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May 26, 2007
more glitazone littering
so glaxo is finding hard to keep a study going on rosiglitazone because the volunteers in the study are dropping out...well! well! well!..and the FDA came out today and said that their study on rosiglitazone also found higher incidences of heart disease. ha!...
after a major debate with a family member who is doctor yesterday nite, i put down some of my thoughts with this issue...
1: many doctors don't keep with up research. the information they get is from pharma reps who peddle their own companies drugs and who have their own agenda. commissions what not. such admissions i have taken from a book i read about the pharma reps..."hard sell :- the evolution of a viagra salesmen". the docs get their advice on new drugs from these reps and dont do independent research... and not only that, which study would they follow?..there are so many studies being conducted all over the place.
2: many doctors don't have time. running private practices, working in hospitals, surgeries, emergencies, rounds..and then a family..its not easy.
3: many doctors don't develop relationship with patients. this relationship is important for personal care, holistic focus and long term strategy. too many patients, too less time are some of the reasons.
4: with the drug approval authorities, there is corruption and significant influence of private lobbyists and special interest groups.
5: there is no literature sold with prescribed drugs that lists potential side-effects, chemical names etc etc... this might be country specific and this used to happen in india before but now i need a magnifying glass just to look up the expiry date and ingredients. side-effects are not mentioned.
who do i trust anymore in the whole chain? a doc who didn't monitor me, who didn't advise me about the side-effects and for whom i am another money bag. the govt approval authority which allowed suppressed findings, cleared drugs earlier than they should or allowed incomplete labeling to the drug makers? the drug makers who's primary service is to the shareholders, not to their end-users....
its a rotten system from top to bottom. more musings to come.
cant wait to see michael moore's 'sicko'
Posted by ananth at 08:33 AM
May 24, 2007
glitazones ..no glitter are they....
an ischemic heart failure it was, said the doc. yes she had heart disease now, to go with diabetes and blood pressure. and he gave her a list of medications to top the one she was taking for diabetes and blood pressure. new ones came in the form of beta blockers, cholesterol lowering ones to blood thinners like aspirins. i counted 13 pills she took including all the vitamins, iron what not.
and he removed one. one who's importance i just researched. i wish i had seen it earlier. i wish i hadnt seen it now or heard about it. no i am not a doctor. far from it. i dont want to google. i rather not know. i want to trust my doc. i really do. but i cant.
it was pioglitazone which he took off. and she was on it for a year and half. yes, she was on a combination drug therapy with metformin and glimiperide and she took pio as its known here..15mg/day. it was enough....
it was enough to produce fluid retention in her legs.
it was enough to cause edema, she had some in her lungs...
it was enough to cause or 'help' in significant weight gain upwards to 8kg
it was enough prolly to reduce her iron content...
it was enough to cause left ventricle issues
it led to CHF, to the hospital in the first week of april'07, late nite after complaining of chest pains along with hella swollen rock hard legs.
but all that said, it controlled her sugar levels. yippee hooray...you might die but alteast i did my job as pill for that sweet sugar...
i wish i had laid my hands on this report then. yeah, if they had a checkbox for each of the headings in it, i would have prolly ticked most of 'em.
Thiazolidinedione Use, Fluid Retention,and Congestive Heart Failure
A consensus statement from the American Heart Association and American
Diabetes Association
Robert Nesto et.al., Jan 2004
i wish the doc would have told us more. side effects they never discuss with you. relationship he has none with the patient. and they tell you to take your file with you, record they have none. follow-ups , you have to ask...
their chicken scratch on the prescription paper, i cant decipher. strangely the pharmacist does and doles out the strips, no warming labels, no piece of paper that talks anything about it. the strip, i turned upside down, i cant make any of the lettering, i prolly need a magnifying glass or maybe a microscope, expiry date is all i see. yes thats important too..
and where did this latest bout of discovery start?..a recent headline that said a 'brandname' diabetes drug causes significant heart disease. i desperately google for the chemicalname...rosiglitazone it says. hmmm..that sounds familiar. wait, my mom's on something similar sounding...ah..yeah pioglitazone...and the doc's removed that after this latest incident...
she was allright last year, she had no heart condition or any vascular disease. she had her weight under control. yes, she tried various diabetic drug cocktails before pioglitazone was introduced. hey but why was she on this for so long?..couldnt you have called us back for checkpoints? you treated the diabetes, doc, the drug damaged the heart...and then you give something for the heart, it tires up the kidney and then the liver...it never ends.
don't fall sick. or make sure you have a relationship with a doc who is honest and who CARES. that it ain't about the money, that it ain't about your private practice, that it ain't about the commission from the pharma company for pushing the drug..and that it ain't about only diabetes...there are other organs too...
when will the drug companies stop lying?
when will the FDA step up?
when will the hospitals give patients the dignity they deserve?
when will the docs keep up with research?
when will the docs stop treating you as their next cheque?
when will the docs stop asking you to split the pill in half?
is there a doc who CARES....?
is anyone in there?
Posted by ananth at 06:34 PM
May 16, 2007
food labellings...ahem
so i have been following labeling closely with a parent on a strict diet control. she has BP so salt intake has to be reduced, she has diabetes, here sugar consumption has to be regulated and she also has to lose weight, so lesser the saturated fats, the better.
and the dietician and every nutritionist out there goes, get brown bread...yeah wheat bread, rather than white bread for breakfast. so i get this britannia bread, premium bake it says, says whole wheat bread...
but what the heck then is wheat flour doing in it?..especially if whole wheat flour is already in it. nowhere does it say whats the percentage. for all i would know, the whole wheat flour could but like 0.5% with 99.5% wheat flour...$@%$%#^*&
add to that there is hydrogenated oils and fats which contribute heavily to saturated unhealthy fats...hmmmmm...yeah it has salt and sugar too...wish they would say how much sugars and how much sodium...either in grams or milligrams.
each bread slice weighs anywhere between 30 to 40 grams. so the above label is for say 2.5 slices. nowhere does it say how much is 100 grams :)...serving size?
oh well...another brand for tomorrow..
Posted by ananth at 08:13 AM
May 13, 2007
rajesh salunke at chembur fine arts
got a chance to check shri rajesh salunke peform in a smaller stage at the chembur fine arts auditorium building this afternoon. he was accompanied by shri sharad sidhyae on harmonium, shri. mahesh shetye on tabla and neha naik on the tambura. just an hour, rajesh's voice was awesome and his main piece, the opening one on gujri todi was really good.
Posted by ananth at 06:59 PM
May 09, 2007
bombay native general library built in 1845?
while i was just walking around waiting for B.X.Furtado (musical instruments shop in downtown bombay, i was looking to buy a guitar) to open, my eyes chanced upon this building right across the road...it was an older building and it said it was a free reading room...hmmm..i had another 30 minutes to waste, why not try this?...
peoples free reading rooms, how nice. coming closer it said it was some wadia library.
....okay..and then walking in, a board said i must have a pass to enter. of course finding noone at the table, i just sauntered in...when i hit this sign below..wow, is this the same library?..established in 1845 and a bunch of these fellas paid a lot of money to source books... pretty impressive i thought!..
...read me couple of the days newspapers and then finding a place, dug into my book. time went by and i got up to leave, i noticed a guy sitting by the door. i asked him how much the pass was and was it free?..he said no and it was Rs 70/- for a month, thats a price for two pepsi's...:)...what happened to the free reading room, the engraving says so i remarked..and i just got a smile-smirk back...a face that implied ..is anything free these days?
looked around the library's inside, pretty dark and dingy it appeared. the inner architecture looked interesting, some statues on the wall, just covered with dust lying neglected. was this the wadia library or bombay native general library?..............mmmmmmmmm
Posted by ananth at 10:00 AM
May 05, 2007
hypocrites galore
-an MIT student counselor who preached integrity resigns on resumegate...lying in the past about where she obtained her degrees
-bunch of duke business school MBA students scam on their take home exams...
-a deputy sec of state for abstinence programs compares his taste for massages from escort services to ordering pizza
- world bank prez helps out his girl friend with cushy position and a hefty pay package with his influence
just wondering what happened to this thing called integrity?
Posted by ananth at 05:01 AM
May 04, 2007
yeah right. 737 stranded my ass
so there was a story going about a boeing 737 got stranded in bombay road near chembur suburb. media outlets reported that the driver took a wrong turn. they also reported it was on its way to delhi. they said it couldn't be backed out and needed four cranes to help get it back on the highway. hogwash!..talking to my buddy about it who's moved boiler equipment with similar dimensions, he says its all crap.
1: the truck can be easily backed out. my buddy says the reverse gear is pretty powerful and he has done it while transporting 75ft long boiler equipment.
2: the drivers who drive such trailers are usually skilled. they aren't your normal lorry drivers. hence him taking a wrong turn or lost is silly reason.
3: thirdly, its a straight road, the main road is to get out of bombay towards new bombay....why would you make such a left into dukes factory road is downright suspicious.
4: if you are going to delhi, you could take the western express highway and scoot out of the city that way. no reason to take the eastern express highway. why go to pune if its headed to delhi.
5: which guy is buying it to make into a children's play area or a training ground for future stewards/esses?..you could make a cheaper one of plywood. after all aluminum is pretty expensive and this could easily fetch a nice amount from scrap yards.
the media is absolutely lazy and in creating a sensational headline has chosen to ignore the realities behind this story. the buyer prolly just wanted to park it somewhere till he found a legitimate agent to offload it. the airport authorities must have given him an ultimatum to get it out of their area and this guy found it convenient to park it here...after all its still within city limits and he could use some days to decide which gets him the best deal...
lazy, useless media...absolutely lazy...
Posted by ananth at 04:01 PM
May 01, 2007
pills
so i have been researching into all the pills momma is taking..and it sure is a list...just a bit bewildering at the moment.
| Aztor 10 | Atorvastatin | cholesterol |
| Betaloc 25 | Metoprolol Tartrate | heart |
| Glyciphage | Metformin Hydrochloride | diabetes |
| Cardace 2.5 | Ramipril | blood pressure |
| Sorbitrate 10 | Isosorbide Dinitrate | heart |
| GP-1 | Glimipiride | diabetes |
| Retorlix 10 | Torsemide | fluid rentention |
| Dispirin | Acetylsalicyclic Acid, Calcium Carbonate | blood thinner |
| Pantoacid | Pantoprazole Sodium Sesquihydrate | acidity |
| Nurokind | Gabapentin & Mecobalamin | vitamin b12 |
| Autrin | Cyanocobalamin, Ferrous Fumarate | iron |
| Dolo 650 | Paracetomol | pain killer |
| Glucosamine | Glucosamine | arithiritis, joint care |
| Calcium | Calcium, Vitamin D |
Posted by ananth at 04:53 AM