Posted on 02/19/2010 9:49:49 PM PST by neverdem
Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a controversial diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market.
The reports, obtained by The New York Times, say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar pill named Actos, about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be averted every month because Avandia can hurt the heart. Avandia, intended to treat Type 2 diabetes, is known as rosiglitazone and was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of 2009.
“Rosiglitazone should be removed from the market,” one report, by Dr. David Graham and Dr...
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These concerns, in internal reports dated October 2008 but not made public until now, were later overruled by other agency officials, and GlaxoSmithKline is currently enrolling patients in the TIDE trial. The trial is not expected to be completed until 2020, although the company is hoping to report some results to the F.D.A. by 2014. The company’s patent on Avandia expires in 2012, and generic versions will probably swallow most remaining profits.
In a letter sent Thursday to Dr. Hamburg, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Mr. Baucus and Mr. Grassley asked “what steps the F.D.A. has taken to protect patients in the TIDE trial” and said the trial’s patients had never been told about the concerns raised by the agency’s own safety officers...
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So company executives gathered dozens of Avandia studies and sifted their combined data. Called a meta-analysis, this combined look found first in 2005 and in an updated look in 2006 that Avandia increased the risks of serious heart problems by nearly a third, the Senate investigation shows. Because two-thirds of diabetics die of heart problems, this was hugely worrying...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Strange that one of the biggest arguments for prescription medication over herbals and natural methods is that they’ve been thoroughly tested and studied and are safer than the alternatives.
The medical and scientific communities have deemed it so and they would lie to us, would they? They just have our best interests at heart and don’t have anything to gain by lying, do they?
But what with the things we’ve seen lately, it’s just so much buffalo chips....
Please do not insult harmless buffalo chips which, when dried thoroughly, burn with a clean flame. Or compost, to enrich the soil!
Herbs unless used in great quantities, or with practically willful blindness, can cause very, very little harm, if any.
Pharmaceuticals?
How many tens of thousands die every year from side effects, wrong medication, wrong combinations with other drugs, etc?
My PCP was pushing me to go on statins about the time they announced that they found statins were causing heart attacks in women, back in November, IIRC.
But that announcement died pretty quickly. It just never seemed to get much traction.
I changed my diet, lost weight as a result and my cholesterol dropped like a rock. It’s now to the point where I don’t have to listen to them rag on me about it and if they push the issue, my numbers are close enough to what they want that I can legitimately argue with them to get them to back off.
There is not one single prescription drug on the market with an active patent, that does not have a long list of potentially fatal side effects that are stronger and more probable than the ‘indication’ for which it is generally prescribed.
I became an herbalist because of natural inclination, but also because almost every pharmaceutical drug I’ve ever had gave me horrible side effects; plus I had ailments that no medicine seemed to help.
I’ve had anaphylactic shock from penicillin that came on very fast; fortunately I was already in the hospital so they saved my life, the reaction went from nothing to almost no breathing in about 10 minutes.
I’ve cured myself of crippling RA with herbs and diet.
So, I like herbs.
Good for you!!!
I’ve found a number of herbs that help lower cholesterol, and don’t even taste bad - hawthorne and hibiscus are two. I actually make a formula I call Natural C Plus with those two herbs plus rosehips, amalaki, and orange and lemon peel. Tastes good even. Helps with high BP, anemia, has tons of natural Vit C, normalizes cholesterol, etc. But fine to take even if someone has okay chol. and BP.
I really like herbs.
I lost 37 pounds in the last year. No more insulin and half the Lovaza and Janumet I was taking. Another 30 and maybe bye-bye to those too.
I read some of the ads in magazines when I get the chance and it’s frightening what these drugs will do to you.
Fosamax is one. For all they tout it, it’s only supposed to increase your bone density about 2% over the course of a year or two and it is NASTY stuff.
Simply not worth it when calcium, magnesium, Vitamin D, diet, and exercise will do more.
IMO, many of these drugs are the lazy way out. People want a quick and easy fix and it’s easier to pop a pill that make the lifestyle changes necessary to reach your goal.
Most prescription drugs are placebos at best.
Fosamax is a guarantee of kidney destruction, and 20 years off of your life.
Herbs are what the Lord gave us!
The quacks hate them, because of being put out of business when patients find out how well they work.
My mom had been struggling with arthritis in her mid sixties when a friend told her to take alfalfa pills. They were tough to take because they were large, dry, difficult to swallow, and she needed at least eight per day to get relief. The relief lasted 24 hours though, and besides being dirt cheap they didn't rot your stomach lining like the NSAIDs.
Then in her seventies we noticed that if she forgot to take them there wasn't any pain. Then if she forgot to buy them, there STILL wasn't any pain. It was gone for good, complete remission. She's 86 now and it never came back.
So I'm 52, and I now have arthritis so that's what I take. Walmart still sells it, so it must work for a lot of people.
I wouldn’t get to hyped up over this. If you look past the media and look at the science....avandia appears to be a safe drug when used properly. 7 long term studies conducted by the likes of the NIH, VA, ADA and others have all found the CV risk to be similar to that of the 1st line generics prescribed by almost all doctors.
Of course if you are one of those who thinks the press doesn’t take things out of context........
Having good numbers is not enough, just had 5 stents put in, and my numbers were perfect. Doc called it the "Full Metal Jacket." If I had been exercising, on the tread mill like the doc wanted, I would probably have dropped dead.
I had several nuclear stress tests, which found nothing. Trust your feelings about your body. A 95% blockage of the left artery also known as the widow maker, is not good. Right coronary took the doc 2 hours to open, had to use a drill, and I didn't even know they could do that.
I agree.
You know, when your number is up, it’s up. Nobody lives forever.
Dealing with the food allergy problems I’ve had has really made me face my own mortality. I know where I’m going when I die, and although I’m not in a hurry to get there, better though it will be, I’m not going to lose sleep over it.
Needing a drill is pretty bad. I never heard of that either.
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