FARC Defeated In Colombia

Fausta Wertz analyzes the implications of the daring hostage rescue (if you don't know, Americans were rescued). I'm still snickering that these dumb-butts bought the Ché shirts worn by the Columbian military guys. You need to read her whole post. The thumbnail: Communism has been dealt a serious blow in South America. Obviously, this is good news for America and for anyone who values freedom.

It's worth noting that freedom is coming at the point of a gun with someone willing to die for it. That's usually how it works.

Hugo Chavez Beats Breast

Liberals and communists swoon.

Oh bleh. I feel the same way about Chavez as I do about Iraq's little troll Mookie al Sadr. Dull-witted, thuggish, and masters of intimidation, these guys are gutless underneath. That doesn't mean they won't bite if they have the chance, just that they will turn tail if pushed back. America needs to seriously push against Chavez. He's a menace explains Fausta:

What happens is that Chavez's minion Correa of Ecuador has been saying that Ecuador will not renew a 10-year lease on the base in the Pacific port of Manta when it expires next year. No one is surprised at Correa's position considering how he's under Chavez's orders, and how Venezuela has become the choice port of departure for the South American drug trade. After all,

Manta is the United States' only military base in South America. Surveillance flights the United States runs from there are responsible for about 60 percent of drug interdiction in the eastern Pacific.

As Ed points out,

In 2007, the Manta base caught 200 such [drug] transports in approximately 1200 missions.

Wow, it's so lovely the new economic prospects Chavez has brought Venezuela. It's amazing how quickly one person can destroy a country. Amazing and disturbing.

Antipsychotics and Children

In the last 20 years, antipsychotic use in children has nearly doubled. The problem is that there have been zero studies on efficacy, long-term side-effects, etc. for these drugs when used on children and adolescents:

Atypical antipsychotic drugs are currently only approved to treat adults suffering from such psychotic illnesses as schizophrenia, bipolar and other mood disorders, and Tourette''s syndrome. However, these drugs are often used to treat other psychiatric disorders for which they are not approved.

This group of antipsychotics includes Clozaril, Risperdal, Geodon, Seroquel, and Zyprexa.

There have been deaths and there are side-effects:

John March, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, prescribes the drugs to kids in some cases of serious illness when he thinks the benefits outweigh the risks. But he says prescribing them for behavior problems alone may be a mistake. "We have no evidence about the safety of these agents or their effectiveness in controlling aggression," he says. "Why are we doing this?"

At the same time, reports of deaths and dangerous side effects linked to the drugs are mounting. A USA TODAY study of FDA data collected from 2000 to 2004 shows at least 45 deaths of children in which an atypical antipsychotic was listed in the FDA database as the "primary suspect." There also were 1,328 reports of bad side effects, some of them life-threatening.

Drug companies are required to file any reports they have to the FDA, but consumers and doctors report such events on a voluntary basis. Studies suggest the FDA's Adverse Events Reporting System database captures only 1% to 10% of drug-induced side effects and deaths, "maybe even less than 1%," says clinical pharmacologist Alastair J.J. Wood, an associate dean at Vanderbilt Medical School in Nashville. So the real number of cases is almost certainly much higher.

"We're conducting a very large experiment on our children," March says.

Why are we doing this? Because parents seem clueless and powerless to handle an aggressive child with anger management issues. Because administrators and teachers are trying to minimize the disruption in classes. Because more and more children demonstrate the effects of poor nutrition, sleep habits, problem coping skills, media saturation, and rootlessness. Because doctors don't know what to do so they do something.

At the core, I hold doctors responsible. They prescribe mood altering medications as if they are no big deal. But these medications have huge implications for developing brains. If a child is on the med, a child is a walking experiment. Period.

Suicide in Mid-Life

Buried deep in the New York Time's article is the possible cause:

At the moment, the prime suspect is the skyrocketing use — and abuse — of prescription drugs. During the same five-year period included in the study, there was a staggering increase in the total number of drug overdoses, both intentional and accidental, like the one that recently killed the 28-year-old actor Heath Ledger. Illicit drugs also increase risky behaviors, C.D.C. officials point out, noting that users’ rates of suicide can be 15 to 25 times as great as the general population.

This seems plausible to me. There really isn't any understanding of how the meds affect people going on and off of them and mixing them. And then there is the fact that the Boomers may have the most difficult time with aging of any generation.

Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis in search of disease. It is descriptive of symptoms that vary from person to person. Doctors who even acknowledge the existence of fibromyalgia give the diagnosis as a last resort. To me, the diagnosis just means that the cause of the problems haven't been found.

Now a new drug to treat this ailment has been approved by the FDA. But to treat what? This is the heart of the controversy:

For patient advocacy groups and doctors who specialize in fibromyalgia, the Lyrica approval is a milestone. They say they hope Lyrica and two other drugs that may be approved this year will legitimize fibromyalgia, just as Prozac brought depression into the mainstream.

But other doctors — including the one who wrote the 1990 paper that defined fibromyalgia but who has since changed his mind — say that the disease does not exist and that Lyrica and the other drugs will be taken by millions of people who do not need them.

In some respects, the argument doesn't matter. The pain and symptoms are real enough. The question is what to do to help the patients. Often diet, exercise, and righting sleep problems can cure the problem. One of my first patients had "fibromyalgia". The cause was two-fold, but it took months of hunting to find the problems. First, she had banned pesticides from the 70s that had been seeping into their house. They removed that. Second, her husband snored something fierce and she hadn't slept for more than two hours in a row for over fifteen years. The latter problem was not something either of us thought of right from the beginning, but actually sleeping did more to reverse her symptoms than anything.

Here's my fibromyalgia protocol:

1. No naps.
2. No caffeine.
3. Set bed time.
4. Set bed time ritual.
5. Set wake-up time.
6. Light aerobic exercise for no more than 15 minutes around 3-4 p.m. (no later)
7. Lots of water.
8. Fresh diet: fruits, veggies, meat, light on carbs.
9. Testing for food allergies.
10. Testing for sub-clinical virus/bacteria infection.
11. Support the immune system.
12. Support other weak systems (right the hormones, if that's a problem).

There is no one treatment plan for fibromyalgia. There is no magic treatment plan. Often, the woman's health has deteriorated over decades. She has either been malnourished or had a virus she never recovered from or some other chronic stressor has chipped away at her health. Building back the body, and then psychologically getting congruent with the healing is often a long-term proposition.

With fibromyalgia, the woman has often felt crummy for years and years and just can't imagine not feeling bad. She doesn't remember what healthy felt like. She spends her days feeling the pain and that exacerbates the pain and further sensitizes her to it. It's a vicious cycle. She has also been dismissed by a multitude of doctors. She may end up in pain management. She may end up in the psychiatrist's office. And, she might need both, but she feels that her history and story haven't been honored.

With many fibromyalgia sufferers, there is often an underlying event that precipitates the episode. It takes some detective work to get to it. Sometimes the "cause" is never found but with enough lifestyle changes, the syndrome can be managed. Anecdotally, I've found that many fibromyalgia sufferers have suffered childhood traumas such as abuse, sexual abuse or something similar. This is not so strange. One of the history questions for Junior Rheumatoid Arthritis is whether the child has an alcoholic parent. Very often, he or she does. I have yet to work with a fibromyalgia patient who doesn't have an emotional component to the syndrome.

These ladies, and some men, need encouragement and support. They are, without fail, sensitive souls who I believe "absorb" the pain around them. Helping them to create boundaries both in their relationships and for their own psychological safety is paramount to future health. It is a frustrating disease and the people who endure the pain experience real suffering.

So, while I believe that fibromyalgia is a bogus diagnosis and shouldn't be masked with some new drug sure to score pharmaceutical companies money, I believe that these patients should be taken seriously. Something is wrong. That something needs to be found. And in these days of managed care, rushed appointments and overtaxed doctors, patients are often dismissed as crazy. It's just easier than admitting that the doctor is baffled.

Cholesterol Levels

So, American's cholesterol levels finally fit the neat little government parameters. Americans now have normal cholesterol compared with 1950 when the average 222. Cholesterol is down, but other health problems are up. I'll get to that in a minute.

First, there is no causation associated with cholesterol levels and any disease. None. I know, this is shocking with the obsession-compulsion you hear from doctors, the media and now prominent bloggers. But there's no scientific evidence that high cholesterol is bad.

Second, your body makes the biggest proportion of cholesterol. Diet provides a small percent of the body's need. In fact, when we don't injest enough cholesterol, our body bumps up production. Why? Because cholesterol is very important. Brain function, hormone production and a myriad of physiological processes rely on cholesterol. (A good article here.)

What about statins and cholesterol lowering drugs? Don't they cut heart disease? Um, no. They might help if you don't have heart disease, but if you do, they do nothing. So what's the point of taking them? Most people put on statins take them because they're diagnosed with heart disease.

And then, there are the side effects. Statins and cholesterol lowering medications are not the benign medical marvel they're made out to be. Certainly they work, but if you avoid one potential problem only to face another life-threatening or life-altering one, they might not seem so miraculous. So here's a few things that statins can do:

• Muscle wasting, myopathy
  
• Memory loss
• Reduced lung capacity, shortness of breath
• Liver disease (best link)
  
• Depression
• Lowered sex drive

It is actually this last symptom that people find the most egregious. Without cholesterol to make hormones, a person's sex drive plummets. This is no small thing. Quality of life is nearly as important as quantity of life. A guy who has high cholesterol and trades his sex drive for the right numbers might actually prefer to have a heart attack. The statins aren't the only thing that changes a person's libido. Combined with blood pressure medication (which it often is), the medication taker can feel depressed, anxious and lose vitality.

The solution, of course, is more medication and surgery. Anti-depressants, drugs for erectile dysfunction, and hysterectomies for the female problems sure to surface. It is my belief that statins will be the next big medical hoax following HRT and arthritis drugs.

Be wary of magic pills. Good health comes from good diet, exercise, and happiness. Oh, and good genes don't hurt, either.

Methicillin-resistant S taphylococcus au reus: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

PHOTO: What's that? Read and find out.


MRSA, the bug in the headline, killed my son ten years ago. He acquired it in the hospital where most people used to acquire it. The bacteria was made supersonic by being exposed to increasing doses of increasingly strong antibiotics.

But then it escaped.

Many people are colonized with MRSA now, including my husband and I, presumably, and of course my surviving son. My surviving son ended up in isolation in the hospital. He was colonized with MRSA and could be a threat to other patients. At two pounds he wouldn't jump out of bed and hug the other babies, but the doctors and nurses caring for him might touch him and then touch another baby without washing their hands (something I saw often enough while there for four months).

Last year, my kid's pediatrician lamented the epidemic (she used the word) of normal old flesh wounds (cuts, abrasions) becoming infected with MRSA. She told me she had at least one case a week. She's not alone, evidently:

In the new study, Fridkin and his colleagues analyzed data collected in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Tennessee, identifying 5,287 cases of invasive MRSA infection and 988 deaths in 2005. The researchers calculated that MRSA was striking 31.8 out of every 100,000 Americans, which translates to 94,360 cases and 18,650 deaths nationwide. In comparison, complications from the AIDS virus killed about 12,500 Americans in 2005.

"This indicates these life-threatening MRSA infections are much more common than we had thought," Fridkin said.

In fact, the estimate makes MRSA much more common than flesh-eating strep infections, bacterial pneumonia and meningitis combined, Bancroft noted.

"These are some of the most dreaded invasive bacterial diseases out there," she said. "This is clearly a very big deal."

And that, clearly, is an understatement.

I'm not one for excessive overreaction to medical news stories. Seems like everything these days can kill you. HOWEVER, this is one story you should be very concerned about. Every time you go to the hospital, and increasingly, schools and other group environments, you're at risk to this bacteria that's everywhere.

Same advice as always, people: Stop using antibiotics unless you're nearly dead anyway. And when you use them, don't stop when you feel better. Knock out the bacteria. In addition, take probiotics--those supplements that introduce good bacteria (This is one of my favorite brands.) while taking antibiotics so your system isn't open to every bug that comes along after you beat the infection with an antibiotic. And finally, be fastidious about wound washing. Wash your hands. Good hygiene. (Read more here about getting out of the bathroom with clean hands.)

The unfortunate thing now is that it doesn't matter how circumspect you've been about antibiotic overuse in the past, your neighbor hasn't. And enough neighbors and their doctors have given useless antibiotics (for viruses, for example) that the bugs are strengthening. And if you get sick by one of these strengthened bugs, you'll need the heavy artillery to kill them. And the heavy artillery, itself, could kill you.

Last thought: Go wash your hands, clean your computer keyboard, clean your mouse, clean all your phones and clean your light switches and door handles. Switch out your hand-towels. Use disposable hand-towels during flu season. Don't shake hands at church (my husband told me nearly none of the men wash their hands--and statistically this bears out, only about 40% of men wash their hands after going to the bathroom). If you do shake hands, carry around the waterless hand sanitizer.

The alternative is using maggots. It works. But they're maggots. That's a diabetes ridden, infected foot with maggots.

Exercise Stops Depression As Well As Meds

Good news depression sufferers! You just need to get moving-if you're a depressed person inclined to exercise. Although, that's usually just the problem. If you're depressed you don't want to do anything, including exercise. But maybe, if doctors start prescribing personal trainers or the gym, people will kick depression that way.

Pharmacists Have Had It, Too

The web is full of all sorts of intelligent, um, incisive people. The Angry Pharmacist is my new favorite. Here's what he says about Medicaid users on Clomid (the drug that forces your ovaries to pop multiple eggs thus increasing your chance of pregnancy):

That sounds pretty much like welfare to me.

I dont know where you got the bum idea. Obviously you are so ignorant that you walk around with a Medicaid chip on your shoulder looking for a fight. The whole rant you were complaining about was that Medicaid patients (who you say are "dissabled and on ssi or welfare or medicaid") should not be entitled to fertility drugs. So am I mean for making a legit point? Or are you just an idiot for wanting to bring children into this world that you self-proclaim you cannot afford.

I'm not against having children (unless you're 14, more on that later), just not while you require society's dime to survive. I guess common sense like that is why I'm a pharmacist and you aren't.

My favorite post so far, though, is about Heather, The Human Shield. Heather is the poor dear fronting for Insurance companies looking to screw doctors and patients. Here's the Angry Pharmacist's take:

So it pains me to be upset when I hear Heather's voice on the other end. I know its not her fault that her employer is retarded, or that the wrong ID number got printed on the card. I know that if she ran the world everything would probably work smoothly. Shes there to pay her rent and buy herself food. She is probably going to college or basically cant get a job anywhere else. Here we are screaming at them for something that they have absolutely no control over just to vent our frustration. Are we any better than those asshole doctors who scream at us because expensive-drug-x is $900?

So next time you're all fired up about WellCare not having the right ID number, and you hear Healthers voice on the other end, think of this post and realize that its not Heathers fault. She's there to do a job much like you are and probably goes home and rags on pharmacists like I ran on Drug Reps.

(Yeah, I realize this post isn't full of hate, bad words, sexual talk or anything like that. It just sorta struck a nerve that I'm sure lives deep down within all pharmacists. I'll try better next time. Fuck insurance companies and drug reps..There.. All better.. :-) )

Everyone loves their pharmacist, but pharmacists are people, too.


H/T Instapundit

King of My Castle Doctrine

Texas' Castle Doctrine law came on the books three day before a shooting inside a musicians home resulted in another dead musician and many anguished fans:

Dallas police Sgt. Larry Lewis says his department isn't pursuing charges against the neighbor who shot Albrecht due in large part to the new "castle doctrine" law that allows a person to protect their property with deadly force.

Coincidentally, the neighbor involved in the shooting is also a musician. Logg, 54, is a blues guitarist who goes by the nickname "Smokey" and has recorded multiple albums.

Albrecht had been a keyboard player for Edie Brickell & New Bohemians since 1999 and had played several times with Brickell's husband, Paul Simon.

Imagine being the person on the inside of the house, shouting unheeded warnings, as a huge, raving man is trying to kick your door in. The people call 911. They screamed warnings. A warning shot was sent high through the door. Should he be tried for murder?

Under the Castle Doctrine, a person doesn't have to attempt to retreat, he can defend himself. So a grand jury will look at it. It seems they can only find the obvious: he defended himself.

There is a difference between defense and vigilantism. Jodi Foster's movie deals with this subject, but she believes guns are bad, bad, bad. I just don't believe her. If a huge, drug-crazed man was coming through her door, would she defend herself and her children? She'd be immoral if she didn't.

An important aside about the medication the dead man was on:

The story that emerged later was much more complicated. This was no raging lunatic — his girlfriend said he had never came close to such behavior. Indeed, he is invariably described as “even-tempered and sometimes shy,” and that never changed with alcohol in the mix, friends said.

Earlier that night, he had about five drinks, according to his best friend. That would’ve rated as a normal night, except that he was also taking an anti-smoking drug called Chantix for about a week. Mr. Albrecht and his girlfriend, who was also on the drug, previously mentioned “crazy, insane, almost horrific dreams” while on the drug. More from Danny Balis, the friend:

Was it a combination of sleep deprivation, booze, and the stop-smoking pills that sent him off? It’s the only explanation i can even think of. What was described to me sounded like a walking black out. In my years of knowing him, and all the girls he dated, I have never once heard of him getting abusive or physical with them. It was not his character. Especially with the woman that I know for a fact he loved dearly.

“I really believe it was the drug,” Ryann Rathbone, his girlfriend, told The Dallas Morning News.

If this is the case, it is doubly a tragedy.

Thanks to KAL for the tip.