If your medication causes sodium retention you will gain weight and may become obese

There are many medications that cause sodium retention/fluid retention/water retention/weight gain/obesity/edema/swelling. Here are some of them: steroids and HRT, most antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-epileptics, anticonvulsants, and more.

If you have become overweight/obese because of drug-induced sodium retention, you need to reduce your salt intake in order to lose weight. If you do not reduce your salt intake you will continue to gain weight, regardless of how many or how few calories you eat.

Average Drug Label lists 70 potential side-effects!

MSNBC.com reports that the average Drug Label lists 70 potential side-effects/drug reactions! - “The greatest number of side effects was found in antidepressants, antiviral medications and newer treatments for restless leg syndrome and Parkinson's disease. In general, medications typically used by psychiatrists and neurologists had the most complex labels, while drugs used by dermatologists and ophthalmologists had the least.” Read what Dr Mercola has to say about this report.

And Dr Mercola tells us that "according to the latest statistics from the Kaiser Health Foundation, the average American aged 19 to 64 now takes more than 11 prescription drugs!" - And all of them have their side-effects! And side-effects are potentiated when more than one drug is being taken! - No wonder that prescription drugs occasion many thousands of visits to emergency services and are the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States!

Clearly this is a deplorable state of affairs. On my own website, more people visit with concerns about amitriptyline and other antidepressants, than about any other drug or family of drugs. And since antidepressants work no better than dummy pills and have lots of undesirable side-effects, most commonly weight gain/fluid retention/sodium retention, the massive prescribing of these particular harmful prescription drugs could and should be stopped ASAP, with great benefit to health and massive saving of money.

If you have gained a great deal of weight in a short time it's pretty likely the weight gain was a side-effect of medication prescribed by your doctor

See prescribed steroids and HRT

and amitriptyline

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Over 500 Deaths Per Year Associated with Children's Cough and Cold Medicine

Research published in the American Academy of Pediatrics official journal, "Pediatrics," reveals that there is an estimated 500 pediatric deaths a year associated with children's cold and cough medicine. "Up until this new research, officials assumed that there were only 3 or 4 deaths a year from these medications" says Dr. Jeffery L. Chamberlain, the family doctor and co-founder of Honey Don't Cough, who performed the mathematical extrapolation. "Deaths have been drastically underreported because when a child gets sick and dies, doctors assume that the death was solely related to the illness itself. Typically, no one thinks to check for toxic medications that could have contributed to the death."
Read press release at mmdnewswire.com

Psychiatric drugs compulsion queried because not backed by evidence

The practice of forcing psychiatric patients to take medication is not backed by evidence, say UK researchers. Very few rigorous investigations of the use of coerced medication have been done despite it being widespread, the Journal of Advanced Nursing reported. The dearth of evidence is "unacceptable" and more should be done to find alternatives, the team said.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

Could the steroid, prednisolone, help women to avoid repeated miscarriages?

How £1-a-month drug could end the misery of miscarriages
article in the Daily Mail

Extract 1:

"Thousands of women could be spared the misery of repeated miscarriages with a pill that costs just £1 a month, it emerged yesterday.

Researchers have found fresh evidence that a third of unexplained miscarriages may be caused by an overactive immune system.

They believe treatment with a common steroid, used for asthma and allergies, can curb the immune response and protect an unborn baby in the crucial early weeks of pregnancy.

The findings offer hope to around 9,000 women who have unexplained miscarriages each year in Britain.

In preliminary trials, around three-quarters of women who had a history of miscarriages had successful pregnancies after taking the steroid.

Dr Siobhan Quenby, who is carrying out the pioneering work at Liverpool University, is now beginning a larger trial to make sure the results are not simply down to the placebo effect."

Extract 2

"In a new trial which began last month, Dr Quenby plans to test these results by giving half of the women she recruits a dummy placebo and the rest a dose of the steroid.

Prednisolone’s side effects include mood swings and increased appetite.

However, most women would need to take it for just three months."

I suggest that it is important that any women who get prescribed for this problem be clearly informed that they need to cut out salt and salty food while taking this steroid drug, otherwise they are at great risk of fluid retention and consequent avoidable weight gain. - The fluid retention/weight gain is responsible for the mood swings and increased appetite and can be avoided by sticking to low salt intake. This would also lower the risk of developing many other health problems.

See Sodium in foods

and prescribed steroids and HRT

A new obesity wonder drug can cause twice as much weight loss as current treatments, a new study claims. - Don't fall for it! - Just eat less salt!

New obesity drug 'can double weight loss'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract: - the claim:

"The new drug works by restricting feelings of hunger in the brain.

As a result, patients eat less and their bodies start to burn off reserves of fat.

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen tested the drug, called tesofensine, on 203 patients, who each weighed an average of 15 stone.

Taking the drug at a dose of 0.5 mg just once a day for six months, at the same time as eating a healthy diet, produced an average weight loss of 11.3 kg, or 1 st 10 lb, around twice that of standard weight loss drugs."

Extract: - the warning:

"Prof Steve O’Rahilly, an expert in obesity at the University of Cambridge, said: “The results with this new drug demonstrate that, over a 6 month period, it is quite effective. However as the drug is likely to have actions on parts of the brain not involved in weight control, the risk of serious side effects on longer term administration will need to be watched very carefully.”"

The facts:

All that is necessary to reduce obesity is to give up dieting and to avoid salt and salty food in order to reduce the fluid retention which is the cause of obesity. - HUNGER AND CALORIE REDUCTION ARE ARE HARMFUL, UNNECESSARY AND INEFFECTIVE - BECAUSE CALORIES ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. - DON'T FALL FOR THE CALORIE CON!

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

And see Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

FAT RETENTION

Diabetes sufferers warned aspirin increases bleeding risk.

Diabetes sufferers warned aspirin increases bleeding risk
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Many diabetics take the drug to thin the blood and reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack, the main cause of death from the disease.

But a new study suggests that taking the medication could be doing more harm than good.

Scientists have shown that aspirin does not cut the risk of a heart attack for even high-risk diabetics, unless they previously suffer from heart disease.

But the drug is known to increase the risk of bleeding in the gut.

Scientists at the University of Dundee gave 1,276 diabetics aspirin, an antioxidant or a placebo, and followed their progress over eight years.

They found that neither the aspirin or the antioxidant reduced the risk of suffering a heart attack, even in the groups at high risk.

Professor Jill Belch, who led the study, published on BMJ.com, the website of the British Medical Journal, said that aspirin should be given only to patients who have already been diagnosed with heart disease or suffered a stroke."

It has long been known that aspirin increases the risk of bleeding in the gut. I remember in 1994 when I had a major operation, the surgeon who did the operation warned me to avoid aspirin because I tend to bleed easily, so it was certainly well known all those years ago. - This new research is unambiguous - that aspirin does not reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke, even in groups at high risk, unless the patients have already been diagnosed with heart disease or suffered a stroke. - Why then have people been advised for years that low-dose daily aspirin lowers the risk of having a heart attack or a stroke? - There cannot have been evidence to support the advice because this research shows that the advice was WRONG. - Obviously THE ADVICE WAS GUESSWORK ON THE PART OF SOMEONE IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION...)o: - GUESSWORK THAT MUST HAVE HARMED MANY PATIENTS OVER THE YEARS...)o:

Like the guesswork that was responsible for mothers being advised to lay their babies on their tummies to go to sleep although there was no evidence to support the idea that this was the safest way for babies to sleep. - After Anne Diamond, the former TV presenter, tragically lost a baby to cot death, she instigated research into this and the research showed that this position could cause cot death and that the safest position for a baby to sleep is on its back, and now mothers are given the right advice - "BACK TO SLEEP!"

Anne Diamond's response to her personal tragedy has resulted in babies being safer when sleeping in their cots and she must have saved many families from the grief of avoidable cot deaths.

DOCTORS SHOULD NOT BE GIVING ADVICE THAT IS PURELY GUESSWORK, WHILE IMPLYING THAT THERE IS RELIABLE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT WHAT THEY SAY.

THE MAIN AND MOST IMPORTANT GUESSWORK THEY MADE DECADES AGO AND HAVE STILL NEVER BOTHERED TO TEST FOR ACCURACY - BECAUSE IN THEIR ARROGANCE THEY DECIDED THEY MUST BE RIGHT AND THERE WAS NO NEED TO CHECK - IS THE HIGHLY DANGEROUS AND EXTREMELY HARMFUL ADVICE TO OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE PEOPLE THAT TO LOSE WEIGHT THEY MUST EAT LESS FOOD/FEWER CALORIES/LESS FAT. - THIS ADVICE IS UNTESTED, UNSUPPORTED BY EVIDENCE AND CATEGORICALLY IT DOES NOT WORK!

I wonder which patients, rich enough to go to law, brave enough to take on the over-powerful medical profession, and not too ill and exhausted to cope with the Law's delay and obfuscation, will be the first to sue the members of the medical profession who have done them so much harm with their damaging, useless advice and insults?

Overweight and obesity are caused by fluid retention, and occur only in people who are sensitive to salt/sodium. - To lose excess weight it is necessary to cut down on salt and salty food. - So instead of eating a ready meal you need to cook a meal from fresh ingredients and use little or no salt to flavour it. - You could try using pepper or herbs instead of salt, or if you feel you cannot yet give up salt, then use a little of one of the low sodium salt substitutes, e.g. LoSalt, Solo Low Sodium Sea Salt or AlsoSalt, instead of ordinary salt.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, dieting, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

If you need my help, I can be contacted from my website. - My help is free.

Leading headache pills 'put strain on the heart' and up risk of high blood pressure, stroke, kidney failure: - NSAIDs, ibuprofen, paracetamol, aspirin

Leading headache pills 'put strain on the heart'

Extracts:

"Regularly taking some of the most popular painkillers on the market is linked to a much greater risk of stroke and heart attack from higher blood pressure, according to research published yesterday."

"Graham MacGregor, the professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital, London, and chairman of the Blood Pressure Association, said last night: "High blood pressure is the biggest cause of death and disability in the UK."

There should have been warnings about these drugs years ago! - It's good to know that medical advice is catching up with the advice on my website! - My website has long had the following information (on page http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html):

A Note about Pain-killers.
The class of drugs known as NSAIDs - Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs - is listed as causing Sodium Retention and in particular causing swelling in the lower legs and ankles. These include commonly used pain-killers, which are available both as prescription drugs and over the counter drugs. Examples are Ibuprofen (Brufen), Aspirin, Diclofenic and many others.
Also remember that effervescent tablets may contain a high proportion of sodium, so you may prefer to change from taking effervescent tablets to taking the non-effervescent type.

And throughout my website (and in this blog) it is made clear that sodium retention is the main cause of fluid retention and obesity, which in turn causes many other health problems, the most significant of which is high blood pressure.

To avoid/reduce high blood pressure, try to avoid unnecessary medication. - If you have to take drugs it is usually a wise precaution to minimise salt intake because so many drugs cause sodium retention.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

"Pfizer suffers lethal blow to $800m 'wonder drug' trials"

Pfizer suffers lethal blow to $800m 'wonder drug' trials

Extract from the article:

"Pfizer has been forced to abruptly scrap trials of its most important new drug because too many patients taking it were dying.

Shares in the world's largest drug company plunged more than 10pc in early trading, following the news that patients in clinical trials taking Torcetrapib were more likely to die or develop serious heart problems than those taking other medicines."

Sadly, there are other drugs made by Pfizer, that do great damage to patients, but are not withdrawn and are far too often inappropriately prescribed. I am thinking in particular of prednisolone, a corticosteroid. Like other corticosteroids and like HRT, it can, and frequently does, cause sodium retention and water retention, and many, many thousands - possibly millions - of innocent patients have been harmed by taking such medications without appropriate monitoring and often in far too high a dose and for too long a period of time. The blame for this does not lie wholly the drug companies, of course. - Negligent doctors who do not check/understand the side-effects of drugs and do not monitor patients' progress while taking the medication share the responsibility for the harm done to their patients. - See Many doctors are failing their patients when they prescribe drugs.

For further information about this, read examples of steroid victims and some of my other blog entries. Also see my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/

Many doctors are failing their patients when they prescribe drugs.

Many doctors are failing their patients when they prescribe drugs. - Here is a report I read the other day: Doctors 'failing patients' over prescriptions from Netdoctor.co.uk
and here are extracts from it:

"The study's authors, from the University of California, Los Angeles (Ucla), say that taking prescriptions as they are intended is "essential in ensuring their effectiveness".

If individual drug specifications are not followed then the patient in question could suffer from a worsening of the disease, a failure of treatment, a range of adverse side-effects and a potential overdose, the research team write.

...only one-third discussed potential side effects and about half explained how many doses should be taken and how often."

This, of course, is an American report. I live in England. I doubt that research such as this would be conducted in England, where the cover-up culture with regard to poor medical practice has a long and ignoble tradition. But I am confident that the medical negligence that fails to give, along with the prescription for a drug, necessary information about the drug and how it should be taken and what its possible side-effects are, is at least as prevalent in Britain as in the States. - And to the best of my knowledge - and that is informed knowledge, because I write as a steroid victim - doctors in Britain never warn their patients that when taking prescribed steroids like prednisone or HRT, or prescribed antidepressants like amitriptyline, or quite a lot of other drugs, they should not eat salt or food containing salt, because these drugs potentially cause severe sodium retention and consequent water retention, followed by massive obesity.

An example of a patient damaged in this way is Jerry Lewis, who became severely obese because of taking prednisone. - He clearly was not warned of the harm that eating salty food while taking the prednisone would cause him. I read today that he has lost a lot of the weight he gained because he has come off the prednisone. - He would not have gained the weight if he had avoided sodium while taking he drug. - If even famous, wealthy people like Jerry Lewis are not told of the dangers of combining prescribed steroids and salty food intake, then it is highly unlikely that 'ordinary' people ever get the necessary warning. - I regard this as criminal negligence on the part of medical practitioners. - If this failure to inform were to be punished with severe sanctions doctors would give the information. - Though goodness knows they should give it anyway! - What good does it do to turn patients into steroid victims, with a host of attendant morbidity and unhappiness and a shortened lifespan?

See helpful advice and information for steroid victims.

If you suffer from excruciating cramp in your feet or lower legs

If you suffer regularly from excruciating cramp in your feet or lower legs when you are in bed at night please do not let anyone persuade you that it is caused by lack of salt! - If you take extra salt to try to remedy the problem, you will in fact make it worse! Cutting down on salt/sodium and salty food reduces night cramps.

Night cramps are usually caused by a shortage of one or more minerals (but not sodium). The minerals you may be short of may be any one or more of magnesium, potassium, calcium and zinc. You may well find that taking a multimineral tablet each day helps with the problem. - In my own case it was magnesium that I was particularly short of, but be aware that magnesium supplements can cause diarrhoea, so don't take a lot! - Also magnesium is best when accompanied by calcium. If you decide to try a supplement containing both these minerals, then best to take it with a meal and a glass of water. - Never overdo things when you are taking supplements - especially if you are taking prescribed medication, because some prescribed medications can change your body chemistry so much!

Another possible reason for your cramp is the prescribed tablets you are taking. - Thiazide diuretics (water tablets) such as Bendrofluazide (aka Bendroflumethiazide or lots of other names) remove sodium and water from the body, usually in order to reduce high blood pressure. Unfortunately they also remove some potassium and magnesium from the body as well. So the resultant shortage of potassium and magnesium may well be what is causing your night cramps. Often all you need to do about the shortage of potassium is to make sure you eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. (Sometimes your doctor will already have prescribed you potassium tablets. If that is the case, then don't take extra! - It is good to have enough potassium; it is not good to have too much!)