Posted on 05/25/2008 12:21:58 AM PDT by neverdem
xlnt
mark
“From my own experience I can tell you that prescription medications can cause blood sugar levels to rise, e.g., Dyazide, a diuretic given for blood pressure. Be advised that doctors are “clueless” about the side effects of the medications they’re handing out by the hundreds of thousands. Drug company representatives are sitting in your doctor’s offices by the dozens handing out “goodies” as they call them. I recommend going online to drugs.com, medications.com and other websites and investigate every drug you’re prescribed by your doctor. Know all the possible side effects so you will recognize them when they show up. We are now responsible for our own health, unfortunately. Doctors don’t know who you are and why you’re in their office and some don’t even care thanks to HMO’s.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I think you are probably right. I have observed that if I take my blood pressure meds some hours before getting up in the morning that the diuretic seems to have an effect. I surmise that it has something to do with increasing the amount of blood glucose in the blood as the fluid is being drawn down by the meds. Mine was 110 this morning. Four days ago it was 88 and I hadn’t taken the meds until just shortly before arising. I think there is a connection.
The reason I got particularly concerned about this was that even though I am a male I had a yeast infection about a year or so ago. Yes, it is possible. I was told by the doctor that this was an indication of diabetes which I immediately got interested. Then I developed eye problems which are legendary for being caused by diabetes. So I try to stay on top of this as much as is possible.
I do exercise and watch what I eat but I have noticed that it is harder and harder to keep the pounds off; especially around the middle which is supposed to be the most important. All my other blood work-ups have been fine but the glucose readings have been getting into the danger zone. I’m 64 but I don’t want to be walking around with a white cane or on stumps for legs in my declining years. This is a serious, serious medical condition. Personally, I would recommend that everyone monitor their blood pressure and blood glucose at home if they have any of the known indicators. In the end one’s health is in their own hands.
Now you're making me hungry.
Reading doesn’t help; I watch TV. I think the diversion doesn’t matter; exercise is hard, and so is dieting. That’s probably why so many people want to lose weight instead of actually losing weight.
I still urge everyone to do their homework on the side effects of their medications (ALL of them). Go to the FDA website. All drug companies have to report the side effects of every drug to the FDA. Here’s a portion of an interesting article. This pertains to all meds not just statins!!!!
Is Your Doctor in Denial? Survey Finds Physicians Often Dismiss Complaints About Drugs’ Side Effects
By Ishani Ganguli - Special to The Washington Post Tuesday, August 28, 2007; Page HE04
On many online message boards and Internet chat rooms, anxious patients share details about the muscle pain and memory loss they have noticed since they started taking statins to lower their cholesterol. A new study suggests these people may be seeking validation for good reason: Some of their complaints might otherwise be going unheard.
According to a survey of 650 patients published last week in Drug Safety, a peer-reviewed journal, doctors frequently ignored or dismissed patients’ concerns about such side effects. The study suggests this pattern of reaction goes beyond statins to other drugs. When doctors fail to recognize a patient’s symptoms as drug side effects, more than that patient’s care is put at risk. Because the doctor makes no “adverse event report” to the Food and Drug Administration, the regulatory agency may underestimate the problem, and other doctors and patients may assume the drug is safer than it is. Researchers from the University of California at San Diego had been investigating the side effects of statins when they noticed the problem.”Person after person spontaneously [told] us that their doctors told them that symptoms like muscle pain couldn’t have come from the drug. We were surprised at how prevalent that experience was,” said Beatrice Golomb, associate professor of medicine and the study’s lead researcher.
Tens of millions of people worldwide take statins such as Lipitor and Zocor. Many experts view them as something of a panacea for everything from stroke and cancer to arthritis, although they do pose a risk of side effects in some patients, ranging from muscle injury to liver and kidney dysfunction. Survey respondents, recruited via Web solicitations and other advertisements, were in their early 60s on average and mostly from the United States. Some of the solicitations were placed on Web sites where patients had posted complaints, raising the possibility that respondents were more apt to have had side effects than the average patient. Most said they’d complained to their doctors about such possible side effects as problems with memory or attention, or tingling or numbness in their hands and feet. According to experts, muscle pain and other side effects occur in up to 30 percent of statin patients, by some estimates, and often lead doctors to stop or change a prescription. But patients surveyed said their doctors rarely linked their symptoms to statins — even when the symptoms were well-documented as side effects. “Overwhelmingly, it was the patient that initiated that conversation” making the connection between the statin and their symptoms, Golomb said. Many doctors instead attributed the symptoms to the normal aging process, denied their connection to statins or dismissed the symptoms altogether — missing opportunities to switch their patients’ prescriptions or otherwise mitigate the side effects, Golomb said. When doctors fail to recognize a patient’s symptoms as drug side effects, more than that patient’s care is put at risk. Because the doctor makes no “adverse event report” to the Food and Drug Administration, the regulatory agency may underestimate the problem, and other doctors and patients may assume the drug is safer than it is. Researchers from the University of California at San Diego had been investigating the side effects of statins when they noticed the problem. “Person after person spontaneously [told] us that their doctors told them that symptoms like muscle pain couldn’t have come from the drug. We were surprised at how prevalent that experience was,” said Beatrice Golomb, associate professor of medicine and the study’s lead researcher. Tens of millions of people worldwide take statins such as Lipitor and Zocor. Many experts view them as something of a panacea for everything from stroke and cancer to arthritis, although they do pose a risk of side effects in some patients, ranging from muscle injury to liver and kidney dysfunction...
I agree. Statins are an iffy proposition. You are trading one set of issues for another and can actually do great harm long term. We all too often look for medications to fix our ills and buy into the marketing hype from manufacturers and subsequently doctors who sometimes are motivated by finances and ease of treatments. When it comes to your own health NOTHING can substitute for knowledge and taking control and care for yourself no matter what the disease or issue. Not to say all medications are bad or that we don’t need them. Drugs like penicillin and anesthetics for example were/are a godsend however we all too often look for something easy. None of it is necessarily easy but then again life itself is not exactly easy.
After hunting mammoth all day, they stopped by the BBQ place,lol!
But seriously...14 yr type 2 here...spent many yrs on that river in Egypt,realised I wasn’t immortal so I started to pay attention! Last A1C was 13.7 with morning BS at 275! Moved to Ga in Jan’08 and now my BS is 120. Using part of Nustrisystem for food,not too bad if you’ve spent your life in drive-thrus. Awaiting tests in June. Current(and Best)book I’ve read is Taking Control of Your Diabetes by Steven Edelman...lelarned more in this book than any diabetes seminar put on by hospitals! Prayer and good luck to all!
I was on all the statins at one time or the other! I read that they could cause ireversible muscle damage and stopped it. 3 days later,my legs stopped acheing..important cuz I worked in a whse!
Type 2 Diabetes is caused by too many refined carbohydrates without fiber.
I draw your attention to the web site of Dr Ron Rosedale a world class endocrinologist specializing in Insulin and Leptin.
Eating a high “complex” carbohydrate, low saturated fat diet for health and longevity has been shown, and perhaps even “proven,” to be wrong. Minimal common sense would say to try something else. Diabetes Is A Disease Of Nutrition, And It Is The Science Of Nutrition That Must Treat It. Science is telling us that we must eat a diet that maximizes the accuracy of insulin and leptin signaling allowing cells, you, to better listen to their life-giving messages. (The need for those hormones to have to “yell” to be heard is reduced and the levels of insulin and leptin are therefore lowered.) That would be the eating plan emphasizing good fats and reduced nonfiber carbohydrates/starches as outlined in my book “The Rosedale Diet” and Dr. Mercola’s “Total Health Program”. Doing so will greatly improve and even reverse type 2 “insulin resistant” diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, many other chronic diseases of aging, and even aging itself, as many of my patients who have been able to totally eliminate the use of their drugs, including insulin, can attest. Following those guidelines will let you — and your genes — “be the best that you can be.” Tags: Dr. Ron Rosedale, Diabetes Diet Written by Dr. Ron Rosedale, Author of The Rosedale Diet. insulin resistant diabetes, diabetes and heart disease, insulin levels, insulin injections, lowering blood sugarI have had Type II “insulin resistant” Diabetes for over ten years.
That, in itself, is an oxymoron since most of those “complex” carbohydrates, such as potatoes, rice, cereals, pasta, and breads rapidly turn to sugar and the excess sugar (glucose) rapidly turns into long-chain saturated fatty acids (palmitic acid; “palm oil”). Concomitant with that recommendation the incidence of diabetes and obesity has skyrocketed and has become one of the worst worldwide epidemics the world has ever seen.
Advanced Metabolic Labs
Thanks for the ping - always appreciated.
I put this Rosedale site on favorites to check it out later!
Thanks!
Thanks for the text & links.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.