygen.  The work you do with the Life Breath Club has the potential to help you nurture your health and avoid dangerous health crisis that drive you to use drugs with dangerous side-effects!

 

Let’s start with the reasons your doctor might consider adding a round of steroids to your care plan.

Hydrocortisone (cortisol) is secreted by the adrenal cortex and contains hormones that are important in glucose metabolism.

Since the 1940s synthetic glucocorticoids have been developed for their anti-inflammatory and “immuno-modulatory” effects.

If you experience extreme swelling or difficulty breathing these drugs seem like a Godsend!

Reduce your inflammation and calm down your over excited immune system … what could be better?

A medical panacea!

Well, except for the side effects …

 

If you just use a short course of steroids to help you through a crisis there are still side effects that you should consider and watch for.

Some of these side effects may need immediate attention, so you don’t want to wait for trouble if you choose to use steroids, be pro-active.

WATCH for trouble if you use steroids.

Side effects seem annoying but harmless for short term use:

  • increase in appetite
  • difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
  • changes in mood and behavior
  • flushing (redness) of the face
  • short-term weight gain due to increased water retention

#1  Take into consideration that increased appetite may cause unstable blood sugars and steroids are capable of elevating blood sugars as well.

The combination may prove more than you bargained for.

You don’t have a blood sugar (diabetes) concern UNTIL you do!

#2  Flushing redness in the face may be embarrassing but it also points to a worrisome issue with blood pressure.

As with blood sugar, you don’t know you have blood pressure issues UNTIL you do!

#3  Difficulty sleeping and normal emotional processing can cause water retention.

Add to that, medically induced fluid retention, insomnia, and emotional instability and even a 72 hour course of steroid could cause very significant fluid retention!

Congestive heart failure can go undiagnosed for years.  Sometimes fluid in your lungs sounds like wheezing and heart failure is mis-diagnosed as asthma.

Even if you don’t know you have heart failure, a small increase in fluid retention could be very harmful.

 

Side effects that are more concerning are listed as “complications” of underlying disease:

  • blood sugar elevation
  • blood pressure elevation
  • acute heart failure

 

We are still talking about short term use of steroids.

The conversation changes a LOT when we discuss LONG term use of corticosteroids.

That can be an over whelming subject!

I’ll dig into just how deadly steroids can be in my next members only post.

 

In the meantime, IF you need to take steroids for any reason:

  • check your blood pressure frequently
  • monitor your blood sugar or report any unusual symptoms to your doctor
  • don’t be quick to drug elevated glucose levels following a short term course of steroids, it may be unnecessary AND dangerous!
  • watch your weight for sudden extreme gain and communicate with your doctor because this could be dangerous
  • steroids are often given to help  you breathe easier, but be aware that side-effects may cause MORE difficulty breathing

 

What other questions do you have for the Life Breath Coach?

Ask our questions in the comment section below.

 

Many blessings,

Carrie Tucker, RCP

The Life Breath Coach

Heart Failure Solutions

 

Is Red Bull A Cocktail Of Deadly Drugs?

Red Bull

This drink is SOLD in all the supermarkets IN OUR country and our children are consuming it on a TRIAL BASIS.

Everyday, our children are in danger.

RED BULL can be FATAL!

Red Bull was created to stimulate the brains in people who are subjected to great physical force and in stress coma.  It was never intended to be consumed like an innocent drink or soda pop.

Red Bull has been touted as the energizer drink that “increases endurance, awakens the concentration capacity and the speed of reaction, offers more energy and improves the mood.”

The commercial says:

RED BULL, Power Drink Of The Millennium

But seriously, this stuff is more like:

RED BULL, Fatal Intoxicant Of The Millennium

In almost one hundred countries around the world, people are dying to be stimulated!

 

Dietrich Mateschitz, of Austria, is the person we can thank for this atrocity.

It happened during a business trip to Hong Kong , when he was working at a factory that manufactured toothbrushes.

This toxic drink containing caffeine, taurine and glucuronolactone was causing quite the “rage” in Hong Kong.

Mr. Mateschitz saw the opportunity to become an entrepreneur.

Glucuronolactone is a very dangerous chemical.

It was developed by the United States Department of Defense to stimulate the moral of the troops based in Vietnam.

 

The drug has a hallucinogenic effect that researchers claimed would calm the stress of war.

However, when they tested this theory in the field it didn’t pan out.

There seemed to be too much damage caused by the drug.

Migraines, cerebral tumors and diseases of the liver were endured by the soldiers serving as guinea pigs for the research.

It was discontinued for use to calm the stress of war, but it is still categorized medically as a stimulant.

 

Glucuronolactone is illegal in France and Denmark.

The energizing function of this drug accelerates the heart rate and can cause a sudden heart attack!

There are components in Red Bull that dilute your blood.

Cerebral hemorrhage and other bleeding issues may occur because your vessels achieve much greater pressures much easier.

If you mix Red Bull with alcohol it may deliver a knockout punch to your liver!

Regular consumption of Red Bull will cause irreversible nerve damage!

 

Young people are particularly vulnerable to this dangerous product!

You remember when you were young and invincible!

This stuff is sold on grocery store shelves so it doesn’t seem so dangerous as experimenting with street drugs, but nothing could be further from the truth!

Please talk to your loved ones and spread this message.

Red Bull should be illegal in EVERY country, but until they stop hurting people in this country, it’s up to us to spread the word.

 

The good news is that there is an alternative!

An “energy drink” that supplements your nutrition and introduces NO poison into your diet could drastically improve the health of young and old alike!

My family has had great luck with Vemma.  One of my kids loves the taste and the other two love how much better they feel when they take it.  So I can get it into them without a fight!  That’s the part I really love!  It ends the argument over poisonous energy drinks!  They offer a product with a more natural source of caffeine but my family uses the caffeine free version and has still noticed a significant increase in energy.  Especially mom!  I need all the help I can get to keep up with those youngsters!

Check it out.  It might be an easy button for your family too.

Healthier Energy Drink

 

Be well!

Many BLESSings,

Carrie Tucker, RCP

The Life Breath Coach

Heart Failure Solutions

 

PS– Remember everyday:

  • Relax and Release tension
  • Exhale Slowly
  • Be active in a way that adds Joy to your life

Plus pure water ~whole foods~sunshine~and laughter