PODCAST #22 3-1-08

WELCOME TO THE 22nd EDITION OF THE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS PODCAST

Depression: Drug Money: Marijuana relieves pain: Gifts to doctors by drug companies.

In an article in the British Medical Journal, too many patients are being diagnosed with depression and treated with drugs when they are merely unhappy.

British researchers enrolled 225 hospitalized patients, average age 75, and gave half a vitamin supplement providing 100 percent of the British RDA.The other half received a placebo. Both groups were fed a normal hospital diet. When they were retested after six weeks, significant improvements in mood were noted in the supplement group, regardless of their initial level of depression.

Most guidelines for weight loss are not just misleading, but wrong. There is little scientific evidence that fats drive obesity and good evidence that high glycemic carbohydrates do. The carbohydrate hypothesis offers the best explanation for the epidemic of obesity and the inability to stop it.

A new study concludes that cardio respiratory fitness may be a stronger predictor of mortality for older adults than body fat. This again shows that exercise is the most important factor for good health and longevity.

Doctors are courted by the drug companies to the tune of 20 billion dollars a year with free pens, free lunches and free trips etc. The doctor is invited to a fancy restaurant for a “medical education” speech usually about the greatest new drug. At the end of the evening some times the doctors are given an envelope with money inside.

In the office the doctor is detailed and given latest and greatest drug free. The free drugs which doctors give to their patients at first glance might seem to be a good deal. It is really bad for most patients. When the sample is finished you then get a prescription for the drug. Many times if the salesman did not intervene you could have gotten a tried and true generic drug, which would have worked as good or better and cheaper. The newer a drug the greater the chance for harmful side effects.

A study of 50 patients with HIV nerve pain found that a moderate (4%) dose THC cigarette relieved burning, aching and nerve pain as effectively as the oral pain drugs typically prescribed. The down side is that smoking marijuana has the same bed effect as smoking tobacco.

Many years ago when I was director of Pharmacy at St. Charles hospital, the cancer drug cis-platinum came on the market. It was a good drug but the side effects were terrible. Horrible nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite were among the worst.

For those patients on cis-platinum the government supplied free tins, each containing 100 of the best quality marijuana cigarettes. If a doctor had a cancer patient taking cis-platinum the doctor could write a prescription for marijuana cigarettes for that patient.

A cancer patient came into the hospital and was put on cis-platinum. He said it was the most terrible week of his life. He was nauseas and vomiting all the time and lost weight. He was admitted a few weeks later when we had received the marijuana. His doctor proscribed the marijuana cigarettes for the second cancer treatment. The patient smiled all the time, did not get nauseas, ate like a pig and felt great.

That’s all for PODCAST #22. I hope you found it interesting and informative. The next PODCAST will be the week of April 1

IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED ON THE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS PODCAST OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS IS
health@lencolabs.com.

For more information on this subject and other subjects go to www.lencolabs.com, thank you for listening to the health and happiness podcast with–Leonard Austin