Is America Totally Confused About Drugs?

By Dr. A. R. Scopelliti

Sep

19

Over the last few years it has become such that you cannot watch one television show without seeing at least a few commercials for drugs.  Not surprisingly, during the part where they list the adverse side affects attributed to the drugs, there is a very attractive young lady smiling and dancing and throwing rose pedals.  Drugs have become more accepted than breakfast in our “better living through chemistry” society.  Well, a recent study published in the archives of internal medicine, depicts a disturbing picture of our societies interpretation of these ads.  Of the thousands of individuals involved in the study, thirty-nine percent mistakenly believed that the FDA approves only “extremely effective” drugs; 25% mistakenly believed that the FDA approves only drugs without serious side effects.   In conclusion this study found that a substantial proportion of the public mistakenly believes that the FDA approves only extremely effective drugs and drugs lacking serious side effects.  This is hard to believe as the side effects are indeed mentioned at the end of each commercial.  It would seem that no one is paying attention for this part.

When I meet with new patients as part of my initial history taking process I ask each patient which drugs they are taking and why. I find that about 20% of my patients on initial consultation do not know why they are taking their drugs, and, many are taking more than six different drugs.   If you are taking prescription medication, you should be aware as to what you are taking and why you are taking it.  Learn the side affects of drugs which you may be taking as well, should you experience any of them. If you are on high blood pressure medication, buy a home blood pressure unit and check your own blood pressure daily.  It is not uncommon for me to meet with a new patient suffering with dizziness only to find out that they are on high blood pressure medication, have lost weight, and are still taking a high dose from before their weight loss and that this is causing there dizziness from low blood pressure.  Drug therapies are still drugs, and they should be used with diligence and with prudence.  Act responsibly and know all of your options before blindly going on drug therapies, as ultimately, you are the one taking the drug.

 

Entry Level Exercise To Avoid The Metabolic Syndrome

By Dr. A. R. Scopelliti

Jul

25

If you are new to exercise, I think you will find the following information extremely helpful.  Recent studies have demonstrated that the “negative” or “eccentric” movement of an exercise, offers the most beneficial changes to both the muscles being exercised and your overall blood chemistry.  Further, it has been suggested that even doing as little as one 30 minute session per week will make favorable changes in your overall health.

So what exactly is a “negative” or “eccentric” movement?  Any activity requires both a concentric and an eccentric component.  The concentric component is the phase whereby the muscle is shortening while performing the activity.  An example would be curling a dumbbell.  The eccentric phase of the movement would be the phase of movement whereby the muscle is lengthening while still under load.  Using the same example, this would be the lowering of the dumbbell after curling it.  So what does this mean and how can you exploit this information to improve your health?  Well, it means that something as simple as walking down steps, or down a hill, (yes, the easier half!) can be very beneficial with respect to changing your health.  If you are already exercising regularly, you can get more bang for the time expenditure by accentuating the eccentric phase of all of your exercise movements by performing the concentric phase over 1-2 seconds, the eccentric phase for 3-4 seconds.  For example if you are doing a pushup you should lower yourself to the floor slowly, 3-4 seconds.  Push up in 1-2 seconds.  This technique can be applied to most any workout routine.

Studies have shown that exercising in this way actually causes the most desirable changes on blood chemistry in reversing deleterious changes such as all of those associated with the metabolic syndrome, (obesity, hypertension, type II diabetes, etc.).

If you are not already exercising, try and formulate a 30 minute session once per week to perform eccentric activities such as walking down steps or any activity accentuating the eccentric phase.  Naturally it would be better to perform an exercise session at least three times per week, but if you are currently doing nothing, once per week is a major improvement and will evoke desirable changes in your overall health.  As your health improves you will find it easier to invest more time in additional exercise sessions.  There is no one who cannot find thirty minutes per week to exercise.

Cholesterol Lowering Drugs to Prevent Heart Disease? Guess Again

By Dr. A. R. Scopelliti

Jun

22

Statin drugs are being prescribed like candy for tens of millions of Americans, but you need to seriously consider statin therapy before deciding to take your physician up on this prescription, as their use has serious and significant consequential side affects and risks, and, their use is clearly not appropriate for everyone.

The majority of people using statin cholesterol-lowering drugs do so because they believe that lowering their cholesterol will prevent heart attacks and strokes. How many of these people do you think would continue to take them if they knew that their drugs have been linked to increased risk of heart attack and increased risk of stroke?  Probably no one!

Until recently, statin use has been generally accepted based on studies primarily put together by the drug company selling the drugs.  However, recently these drugs are falling under increased scrutiny. A recent study in Clinical Cardiology found that heart muscle function was “significantly better” in the control group than in those taking statin drugs.  Weakened heart muscle function is the cause of heart failure.

Statin therapy is very effective in lowering total cholesterol levels rather significantly.  The real question however is why would you want to do this?  Lowering cholesterol, the “buzz” of the millennium, makes it appear as though you are benefiting from the drug therapy and thus improving your overall health.  Further, as your health deteriorates from the drugs, other problems which manifest later in life are often misinterpreted as being  separate and distinct conditions brought on for alternative reasons rather that affiliated with the statin therapy which was truly responsible.

It is and has been my medical opinion that for certain individuals who have high risk factors for heart disease, and/or have familial hypercholesterolemia, (about 1 in 500), statin drugs may be useful. Unfortunately, the vast majority of statin users does not fit this criterion and are taking them merely to lower cholesterol.  This equation needs serious rethinking.  More information on healthy eating and lowering cholesterol though diet is available on my healthy eating page.

Sugar, A Neurotoxin?

By Dr. A. R. Scopelliti

May

4

A recent video circulating on the internet on the biochemistry of fructose has had almost one million views already.  Why?  As seen on recent TV commercials, sugar is sugar, be it table sugar, (sucrose), or high fructose corn syrup. In a recent NYT article, it was stated that our countries excessive consumption of sugar may be the primary reason that the numbers of obese and diabetic Americans have skyrocketed in the past 30 years.  The article goes on to say that sugar may also be the likely dietary cause of several other chronic ailments widely considered to be diseases of our western lifestyles; heart disease, hypertension and many common cancers. Another report has found that the United States is the fattest of 33 countries studied. Seventy percent of Americans are overweight, expected to increase to 75 percent by 2020 and 86 percent by 2030! So “Death by sugar” is not an overstatement.

So is sugar toxic?  Well in a word, YES!  There is increasing belief that sugar is the primary factor causing not just obesity, but also chronic and lethal disease. There is also no longer any doubt that sugar is indeed toxic, and just a matter of time before it is accepted as causative of most cancer, in the same way that we know smoking and alcohol abuse is a direct cause of lung cancer and liver cirrhosis.

Fructose is the primary source of calories in the US. The issue is that fructose is so cheap it is used in virtually all processed foods.  It’s important to realize that “sugars” include other types of sweeteners too, such as corn-based sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, honey, agave and fruit. So in counting, you can’t just include table sugar.  It is recommended to limit total grams of fructose to below 25 per day, then it would not be an issue.  (Note that this is well below average intake).  Sugars are hidden everywhere.  It’s in your soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks, most processed foods, even most infant formulas contain the sugar equivalent of one can of Coca-Cola!  Drastically reducing your sugar consumption is the “miracle cure” everyone is looking for!  Cutting out a few desserts will barely make a difference however if you’re eating a “standard American diet”.

Fructose elevates uric acid, decreases nitric oxide, raises angiotensin, and causes smooth muscle constriction, thus raising blood pressure and damaging your kidneys. Increased uric acid also leads to chronic, low-level inflammation, which can lead to obesity, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, kidney disease, gout and cancers, as well as being a major cause of dizziness, which as you are by now no doubt aware, is my specialty.  Uric acid levels have been shown to almost triple in this county over the last century. It remains my opinion as well as others, that this process is indeed correlative with coronary artery disease rather than the commonly accused culprit “cholesterol”, for which most Americans now take prophylactic daily doses of highly profitable drugs.  It has been estimated that simply preventing these diseases by decreasing sugar consumption could save the US health care system around one trillion dollars a year! Imagine the effect this would have on our deficit. Although not without flaw, a good start to improving your diet, is the Mediterranean diet. A good resource for this is through a website run by a patient of mine; www.italialiving.com.  Rather than yoyo dieting, this “method of eating” will teach you how and what to eat to preserve your health.

Movement Disorders

By Dr. A. R. Scopelliti

Apr

19

Over 40 million Americans – 1 in every 7- suffer with a movement disorder.  That’s more than double the number of people who suffer with diabetes, which, is in itself a staggering number.  A person who has a movement disorder will typically see on average 15 different doctors, over the course of 5 years before one of them actually recognizes and properly identifies the problem.  To those individuals suffering with movement disorders this is a very real problem and as such those suffering are very much underserved.  Making matters worse, movement disorders, once recognized, are typically treated by drugs which were not necessarily developed for the treatment of any particular movement disorders.  And if this is not bad enough, most of these drugs are actually known to cause movement disorders, such as tremors.  Surprisingly, one can develop these tremor side affects, (called tardive dyskinesias), from a single dose of prescribed medication.  Most people think that you have to take a lot of a drug before it will inflict side affects, though in actuality, this is clearly not the case.   So is there a better approach to this?  Well, actually in a word, yes.  As a functional neurologist, I routinely spend my day seeing patients with movement disorders, most of whom have been referred to me to ascertain what is going on with them what is causing them to move the way they do.  Many of these movement disorders can actually be treated better without drugs using neurologic rehabilitation, whereby we restructure the brains neurologic connections using simple exercises and activities, affording the brain appropriate integration of the many neuronal pools which all have to work synergistically together at all times.  The trick to this is that the diagnosis needs to be extraordinarily precise, as no two patients, even with the same movement parameters, are typically going to be managed the same. Because of the simplicity of this approach as well as the lack of harmful side affects, there is little sense in utilizing alternative drug therapies in favor of appropriate neurologic rehabilitation.  Another problem with the drug approach lies in the fact that since the drugs are not treating anything at all and at best hoping to ameliorate some symptoms, the underlying cause continues to worsen.  Often times as this goes on for a long time, the movement disorder becomes difficult or even impossible to entirely correct due to the vast reorganizational changes that have now occurred in the brains many interconnections.  This is particularly frustrating for me as a clinician as well as for a patient suffering with a movement disorder as had they presented years earlier the problem would have been much easier to treat successfully.