If you are about to start taking amitriptyline then be prepared for weight gain, bloating, excessive thirst, painful breasts, swollen face, constipation, memory impairment and other problems.

If you are about to start taking amitriptyline then be prepared for weight gain, bloating, excessive thirst, painful breasts, swollen face, sodium retention, fluid retention, constipation, memory impairment and other problems. You can read here about the adverse effects of taking amitriptyline. The adverse effects are not temporary. You can mitigate the severity of these side-effects by seriously cutting down on salt and salty food.

Pfizer involved in deception over new arthritis painkiller drug Celebrex

"A research director for Pfizer was positively buoyant after reading that an important medical conference had just featured a study claiming that the new arthritis drug Celebrex was safer on the stomach than more established drugs. “They swallowed our story, hook, line and sinker,” he wrote in an e-mail to a colleague. The truth was that Celebrex was no better at protecting the stomach from serious complications than other drugs. It appeared that way only because Pfizer and its partner, Pharmacia, presented the results from the first six months of a yearlong study rather than the whole thing."
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

Really I don't think arthritis painkilling drugs are worth the candle. They've done a great deal of harm over the years. See my posts about Vioxx, for example.

You can reduce the pain of osteoarthritis by the simple expedient of seriously cutting down on salt and salty food. This dietary measure also lowers high blood pressure, reduces your risk of heart attack, stroke, depression, fractures, some cancers and many other degenerative illnesses, as well as reducing excess weight caused by fluid retention and helping with breathing problems. - What's not to like? - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Do you have a lot of unpleasant symptoms of ill-health and keep developing more? And keep getting more and more pills to deal with the new symptoms?

I sometimes look at forums on the internet and in particular those in which forum members write about symptoms or diagnoses they have, and invite other members to suggest a course of action. Mostly other forum members do indeed try to help the OP by suggesting a course of action or by sympathising with the OP because they think they themselves have, or have had, the same problem and know how difficult it is to cope with. 

 

There is usually a strong tendency to suggest what they feel will be acceptable to the OP. Thus if the OP is taking such and such drug for such and such problem, and a second drug for the second problem... and an nth drug for the nth problem, rounded off by an anti-depressant for feeling fed up about it all, then the response might well be to get the GP to send the OP for, say, an X-ray or a CT scan or MRI scan, for this or that or the other in the hope of sorting out the new symptom by giving it a medical name and another pack of pills to tackle it or to 'legitimatise' it.

 

 

My cast of mind would cause me to wonder whether some of the troubling symptoms are caused by the actual drugs themselves, or possibly by the fact that the drugs are adversely reacting with one another. Another thought I would have straight away is to consider ditching the anti-depressant (by gradually reducing the dose) since anti-depressants 'work' no better than dummy pills and have a multitude of serious adverse effects that cause harm both in the present and in the future, to both the body and the brain. Most importantly I'd be concentrating on what has caused all these nasty symptoms - 'cos they sure as Hell weren't caused by lack of pharmaceutical drugs in the body!

 

 

It is increasingly the case, surely, that the unnatural and unhealthy food that the food industry foists on its customers is responsible for a large proportion of the degenerative illnesses those customers suffer from. - "There is no compulsion to buy unhealthy food!" I hear you cry - and you are right. I agree with you. - But like the magic food of the wicked witches and goblins in some fairy stories, modern convenience foods are highly addictive. Junk foods create junk food junkies, enslaved by their food cravings.

 

 

If a daring forum member were to suggest a change of diet - cutting down on salt or sugar perhaps, eating fresh food, home-cooked, much more often than ready-cooked crap from the supermarket, drinking water rather than highly addictive fizzy drinks, one of which drinks can be used as a pretty effective toilet-cleaner! - I don't think that answer would go down too well. Gosh no. - Health is nothing to do with food and nutrition, you know...(o: - Ill-health is caused by magic and must be treated by magical drugs - even if they don't work and require another drug to remedy their side-effects!

Heart damage from adverse effects of cancer drugs goes under-reported

The under-reporting of the possible side effects of heart damage from cancer drugs puts patients at an increased risk for heart failure, according to two researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Read article at medicalxpress.com

When * come, they come not single spies but in battalions.

Yes, you recognised that, "When sorrows come, they come not single spies But in battalions," is a quotation from a speech by Claudius, in Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is something most of us have experienced: something goes wrong, something else goes wrong, and so on. Or as the saying goes, It never rains but it pours.

I am particularly aware of the way that troubles seem almost to breed, when I think of the adverse side-effects of pharmaceutical drugs. Adverse effects of drugs are often spoken of as rare or infrequent. I do not believe this to be the case. They are unfortunately common. For example, consider the many drugs, including including prednisolone (also sold as Pediapred®), prednisone (also sold as Deltasone®, Meticorten, Orasone, SK-Prednisone and Sterapred®), methylprednisolone (Brand names Depo-Medrol, Solu-Medrol), cortisone, hydrocortisone, dexamethasone (Brand name Decadron), betamethasone, beclomethasone, fludrocortisone, triamsinolone, desonide, fluprednidene, clobetasone, alclomethasone, momethasone, desoxymethasone, fluosinonide, budesonide, fluosinolone, triamcinolone (trade names Kenalog, Aristocort, Nasacort, Tri-Nasal, Triderm, Azmacort, Trilone, Volon A, Tristoject, Fougera, Tricortone, Triesence) and other corticosteroids, Advair - a combination drug that contains Fluticasone, a corticosteroid, HRT and other medications containing oestrogen - like Premarin and Prempak, and like some birth control medication (contraceptives) - amitriptyline, doxepin and some other anti-depressants, some anti-psychotic drugs, including Zyprexa (aka olanzapine) and other psychotropic drugs, and some anti-epileptic/anticonvulsant drugs, notably sodium valproate (trade name Epilim), that cause sodium retention.

In effect, sodium retention means that the blood vessels have become distended/swollen with extra sodium and water, and therefore the blood volume is greater than normal. That greater blood volume obviously means that the person's weight is increased by the weight of that extra fluid in the bloodstream. And because the walls of the blood vessels have become stretched, they must also be thinner and weaker, and so the blood volume may more easily fluctuate as the person ingests more, or less, salt/sodium and salty food. This in turn makes blood pressure more variable, and also adds to the variability of blood sugar concentration and increased variability of concentration of other components in the blood. Greater variability of blood sugar concentration is a factor in increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The weakening of the blood vessel walls increases the risk of stroke and of heart problems.

The weight gain will continue if the offending drugs continue to be taken without reducing sodium intake (and this is usually the case because physicians rarely warn their patients about the dangers and consequences of eating added salt when taking these drugs). So obesity, or even morbid obesity, is a very real possibility. The patients are then likely to be told to eat less and take more exercise in order to lose their excess weight. Taking this advice would cause them further harm because their excess weight is the result of the prescribed medication and their intake of added salt (even if it is only a modest intake of salt), and not because of over-eating or taking in too many calories and expending too few calories. If the person then tries to diet/eat less food than their body requires this will exacerbate the nutritional deficits they are already experiencing as a consequence of sodium retention depleting the body of essential minerals (principally calcium, but also magnesium and potassium). A host of health problems tend to develop because of this malnutrition. They may include nerve damage, excruciating cramps, osteoporosis or even osteomalacia, and therefore very weakened bones and much greater risk of fractures, weaker muscles and reduced mobility.

The swollen blood vessels/veins will proliferate, causing the skin to look redder because of the blood vessels close to the skin surface; the skin itself will be thinning and be becoming weakened and overstretched by the greater volume/mass of the person's swollen, heavier body with its increasing fluid retention. The kidneys become over-worked and their function impaired by the greatly increased blood volume and similarly the heart becomes enlarged. The enlarged heart takes up too much room in the thoracic cavity so that breathing becomes more laboured and the person begins to suffer from breathlessness.

And I haven't even mentioned yet the insults of the ignorant, who add to the emotional problems of the victims of drug-induced sodium/water/fluid retention and obesity, the social isolation, the constant misunderstandings, the fatigue, the pain from the over-stretched blood vessels and over-stretched skin and weakened bones. - Have I sketched out for you enough of the battalions of troubles/sorrows/degenerative health problems/adverse side-effects that can and do come from taking certain pharmaceutical drugs when they are too readily prescribed, by prescribers ill-informed about their side-effects and insufficiently informed about the many possible contributory factors involved in causing obesity? I feel sure that, following my lead, you will be able yourself to think of many more adverse consequences from taking these powerful and highly dangerous drugs, with their insidious cumulative damage. Best avoid them if you can!

See obesity and the salt connection, amitriptyline and sodium in foods.

The adverse effects of prescribed drugs often prove far worse than the health problem for which they have been prescribed

The adverse effects of prescribed drugs often prove far worse than the health problem for which they have been prescribed. This is particularly the case with prescribed steroids and prescribed antidepressants. This newspaper article gives details of a woman who is suffering the usual side-effects from prescribed steroid medication, and the Comments beneath the article illustrate how some sufferers would rather have continued with the original health problem than be having to endure the distressing side-effects. But their doctors did not warn them about the routine serious side-effects. Steroids are particularly damaging to children and teenagers, even when, as in Tara's case, the medication was really necessary.

Anyone considering taking antidepressants should realise that these drugs are no better than placebo (dummy) pills. - See Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills'. Nevertheless, despite being largely useless at alleviating depression, the many adverse side-effects are common and long-lasting - sometimes life-long. There are much safer therapies, e.g. MIND, the mental health charity, recommends a walk in the country as being helpful in lifting depression.

Are you on a diet? - Dieting/inadequate food intake is an often overlooked, but very significant, cause of depression. Good nutrition is an excellent way to improve your health. Obviously when you are not eating enough for the needs of your body and your brain you will experience both physical and mental harm. - It is not necessary (or desirable, or effective, or even safe) to diet to lose weight. The safe, natural way to lose excess weight is to cut down on salt and salty food. Avoid ready meals and takeaways because these are usually highly salted and offer poor nutrition. They are likely to worsen your feelings of depression.

When taking prescription drugs that cause fluid retention/sodium retention/weight gain, including steroids, antidepressants, anti-convulsants, anti-epileptics, anti-psychotics and many other drugs, you need to keep your intake of salt and salty food as low as possible. This is the way to reduce the harm that the side-effects cause.

Taking prescribed oral steroids? You may have a severe deficiency of vitamin D.

People taking oral steroids are twice as likely as the general population to have severe vitamin D deficiency, according to a study of more than 31,000 children and adults by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Their findings, in the September 28 online edition of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, suggest that physicians should more diligently monitor vitamin D levels in patients being treated with oral steroids. Read this Medical Xpress report.

""When doctors write that prescription for steroids and they're sending the patients for lab tests, they should also get the vitamin D level measured," said study lead author Amy Skversky, M.D., M.S., assistant professor of pediatrics at Einstein and Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital for Einstein."

And remember, steroids include HRT and other oestrogen-containing drugs. And remember also that research in recent years has found that low vitamin D levels are very common indeed. And children are at even higher risk than adults are from adverse steroid side-effects.

Too many UK patients are prescribed high-risk drugs

"Findings of a new study suggest that too many patients in the UK are being prescribed high-risk drugs that could potentially cause them harm, and reveals that GP prescribing between practices remains significantly varied. According to the research paper, published in the British Medical Journal online, thousands of patients in Scotland particularly vulnerable to side effects from medicines were dished out 'high-risk' drugs by their GPs."
Read article at pharmatimes.com (UK)

Overall the level of pharmaceutical drug prescribing in the UK continues inexorably to rise, and with it the consequences of harmful side-effects, and the further risks of this abundance of 'legal' drugs getting into the hands of drug-dealers and potential addicts. We need statutory limits on prescribing levels, with serious sanctions, including permanent removal from the Medical Register, for doctors who contravene such limits. - "First do no harm."

Thinking of taking amitriptyline or other antidepressants? You may like to think again.

For a start, antidepressants don't work. - See Anti-depressants no better than dummy pills. For another thing, most antidepressants cause weight gain leading to overweight/obesity. And they have many other adverse common side-effects too. Have a read of my webpage about amitriptyline and other antidepressants. So, they don't work and they're harmful. It's a no brainer, isn't it? - A safe, drug-free way to feel less depressed is to cut down on salt and salty food. - Honestly. I'm not kidding. - Just try it! Go on!

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.

Counterfeit medicine fraud: man jailed

I must confess this BBC News report caused me a double-take. "A man has been jailed for eight years for his part in what has been described as the most serious fake medicine fraud in the European Union. Peter Gillespie, 64, from Hertfordshire, was part of a £4.7m plot to bring two million doses of counterfeit drugs from China to the UK. He was convicted of conspiring to defraud pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmacists and members of the public." The fake drugs "contained only a fraction of the correct dosage. They included Zyprexa, a medicine to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."

The prosecution claimed that patients had been put at risk by this fraud. - I seriously wonder about this. - Zyprexa is such a dangerous drug. See Drug information about Zyprexa. And, perhaps more pertinently, read this damning Bloomberg report about the criminally fraudulent claims made about Zyprexa by the drug's manufacturers and the great harm (including death) the drug caused to unfortunate patients who took it. Maybe patients would have been a great deal less at risk from counterfeit Zyprexa than from the real thing...

I believe that the only health in which drug companies are interested is the health of their own financial profits.

Doctors are prescribing more and more antidepressants

The depressing news that doctors are prescribing more and more antidepressants, e.g. Prozac, has been widely reported this week, and it has been suggested that debt and job worries have contributed to this situation. It has also been suggested by Dr Clare Gerada, head of the Royal College of GPs, in this BBC News report, that "some of the rise in prescribing was also likely to be due to increased awareness about the condition and doctors getting better at diagnosis."

Let's just have a think about this. - Yes, there will certainly be more people with money problems and worries, and worries about having lost their jobs or whether they will be losing their jobs. To feel depressed/upset/worried is normal in these circumstances. - How does it help at all to label this normal reaction a mental illness with a catchall name of Depression? And how can taking psychotropic drugs help with money problems or with holding onto a job or obtaining another job? - It can't.

Drugs cannot help with the practical problems of being short of money or being out of work. Nor do they help lift the spirits, despite their erroneously being referred to sometimes as 'happy pills'. Antidepressant drugs work no better than dummy pills , and they frequently cause great harm (adverse side-effects) to the people who take them.

I wonder whether Dr Gerada has considered getting a job as a comedian? The idea that doctors are 'getting better at diagnosis' of 'depression' has me in stitches...(o: - Every time we read a newspaper there is some spokesperson or other explaining that depression/mental illness is on the rise, and that 1 in ? of us (insert your own figures for the incidence of this putative illness) will experience it before we die. It would be a good idea if doctors were to give up 'diagnosing depression' and making their patients more ill by prescribing toxic antidepressants, and instead ordered tests for anaemia, vitamin D deficiency, etc. and concentrated on helping the patients by advocating dietary changes where necessary, and prescribing vitamin and mineral supplements to remedy nutritional problems. - This would undoubtedly make their patients feel a lot better and would make them physically and mentally much more efficient and so more likely to remain/become employed.

Drug-pushing: irresponsible suggestion that tamoxifen and raloxifene be prescribed to prevent breast cancer

BBC News reports "an international panel of cancer experts" recommending that women at high risk of developing breast cancer should be prescribed tamoxifen and raloxifene, despite the risk of serious adverse side-effects from such drugs. 'Cancer experts' who recommend toxic cancer drugs for people who do not have cancer would, I guess, be 'experts' who have cosy relationships with the drug manufacturers and that their foolish recommendation stems from conflict of interest. I say that because I feel that anyone truly concerned about women at high risk of breast cancer would be seeking to protect them from running any unnecessary risks from taking toxic drugs, and would be advising them to safeguard their health by eating good, natural food free of additives, high in nutrition, low in salt/sodium and low in sugar - something like a paleo diet. There is a well-founded opinion that cancers feed on sugar, so it would clearly be best to avoid sugar as far as possible. (Note : it is often the taking of prescribed drugs that predisposes some women to weight gain and breast disease in the first place, i.e. prescribed steroids and HRT, tricyclic antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and many more.)

Prescribed steroids are dangerous. Most doctors do not appreciate how dangerous they are.

Read here about the permanent and terrible harm, including death, some people have suffered from taking steroids prescribed by their doctor. And read here about how to lessen that harm if you are a steroid victim trying to cope with living the shattered life that prescribed steroids have left you with. If you are a parent, be aware that steroids are particularly harmful to children.

If steroids HAVE to be taken, make sure they are taken in the lowest effective dose and for the shortest necessary time. And insist on careful monitoring. And check out side-effects, etc on reference pages on the internet. Avoid eating salt or food containing added salt while taking steroid medication. - COMPLETELY.

Professor Richard Bentall, psychologist, has trenchant views about psychiatric drugs

Professor Richard Bentall, psychologist, has trenchant views about psychiatric drugs and the harm they do. I heard him on Radio 4's Moral Maze this evening explaining that there are two main groups who profit from antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs - namely the shareholders of the drug companies, and the doctors/psychiatrists who make a living from prescribing the drugs. Good to hear some unambiguous honesty about these toxic drugs, and to have it pointed out by a respected academic that the evidence for their efficacy is all but non-existent. - Three Cheers for Professor Bentall!

And see Richard Bentall interview in which you will read him quoted as saying, " Drug companies are bribing American child psychiatrists with huge research grants to advocate this kind of treatment, and it’s beginning to happen in the UK. I don’t know how else to put it but that people are being bribed to poison children — and accepting the bribe." - I hope that has whetted your appetitite to read the whole article!

Antidepressants are more likely to harm you than to make you feel better

The people who benefit from antidepressants are not the patients who take them, but the people who gain financially from the profits of the drug companies who make and sell them. Antidepressants are more likely to harm you than to make you feel better. Antidepressants do not work for depression and seldom help with pain. They are sometimes helpful for insomnia, but most of them cause serious weight gain and many other adverse side-effects and also cause brain damage years later, so they are better avoided.

Dr Mercola has a good article today warning about the dangers of taking antidepressants and about other, non-drug ways to lift depression. I urge you to read it. He does not mention, however, the ways that I most favour, namely avoiding dieting, and cutting down on salt and salty food. Most of the people who email me having followed my advice about eating less salt and salty food, are eager to tell me they have lost weight easily and that they are feeling and looking much better. They also report that their mental acuity has increased markedly so that they can perform mental tasks much more quickly and their work performance is enhanced. There is a positive correlation between being overweight/obese and being depressed, so that is an additional factor to bear in mind: antidepressant drugs are highly likely to cause weight gain, and excess weight is linked to depression. - It's a no-brainer in my opinion!

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Melatonin: I take a 3mg capsule of melatonin near bedtime to help me to sleep

Melatonin: On most days I take a 3mg capsule of melatonin near bedtime. It is a natural human hormone that has many roles, but it is as an aid to sleep that I take it. There are many possible causes for a person not secreting enough melatonin. One of the causes is prescribed medication: e.g. beta-blockers such as propranolol can deplete our bodies of melatonin. So if your sleep has deteriorated and you are puzzled as to what has caused this, it may possibly be a side-effect of tablets you are taking or have taken.

But it may be that, like me, you are in a lot of pain and that pain is keeping you awake. - You may feel pretty desperate at times because of severe lack of sleep. You may be wondering whether sleeping pills would be helpful. - I hope you will decide against that course of action. - If you look on the internet you will find a wealth of research findings about the adverse effects of sleeping tablets, or hypnotics as they are also known. And these side-effects are even more harmful to older people. Sleeping tablets are harmful and dangerous and should be avoided, especially by older people.

Doctors often confuse pain, insomnia and depression, so they sometimes persuade patients, particularly female patients, to take antidepressants when they are in pain. Antidepressants do not work for depression and seldom help with pain. They are sometimes helpful for insomnia, but most of them cause serious weight gain and many other adverse side-effects and also cause brain damage years later, so they are better avoided.

The other medication you may be considering, or have very likely tried, is analgesia/painkillers. And you may, like me, have found that they do not help at all with the pain or with the sleep problem. Or you may, like me, be concerned about the many harmful side-effects from them. And you may, like me, prefer 'natural' help when possible, rather than pharmaceutical products.

Well the natural ways to reduce chronic pain are to avoid salt and salty food, and avoid dieting and calorie-counting. And obesity is linked to poor sleep and to greater sensitivity to pain, so it is helpful to lose excess weight. Eat good, nutritious food, preferably low carb, low sugar and high fat of the good sort, such as from grass-fed cows. See LCHF. Make sure you get enough calcium and vitamin D. - See this Fat Retention page, with further information about calcium and vitamin D.

And one of the ways to help with poor sleep is to take melatonin. I believe it is safer than hypnotics, antidepressants and painkillers. - I'm assuming you have already made sure the bed is as comfortable as possible and that the curtains keep out unnecessary light, etc.

Sanofi Failed To Report Side Effects

In a harsh warning letter, the FDA has reprimanded Sanofi-Aventis for failing to meet regulatory deadlines for reporting serious side effects with many of its drugs, including the Lovenox blood thinner, the Multaq heart drug and the Allegra D allergy pill, and also did not report post-marketing studies or completed, unpublished clinical trials in NDA annual reports.
Read article at pharmalot.com

Study shows swine flu vaccine likely causes narcolepsy in children

"Children injected with the Pandemrix swine flu vaccine were nine times more likely to contract narcolepsy than those who were not vaccinated, a preliminary study by Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare, THL, showed Tuesday." - See physorg.com article. "Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder which causes extreme fatigue and often results in the patient falling soundly asleep without warning, even in the middle of an activity."

Hypnotic, sleep-inducing drug zolpidem increases risk of nighttime falls, loss of balance and potential injury

Hypnotic, sleep-inducing drug, zolpidem, increases risk of nighttime falls, loss of balance, cognitive impairment and potential injury, reports physorg.com. Zolpidem is a generic drug that is marketed under a number of different brand names, including Ambien, Zolpimist, Edluar, Hypogen, Somidem and Ivedal.