I’m a big fan of Ben “Bad Science” Goldacre. This new TED talk by him highlights a huge problem. A “cancer at the core of evidence based medicine”, as Goldacre puts it. We don’t really know if the drugs we use work. We just believe that we know.
Goldacre has just published a book on the subject, called Bad Pharma. You can read the foreword on his blog. I ordered a copy right away.
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Here is a free full text paper in which Ben Goldacre was a co author.
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Ben Goldacre keynote Strata Conference London 2012
I think we should also insist that all medical research conducted with public funds or using data collected from publicly funded hospitals/universities is made available free online six months from journal publication.
Talking about the way pharmaceutical companies influence prescribing practice and make huge donations to Charities purporting to help patients with particular diseases lobby for expensive medications.
I'm sure I'll read Bad Pharma too, but in some ways I'm not really looking forward to it all that much. I've never been a very enthusiastic patient, but the more I find out about medicine, the less I like it.
http://www.sugaraholics.com
http://highfatlowcarbrecipes.wordpress.com
Even for us who are interested in what we eat for health, we must be aware of how food has become the new "medicine" and how we are being manipulated into thinking of food as the new drug.
FQs can induce permanent fibromyalgia-like pain and weakness, diabetes, ripped tendons, CNS excitotoxicity, seizures, low energy, neuropathy, IBS, clostridium difficile, wheel-chair-bound 20 year-olds, etc.....Much of this damage can be delayed (this delayed reaction, weeks, months, is written in many of the package inserts!).
There has been FQ coverage in NYTs, Huffington Post, Forbes, PBS in the last year. This is helpful but not nearly enough. I am going to buy Bad Pharma. My stack of similar books is growing as are my stacks of scientific papers. We need excellent blogs like this with educated readers. I hope that some of Ben's solutions are helpful.
Below I listed a few valuable scientific papers regarding FQs that you might be interested in reading or knowing about? I gave brief summary information.
Abdel-Saher et al. (2012) Involvement of glutamate, oxidative stresss and inducible nitric oxide synthase in the convulsant activity of ciprofloxacin in mice. European Journal of Pharmacology. 685:30-37.
Cipro induced seizures in a dose-dependent fashion. The brain tissues had increased glutamate and elevated oxidative stress. Note that many chronic neurological diseases include chronic high levels of glutamate and oxidative stress. See Blaylock's book Excitotoxicity and Pall's NO/ONOO hypothesis.
Hall et al. (2011) Musculoskeletal complications of fluoroquinolones: guidelines and precautions for usage in the athletic population. PM & R The Journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation. 3:132-142.
These three Mayo MDs recommend that FQs be used as a last resort in athletes; when one of the three MDs was asked on the phone if that meant everyone, he said yes.
Cohen JS (2001) Peripheral Neuropathy associated with fluoroquinolones. The Annals of Pharmacotherapy 35:1-7
Ten years ago, Cohen described the severity and persistence of FQ damage–which includes nerve damage–in a sample of ~50 people.
Leone R et al. (2003) Adverse drug reactions related to the use of fluoroquinolone antimicrobials: an analysis of spontaneous reports and fluorquinolone consumption data from three Italian regions. Drug Safety 26:109-120
Leone et al. examined FQs side by side in comparison to other antibiotics in a large Italian sample. FQs were far more dangerous than alternative antibiotics (significantly so, and the damage was in multiple body systems).
Lawrence JW et al. (1993) 4-Quinolones cause a selective loss of mitochondrial DNA from mouse L1210 Leukemia cells. Journal of Cellular Biochemsitry. 51:165-174.
Nearly 20 years ago Lawrence et al. demonstrated that FQs deplete and mutate mammalian mitochondrial DNA. The FDA does not check for this damage in their drug approvals. I called one of the authors and found that the funding dried up for this line of research.
Pharmageddon is real and it is very important to share information that can save our health and lives.
I find that eating LCHF completely helps stabilize my blood sugar; it seems to reduce my pain; and it may increase my energy. I believe that LCHF is neuroprotective (there is a scientific literature on this, you probably know this.).
Thank you Doc for your excellent blog.
Best,
Alan
Thanks for this, Doc. I love Ben Goldacre. I already have his Bad Science and have ordered Bad Pharma. I've also read other books of a similar vein and it scares the heck out of me. That's why I follow an LCHF WOE and stay away from meds as much as possible.
"In an interview, Mahyar Etminan, a pharmacological epidemiologist at the University of British Columbia, said the drugs were overused “by lazy doctors who are trying to kill a fly with an automatic weapon.”
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/popular-antibiotics-may-carr...
Oh and by the way, the ONLY delayed reaction language in the package inserts is about tendon issues and diarrhea. These warnings are on all the FQ labels. The problem is that there are NO warnings about delayed neurological issues on any FQ label. If you have an adverse reaction and it is delayed then it is too late to call your MD. Even when I called my MD twice he did not recognize my side effects while I took the FQs; my MD had no clue how to fix me either once I told him that I had numerous symptoms while I was taking FQs (there is no known treatment shockingly....).
Perhaps I should have included this blood sugar reference as well given that a LCHF lifestyle is very helpful to keep your blood sugar homeostasis in the face of FQ-induced carb-intolerance (or other causes):
Aspinall SL et al. (2009) Severe dysglycemia with the fluoroquinolones: a class effect? Clinical Infectious diseases. 49:402-408
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19545207
For example,
Ben says on page 111:
"If I were writing a lifestyle book, it would have the same advice on every page, and you'd know it all already. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables, and live your whole life in every way as well as you can: exercise regularly as part of your daily routine, avoid obesity, don't drink too much, don't smoke, and don't get distracted from the real, basic, simple causes of ill health."
Where is the protein and fat? Is Ben vegetarian? How can some people avoid obesity on fruit? How can some people maintain glucose homeostasis without fat and protein?
I think Ben should read Taubes and Bernstein as well as many scientific publications (start with the references here on dietdoctor).
Is there a limit?! Are we going crazy with non pharma lifestyle supplements, because pharma is clearly demonized, but these are not. I want to know should I be as wary of supplements as I am of prescription meds?! Any insights?