Most prescription drugs deplete your body of essential nutrients

Most prescription drugs deplete your body of essential nutrients. Perhaps the most notorious of these widely-prescribed drugs are statins. Quite apart from the patients-reported adverse effects of pain, statins deplete the body of Co-enzyme Q10. Patients who take these drugs should be warned of this and advised to take Co-enzyme Q10 as a supplement. This information should always accompany the prescription. But it doesn't.

 

The many prescribed drugs that cause sodium retention/water retention/fluid retention/weight gain/obesity/water weight deplete the body of calcium, potassium, magnesium and possibly zinc. This means (among other adverse health effects) that the bones get weaker and a fall is much more likely to result in a fracture - and a more complicated fracture. These dangerous drugs include amitriptyline and other tricyclic antidepressants, Epilim and other anti-epilepsy drugs, HRT, steroids including hydrocortisone, prednisone and prednisolone, anti-psychotics and others. Patients taking these drugs should be advised to eat full fat dairy yogurt for its dairy calcium and to reduce their intake of salt and salty food. They should also eat plenty of potassium-rich foods, e.g. vegetables.

 

Diuretics like bendrofluazide/Bendroflumethiazide, which are often prescribed for raised blood pressure, deplete the body of potassium and magnesium. Patients taking these are often advised to eat bananas because of their potassium content.

 

Isoniazid, a drug used to treat tuberculosis, depletes the body of vitamin B6 (pyridoxine). This depletion in turn causes disordered sleep, mainly insomnia. Patients taking isoniazid should be prescribed vitamin B6 to remedy this problem.

 

Beta-blockers such as propranolol can deplete our bodies of melatonin, and insufficient melatonin (one of the hormones in the body) causes loss of sleep. If the physician does not prescribe melatonin to help the patient with this problem, melatonin can be bought without prescription.

 

These are by no means all of the nutritional problems caused by prescription drugs, and of course malnutrition is only one of the host of adverse side-effects of prescribed medications. It is best to consider carefully whether taking prescribed drugs is more likely to do harm than good. For example, statins do most people more harm than good, and anti-depressants work no better than dummy pills, but cause many health problems, including cognitive impairment and memory loss. - You've only got one brain and it is not infinitely elastic to cope with brain-damaging drugs. You've only got one body and you can't trade it in for a new one. In my opinion it's best to avoid all prescription drugs unless they really are necessary, and best to have the lowest effective dose and to take it for the shortest time. The safest medicine is good natural food (not processed food), and the best doctor is good nutrition.

Dr Le Fanu draws attention to problems with regard to drugs prescribed for elderly hospital patients

Dr Le Fanu draws attention to problems with regard to drugs prescribed for elderly hospital patients to take when they leave hospital, particularly if they have memory or cognitive impairment, which, he reminds us, "can be caused or exacerbated by medication, particularly the cholesterol-lowering statins."

House of Lords committee finds Nudge Theory for improving health is not good enough

BBC News reports that The House of Lords science and technology committee finds Nudge Theory with regard to improving the nation's health is not good enough, and that legislation is also required. Well I'd certainly go along with that. - The current health nudges/snippets of advice include that increasing exercise levels helps with reducing obesity - but it doesn't! - and that saturated fat causes heart disease - but it doesn't! - and that high cholesterol levels should be treated by taking prescribed statins - although these drugs do most people more harm than good and cost a lot of money.

Another nudge is called voluntary agreement, and that is when the manufacturers of unhealthy food agree to reduce levels of harmful additives/contaminants/poisons in the processed junk/food they inflict on consumers, and then do this reduction by miniscule amounts at the speed of an exhausted snail on tranquillisers. - My especial grouse about this is the continued presence of toxic synthetic transfats in manufactured biscuits, cakes, etc. Adding these factory-produced poisons to food intended for human consumption should be banned by Law, and that Law backed up by criminal sanctions against the CEOs of any companies that continue to add them to their products.

If the continued rise in incidence and severity of obesity that wreaks havoc on the economy and great, unnecessary suffering on huge numbers of individual people, is ever to be stemmed, and, hopefully, reversed, then any nudges/advice given should be supported by reliable evidence that it is correct, and not just the repetition of unproven mantras, assumptions and misinformation.

The medical drug-pushers are at it again: Wald still pressing for his polypills to be routinely prescribed to over-55s

In this BBC News report Professor Sir Nicholas Wald makes the dubious claim that when assessing the risk of heart problems, offering drugs to lower cholesterol and blood pressure to all over-55s has the same results as testing for cholesterol or blood pressure problems. He also says it would be simpler and cost effective. Well it might be simpler, and it might very well be cost-effective for Wald himself (see some discussion here of possible conflict of interest, since Wald and Law own a patent on the idea of the polypill) but I strongly doubt that there would be any gain for the NHS.

Statins are drugs that lower cholesterol and Wald wants statins to be part of the polypills. Statins are extremely profitable for drug manufacturers, but they do more harm than good to most of the people who take them. - Click on the STATINS label below this post to see lots of information about this.

There is a simple, safe, cost-free, drug-free way to lower high blood pressure, improve heart health and reduce heart attacks and strokes and many other degenerative illnesses for the over-55s - or indeed for any other age. - That is for GPs and other healthcare professionals seriously to explain to patients and the general public the huge health benefits from eating less salt and salty food. An even more effective measure would be to have a Secretary of State for Health with the guts and sense and decency to push through statutory upper limits for the amount of salt/sodium permitted to be added to processed foods, and especially to bread, which is usually high in salt and yet is a large part of most people's diet. He should also ban the food industry's use of synthetic transfats as additives to biscuits, cakes etc. And he should remove the food and drink manufacturers from the Dept of Health committee that advises on what to do about obesity.

Here's another good idea: tell the truth about Saturated Fats. - You may like to spare 2min 35secs to watch the excellent little video on this page.

Statins: further criticisms

See Dr Briffa's article about statins and this other of his articles that mentions statins. And here is another blogger's article which contains strong criticisms of statins, the companies that produce them and the professionals who prescribe them.

If you want to improve the health of your heart - and indeed improve the health of all the organs of your body - your best course of action is to eat less salt and salty food. See Information about Sodium in Foods. There are no adverse side-effects from doing this: it is entirely safe and entirely beneficial. Avoid pharmaceutical drugs as far as you can. They do far more harm than good for most people.

Do YOU think that illegal drugs should be decriminalised?

Do YOU think that illegal drugs should be decriminalised? - Bob Ainsworth, a former Home Office minister has been calling for it. See this BBC News report. My personal opinion is that the overwhelming need is for legal drugs - by which I mean the drugs medics prescribe - to be very severely restricted, and I suggest that the heaviest prescribers should be charged with a criminal offence. And maybe we could have something like a 'Three strikes and you're out' system - three offences and they get struck off the Medical Register.

The main drug-pushers in the country are, of course, the doctors, largely paid by the state - and their recklessly high prescribing of drugs, most of which do far more harm than good, e.g. statins, antidepressants and antipsychotics, is arguably a primary cause of the drug culture pervading and damaging so much of our society.

Here's a contrarian viewpoint with information you may not have encountered before: The secret history of Big Pharma's role in creating and marketing heroin, LSD, meth, Ecstasy and speed.

Unsubstantiated claim that lower British death rates are 'due to rise in statins use'

This really is a preposterous claim. Read Dr Briffa's blogpost about it. And click on the 'statins' label beneath this post to see my previous posts about statins.

To reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes and to lower cholesterol it is not necessary to take statins (expensive and have adverse side-effects). The safe, sure, swift, drug-free way to reduce all heart problems, lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, is to avoid/reduce intake of salt and salty food. This brings a host of other health benefits too and it makes you feel better and have more energy. Read how lowering salt/sodium helped Ray Hayden.

Did you know that there are many pharmaceutical drugs that deplete the body of nutrients?

If you take or intend to take prescription drugs you may find it's a good idea to check out which nutrients you may need to supplement while taking the medication.

My first encounter with this sort of nutrient depletion was when I was taking isoniazid for TB when I was a teenager. I suffered greatly from insomnia but did not know why. It was not until many years later that I discovered that it was because of vitamin B6 depletion. B6 is also known as pyridoxine. If I had known at the time, and if I had been able to take supplements of pyridoxine at the time, I would have been saved from those dreadful sleepless years and from the anaemia that is also caused by lack of this vitamin.

Statins, so widely and notoriously over-prescribed, cause the body to be depleted of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), so if you are taking them you may like to consider taking tablets of CoQ10 so as to reduce some of the harm the statins may be causing you.

Steroid drugs such as prednisone have been shown to deplete the body of calcium, magnesium, folic acid, potassium, selenium, vitamin C, and vitamin D.

Antibiotics deplete the body of several nutrients as well as adversely affecting the balance of the gut flora. Thiazide diuretics (water tablets) such as Bendrofluazide (aka Bendroflumethiazide or lots of other names) remove some potassium and magnesium from the body. The resultant shortage of potassium and magnesium may well cause you 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 and your doctor will usually tell you about this and suggest eating bananas for extra potassium.

Depletion of nutrients could affect you in many ways and may well result in lower energy levels and lowered immunity to infection. So check it out. You may find it's a case for nutritional supplements to the rescue!

Drug Companies condemned for conning the public with misleading claims about their products

The Telegraph carries two articles about this: here and here. - Donald Light, a professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, US, slated drug companies in a paper he presented today, in which he explained that the ""toxic side effects" of prescription drugs" made them "a significant cause of death."

I note the comment that, "When patients complained of adverse reactions, studies showed doctors were likely to dismiss them, he said." This has been my own experience as a patient harmed by the devastating side-effects of certain prescription drugs and the colossal ignorance of doctors about the side-effects. I also welcome the professor's scathing remarks about statins, which are surely very high on the list of drugs about which the public and the medical profession are being conned.

My advice is to avoid prescription drugs if you possibly can, because on the whole they assuredly do a great deal more harm than good. Improving your nutrition is the safest way to improve your health. For example, avoiding salt and salty food will lower your cholesterol levels and improve your heart health without any side-effects at all.

Incredibly irresponsible suggestion to provide statin medication to accompany meals in fast food outlets

BBC News reports that Dr Darrel Francis et al are recommending this measure to reduce the harm to health caused by eating junk food. Statins are pharmaceutical drugs that are prescribed for the purpose of lowering cholesterol levels and are claimed by this means to be drugs that benefit heart health. But as these researchers must certainly know, statins only rarely reduce health problems. Much more commonly they damage the health of the innocent patients who take them. Evidence for this - from reputable sources - abounds on the internet. Click on the statins link beneath this blogpost to see some of the evidence. Click here and here and here for a few more examples, and look up Dr Malcolm Kendrick's strong views on the subject of cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Anyone who wants to lower their cholesterol levels can do so without drugs. Simply cutting down on salt/sodium and salty food lowers cholesterol and also, much more importantly, lowers high blood pressure, lowers the risk of heart disease, heart attack, dementia, type 2 diabetes and many other degenerative illnesses, and reduces overweight by reducing fluid retention. And there are no adverse side-effects to cutting down on salt.

Statins can cause liver and kidney problems

New UK data highlights range of possible problems associated with cholesterol-lowering drugs
Cholesterol-lowering drugs taken by millions of Britons could cause liver, kidney, muscle and eye problems, research suggests.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)
Comment: Side-effects already known to be caused by statins include insomnia, constipation, diarrhoea, headaches, loss of appetite and loss of sensation or pain in the nerve endings of the hands and feet. Despite this, however, cholesterol-lowering drugs have become the single largest business segment of the pharmaceutical drug business, with the global sales of statins now surpassing 200 billion dollars per year. To achieve these sales, the entire cholesterol business is built on fear – the fear that cholesterol causes heart attacks.

If you would prefer to avoid the risks involved in taking statins, you can easily, rapidly and significantly lower your high cholesterol without taking any drugs, without cost, without risk and without adverse side-effects, simply by avoiding added salt and salty food. By minimising your intake of salt/sodium, you not only lower high cholesterol, you also lower high blood pressure and lower your risk of heart attacks and heart disease, reduce the size of an enlarged heart, and reduce the risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes and many other degenerative diseases. And reducing salt intake has the added bonus of reducing excess weight - because lowered salt intake reduces fluid retention. (Some of the excess water in the body is excreted in the urine. See how to Lose weight safely.)

Improve your health by eating less salt! - Go on! Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See sodium in foods.

A person not taking statins is like a fish not riding a bike.

A person not on statins is like a fish not riding a bike. By which I mean that statins are as much use to a person (with or without high cholesterol) as a bike is to a fish. What's the use of lowering or preventing high cholesterol - just one symptom of heart disease - and by no means the most serious symptom, if indeed it is serious or significant at all? Especially as statins are quite expensive and for far too many people also have painful, long-lasting side-effects.

If you want to improve your heart health overall, not just one symptom, and want to do it safely, without unpleasant, harmful side-effects, then you can do that simply, swiftly and very effectively without statins or other drugs. You just need to avoid salt and salty food. When I say that you 'just' need to do this, I must admit that this is not as easy as taking pills. You have to avoid most processed food, since most processed food has had a lot of salt added to it by the manufacturers. This means you'll need to buy more fresh food and you'll need to cook it yourself. But the health benefits that accrue from sodium reduction are very much worth the effort: lowered high cholesterol, lowered high blood pressure, reduced excess weight, more energy and vitality, greater mental alertness, improved sleep, reduced risk of heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, most cancers, depression, dementia, etc.

See Associated health conditions

How to lose weight

And see Sodium in foods

and FAT RETENTION

This article is by Margaret Wilde

Another Warning of Adverse Side-Effects of Simvastatin

The Telegraph reports on an American study which has found that "high doses can cause muscle damage and a rare condition which induces kidney problems and may be fatal."

Statins, of which this drug is an example, are taken by people to lower their cholesterol level and reduce the risk of having a heart attack. They cost the NHS a great deal of money because they are prescribed to millions of people, who take them every day, often for the rest of their lives. This makes them an obvious cash cow for the drug industry, but the benefit to patients is less obvious. See relative risk and number needed to treat. And painful side-effects are much more common than is usually admitted.

A cost-free, drug-free, completely safe way to reduce hypercholesterolaemia is to cut down on salt and salty food. Avoiding salt and salty food also reduces excess weight and the risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improves your health in countless other ways

Unfortunately, too many people benefit financially from conning the public into thinking that statins are a good and necessary therapy. If you click on the STATINS label beneath this post you will find further information about this controversial class of drugs.

AstraZeneca’s statin drug, Crestor, has been approved by the US FDA for people who don’t have high cholesterol.

That's another sinister victory for the drug industry. Those who take statins risk painful and incurable side-effects from the drugs. - Click on my 'statins' label directly under this blogpost to read further about reasons to be wary of taking statins.

The fastest, safest, most effective way to lower high cholesterol levels is to minimise your salt intake. - Avoid salt and salty food. Read here about one guy's experience of doing this: http://rayhayden.us/ete_insights/lowsodium.php

You can reduce your risk of most degenerative diseases by
1) avoiding prescription drugs unless they are really necessary
2) minimising your intake of salt/sodium and salty food
3) avoiding dieting

See Sodium in foods

Lose weight safely.

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

It's good to see Peter Duncan speaking out against statins.

Well done the Daily Mail for reporting Peter Duncan's sensible decision not to take statins to lower his cholesterol level. Instead he believes it's better to improve your diet and fitness.

He is quoted as saying, "I am naturally sceptical of medical prognosis and drug companies' product claims - not even an aspirin has passed my lips for many years. I believe the body should look after itself," and also, "I like to imagine the medical profession has dreamed up the perfect scam. Create an unsatisfactory condition (high cholesterol); make a drug that can lower it (statins); play down the unfortunate side effects with 'biased' research (medical trials) and on the back of this they can create a whole cholesterol food industry and make billions from selling expensive prescriptions."

Peter Duncan is clearly a man after my own heart. Like him I am extremely sceptical about the claims of drug companies; they have too often been found to be falsifying results and their products harming the unfortunate people who take them.

And very obviously, a high cholesterol level is not caused by deficiency of statins...(o:

If your cholesterol level is high you can lower it without the use of drugs: - if you cut down on salt and salty food this will lower it safely and easily and will benefit your health in many other ways too.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage 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! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Statins are causing muscle damage in some patients.

Science Daily reports on a study "by researchers from the University of Bern, Switzerland and the Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, [who] looked at muscle biopsies from 83 patients, 20 of whom had never taken statins. They found significant muscle injury in patients who had taken statins, including several who had discontinued medication before the biopsy."

Many patients experience a lot of adverse side-effects from statins (drugs taken to lower harmful cholesterol levels and thereby to reduce cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, etc.). Many discontinue the medication because they find the side-effects too unpleasant. And of course, the side-effects can do lasting harm, even if you discontinue them.

Prescription drugs including many steroids, many antidepressants, anti-psychotics and epilepsy drugs as well as other pharmaceuticals, are a major cause of high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, cardiovascular disease, depression, cancer, brittle bones, etc. - Avoid taking prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary.

The most effective and the cheapest way to lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart attack, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and a multitude of other chronic health problems is to avoid eating salt and salty food. This is also a completely safe measure to take; reducing sodium intake has no bad side effects whatsoever. - You will also find, if you are overweight, that reducing salt reduces your excess weight.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage 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! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations.

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Yet Another Plug for Healthy People to Take Statins...

The Telegraph reports that statins are once again in the news, with researchers again advocating that healthy people should take statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs. An extraordinary claim is made in the report:

"Cathy Ross, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said: "It is well established that most people with heart and circulatory disease benefit from taking statins.

"This study brings together evidence from several clinical trials to highlight that statins can benefit people who don't have symptoms of heart and circulatory disease, termed 'primary prevention'."

I urge you to read about nnt (number needed to treat) here. There you will find that very few people actually do benefit from taking statins. The vast majority of people who take them do not benefit, despite having the bother of taking them every day for years.

Far more people experience unpleasant side-effects from statins than benefit from them. The chief benefit of statins is to the drug companies who manufacture and sell them.

The best, cheapest, and most effective way to lower your risk of heart attack, reduce heart disease, lower high cholesterol levels, lower high blood pressure, reduce excess weight and benefit your health in a host of other ways with no adverse side-effects whatsover is to reduce your intake of salt and salty food as much as you can. Salt/Sodium reduction is of especial benefit to people who already have heart and circulatory disease or high blood pressure, or are overweight, etc. Salt reduction is real 'primary prevention'.

I don't know why the British Heart Foundation persists in banging the drum for statins, instead of stressing the many huge benefits of sodium reduction. - What's in it for them? Why do they want more and more people taking drugs - even when there is nothing the matter with them? - What's in it for them?

Very often it is prescription drugs that cause heart problems, etc. in the first place...)o: - drugs like steroids, HRT, tricyclic antidepressants, antipsychotics and many more that are frequently over-prescribed and frequently unmonitored. It's best to avoid prescription drugs unless you feel they are really necessary. As a whole, they do far more harm than good.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, 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! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Healthcare costs and the myth of prevention that involves multi-screening, multi-testing and high NNT drugs like statins

Healthcare costs and the myth of prevention that involves multi-screening, multi-testing and the high cost of medication like statins: the Wall Street Journal carries this thoughtful article.

See also www.slate.com article - It explains 'relative risk' and in particular considers whether the prescribing of statins as treatment for high cholesterol levels is justified. - A statistical tool you may never have heard of is NNT - the 'number needed to treat'.

True prevention of avoidable/chronic illness and avoidable disability entails good nutrition, along with drastic reduction of sodium intake, e.g. by cooking fresh food instead of microwaving convenience foods high in salt, and eating plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables. Above all, avoid dieting! - Dieting is unnecessary, ineffective, and, more often than not, harmful.

It's also a good idea to avoid prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary, because so often their side-effects include obesity/sodium retention/fluid retention/salt sensitivity and a host of attendant chronic illness.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, 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! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Further info about drug company financial inducements to doctors to prescribe statins

See http://www.healpain.net/articles/DoesDoctor.html

If you want a drug-free way to reduce cholesterol problems you just need to avoid salt and salty food. This will benefit your health in a host of other ways too.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, 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!

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

Sodium in foods

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Statins are being touted again. They certainly manage to get a lot of publicity. - But reducing salt intake is safer and is likely to do you more good

They're banging the drum again for statins. - They seem very popular drugs with researchers. They're not so popular with the people who take them.

You can read in the Telegraph that the latest research is again calling for wider prescribing of these drugs and claiming that, by their cholesterol-lowering effect, this would reduce by a fifth the risk of stroke.

Many people embark on these drugs and give them up because of the multitude of unpleasant side-effects, which include "muscle aches, fatigue, liver problems, sleep disturbance, headaches, sexual dysfunction, amnesia and in rare cases lung disease," according to the Telegraph article.

I can't say I regard this as a big deal. - Consider this instead, taken from the BBC News website BBC News health item

"Professor Graham MacGregor, of the Action On Salt campaign, says recent studies have confirmed that cutting salt intake will cause an immediate and important fall in blood pressure.

A three gramme reduction in intake has been predicted to reduce strokes in the UK by a quarter and heart attacks by 16%"

So - without taking drugs for the rest of your life, and without putting up with many unpleasant and serious side-effects, and without visits to the doctor and the chemist - you could just reduce your salt intake and have an even greater reduction in your risk of stroke! - It's a no-brainer...(o: - Go on! Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, 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!

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

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION