Posted on 11/18/2004 5:50:28 PM PST by neverdem
My doctors are always prescribing a drug instead of promoting a healthy lifestyle, diet and exercise (groan!). I have to take MORE coumadin, MORE lipitor, when to me it looks like my cholesterol is doing fine. I refuse to take MORE until I can prove my diet is taking care of it, or will take care of it when I get serious about it. I don't eat a lot of crap.
Steroids taken systemically (as a pill or a shot) can have nasty side effects. Inhaled steroids are similar to using steroid creams on the skin: they do not have systemic side effects. And, it is NOT recommended to use Serevent without inhaled steroids. Believe me.
No kidding! I was on Vioxx and got a bleeding ulcer. Four units of blood later, I am still alive, but I'll never take anything like that ever again.
I can give a list of serious problems resulting from prescription drugs in people I know. As a matter of fact, my mom's life is a living hell right now because of them. Her problems spill over onto all the family. People are stupid to not question the safety of drugs.
I still have major problems w/ the inhaled steriods. You wouldn't want to be around me when I've had them!!
Thalidomide
At any rate, best of luck to you with managing your asthma.
That was an unusual case (and also a very old one, which happened under much more primitive research technology than is in current use), but my point still holds. The level of scrutiny and standards of proof currently required for new drug approval delay new drugs by years -- and most of those drugs have benefits that far outweigh their incidence (if any) or serious side effects. All the people who died or suffered serious harm due to those delays need to be offset against the few who are harmed or killed by the occasional premature approval of a drug that turns out to have serious problems.
Lots of innocent people have gotten killed in Iraq since the U.S. military went in, but only loony leftists fail to offset that number against the much greater number of innocent people who were getting killed every year before we went in, and would have continued getting killed if we had stayed out.
Check the records. Thalidomide was never approved by the FDA which was then under much stricter scrutiny standards than today. It was never sold in the US until recent years as a treatment for leprosy --- Hanson's Disease. The damage in the 1950s and 60s was done primarily in Western Europe and Canada where the drug was rushed through the approval process. The only Americas damaged by Thalidomide (actually their children)were those who obtained the drug in either Europe, Mexico or Canada.
I would argue that with mass marketed drugs, approval should always error on the side of caution. The FDA used to do that and in just that one case of Thalidomide , saved many hundreds of thousands of people from a very grisley fate. Today, I have my doubts they excersice the proper caution.
the reason to use inhaled steroids is that they don't cause the side effects of oral steroids. And the steroids prevent the edema from the allergic process that contributes to deaths in asthmatics.
If you wheeze without allergic componant, don't use steroids. If you have mild asthma with an allergic component, use Singulair to block this secondary reaction (due to leukotrienes).
But if you use your inhalers more than twice a week, you need to use something to prevent wheezing.
I only use Serevent, and agree with you there. But during hayfever season, I add local steroids since anti histoamines and even Singulair make me sleepy...(I even get sleepy with Clariten). So I use steroids as a first line during allergy season, but the rest of the year, I don't, I only use singulair when it's bad, and Serevent when I wheeze, since I can't tolorate the jitteryness from Albuterol.
I don't wheeze too much anymore (did when i was a kid, but not now). Mine is more of contriction of my airways & being allergic to dust, I have allergey problems all year. Have had some improvement w/ the allergy shots I just finished.
Singlar had no effect on me. I'm taking accolate right now, but I haven't notice really any difference w/ the accolate or with out it. :-)
try advir 100/50 for minimal steroid...most of our COPD patients use this low dose. Our allergic types use 250/50 or 500 /50 to get higher steroid.
At least allergy shots worked for you. Lots of insurance and HMO won't pay for them...they worked for my mom, but I never had time to go to the allergist since there are none nearby to do testing and I am controlled with Asthmacort.
My husband is on Lipitor -- someone at work told him Crestor was better -- when he asked his cardiologist about it, the doctor said that Crestor, in his experience, was not as good a drug for that purpose as Lipitor. He obviously didn't want to prescribe it.
Carolyn
Exactly ---- even those that don't require a prescription are. Everyone should check the listings in the PDR before they take drugs --- and remember that those are just the known side-effects.
They also can be --- and they aren't necessary if someone eats a well-rounded diet of just real food.
I allege few eat a well-rounded diet.
Medical doctors only know how to prescribe drugs. They're dangerous and no thought is given as to long-term side effects. I've seen too many horror stories to ever put my trust blindly into taking any prescription drug a doctor prescribes. I'll research it first before I take it.
Re: Crestor - everyone I know who has been on a low carb diet has lowered total cholesterol & "bad" cholesterol and raised good cholesterol. FWIW.
I find it interesting that doctors seldom ask patients about their eating habits --- how often they drink soft drinks, eat junk foods and all. If the patient has high cholesterol it's just a new prescription. I know a man who had emboli from a hypercoagulation disorder 10 years ago who was told he had to take coumadin -- he said that is rat poison so he told the doctor no thanks --- instead he just takes one aspirin a day and doesn't need expensive lab tests monthly and he said he's had no problems in 10 years doing this. He doesn't have to worry about what he eats--- he can eat salads which he couldn't if on coumadin, he doesn't have to worry about bleeding to death because he watches himself for bruising and bleeding from minor cuts.
Sorry, but I have no faith in traditional medicine any longer. Doctors scare me to death. I wouldn't hestitate to see a doctor for an injury but for chronic illness, they're dangerous.
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