Street's Health Discussion. Volume 1 Issue 1

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by fotze

Why can't you buy potassium supplements?

I presume it is because hyperkalemia (high potassium) can cause arrhythmias, cardiac arrest, and death.

[LChoy]

Originally Posted by Hesla

In my ideal world there are no polysporin, visine or clear eye drops available.

Is Visine just for moisturizing when I have contacts okay?

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

I presume it is because hyperkalemia (high potassium) can cause arrhythmias, cardiac arrest, and death.

Cant low potassium cause the same?

There are potassium supplements out there, but they usually come in 100mg pills, which is about 1/4 the amount in a banana.

[Knut]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

Secondary to a swab is there any definitive way to determine if it is bacterial or viral. I know that I had bilateral conjunctivitis that I picked up from a military base a few years back and the amount of purulent discharge that I had was significant and I got a prescription for an antibiotic from a GP for an antibiotic and it cleared up within a day or two if memory serves me correct however now I am wondering if this would be the natural healing process?

Base it on symptoms, history and certain signs (type of discharge, signs on the eyelid etc).

If it does not respond then culture. I generally only treat with antibiotics if there is corneal involvement (sight threatening) or if it is hyper-acute.

[Knut]

Originally Posted by Lchoy

Is Visine just for moisturizing when I have contacts okay?

Use Blink for CLs instead.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by fotze

Why can't you buy potassium supplements?

You can find it in small doses over the counter. Also, up to 8mEq is available behind the counter without Rx in some provinces. High serum potassium can be very serious, even fatal

[troutman]

Originally Posted by OBCT

It's certainly simpler (and debatably cheaper; though not necessarily easier) to stick to eating real food and forgetting about supplements all together... if this research holds weight.

Thoughts?

Who takes dietary supplements, and why?


http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/...ments-and-why/

Aside from sporadic vitamin D in winter, I don’t take any vitamins or supplements routinely, nor do I give any to my children. Your reasons may be close to mine: There is little to no evidence suggesting that dietary deficiencies are widespread, nor is there good evidence to suggest that vitamin supplements are beneficial in the absence of deficiency. I don’t have any need for an other supplements, nor am I confident in the scientific evidence for many of them.This position of “no supplements” is a cautious and conservative one, but is based on a consideration of the scientific evidence. I view decisions about healthcare as evaluations of risk and benefit, and then cost if necessary. Given supplementation (with some exceptions) has no demonstrable benefits and, in some cases, a little risk, the odds favour not supplementing in most cases. Add in costs, and it’s even less attractive as a routine health strategy.

Yet a decision not to take vitamins or supplements regularly is becoming a minority position. Supplement use has grown over the past 40 years among Americans

Supplement makers promote an image of being small, ethical, and natural — the exact opposite of evil Big Pharma. Yet the numbers show this is big business: a $30 billion (USD, 2011) industry which (as has been noted regularly at this blog) has limited regulatory oversight. The result is a marketplace with products listing exaggerated claims that aren’t supported by credible evidence. Yet industry surveys suggest 85% of Americans are confident in the safety, quality, and effectiveness of these products.

Survey on supplement consumption report widespread use, which seems to be based on perceptions that these products are both safe and effective. While supplement use of all kinds is common, it’s multivitamin/minerals that really push the overall consumption rates up. Take that away, and regular usage of other kinds of supplements drops down to just over 10% of the population. When looked at over longer time frames, however, the Harvard survey suggests that 40% do take some form of non-vitamin supplement at least intermittently.

The reasons for taking supplements varies. In the case of multivitamins, it seems to be based around the belief that their consumption will offer meaningful benefits. Yet on balance, there is little evidence to support general supplementation, and in the absence of a deficiency, no evidence multivitamins will boost mood or energy levels. For the most common reasons cited for supplements, expectations are generalized and fairly non-specific. Many may be taking multivitamins as an insurance policy — not a strategy that I’d routinely endorse, given the evidence, but one that is not uncommon. And certainly there is some vitamin and supplement use that is appropriate and evidence-based.

Most of the decision-making around vitamin and supplement use appears to occur without the input of a health professional, raising questions about the rationale for use. And perhaps not surprisingly, few subsequently tell their health professionals about their supplement use. Medical evidence may not be a factor in decisions to take these products. Instead they may be based on perceptions or attitudes that they’re beneficial, perhaps because of confidence in regulations that allow their sale, or the resulting marketing that exaggerates expected benefits. What’s most surprising is that the scientific evidence may not matter at all. It’s said that you can’t reason people out of a decision they didn’t reason themselves into. Perhaps that’s the case with supplements. Certainly it illustrates the need for a more thoughtful (and yes, science-based) approach to promoting health behavior change in individuals. For health professionals interested in improving the safe and appropriate use of vitamins and supplements, and reducing unnecessary or inappropriate use, we need better strategies to promote change.

Multivitamin-multimineral supplementation and mortality: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/ea...49304.abstract

Conclusion: Multivitamin-multimineral treatment has no effect on mortality risk.

[Minnie]

Potassium, or at least too much of it for me, triggers headaches. So I eat high potassium foods in moderation. I have some odd headache triggers - things like caffeine and chocolate don't trigger. Certain citrus fruits trigger, eating too much fish triggers, too much high potassium foods do, and I'm very sensitive to barometric pressure, which can be a royal PITA living here, LOL.

[J epworth]

I'll try to pipe into some questions from time to time here as well, I'm currently finishing up my Masters of Public Health in two months, with a focus on Epidemiology Methods. Got plenty of info on health policy, currently taking a health economics course, epidemiology of infectious diseases (did a practicum out in Vancouver last summer looking at increasing testing for STIs, as well as helping run a study to improve adherence to latent tuberculosis treatment).

[OBCT]

Originally Posted by troutman

Who takes dietary supplements, and why?

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/...ments-and-why/

<snip>

[/I]Multivitamin-multimineral supplementation and mortality: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/ea...49304.abstract

Conclusion:Multivitamin-multimineral treatment has no effect on mortality risk.

Sounds like a similar conclusion. Apparently these findings are not new. Dr. Tice takes it a step further by alleging that certain supplement use actually increases mortality risk somewhat (above statistical insignificance, but not hugely) based on his research. The suggestions (given and implied) are quite comparable between the articles.

The data provided in your article about the supplement industry being worth upwards of $30 billion annually in the USA alone is staggering. That's a lot of coin for folks to be doling out on products with remarkably little science to back them up, or so it seems.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by OBCT

Sounds like a similar conclusion. Apparently these findings are not new. Dr. Tice takes it a step further by alleging that certain supplement use actually increases mortality risk somewhat (above statistical insignificance, but not hugely) based on his research. The suggestions (given and implied) are quite comparable between the articles.

The data provided in your article about the supplement industry being worth upwards of $30 billion annually in the USA alone is staggering. That's a lot of coin for folks to be doling out on products with remarkably little science to back them up, or so it seems.

I do not recommend multivitamins. When people ask me which one to use, I ask standard questions to potential deficiencies such as dietary restrictions (vegan, no dairy, etc) and even then I try to recommend a single supplement. Big Pharma at least is required to provide the burden of proof. Big placebo....not so much

[polak]

Counting down the posts until illegal drugs are brought up and someone chimes in and claims to know more than licensed doctors.

[puckluck2]

Does senokot help boost the metabolism? I was constipated about a month ago and took some two nights in a row and have noticed my metabolism has picked up since then. Maybe a coincidence I don't know. Nothing really changed in my diet either.

[SHOGUN]

Maybe this has already been discussed in this thread but the #1 health advice I would give as a nursing student and a guy who researched on nutrition and diet for years.... stick to earth grown foods and get your vitamins and minerals from all natural food sources. If you can, try to shop organic and grass fed meats... for me, when I switched over, the difference in my mood and energy levels were incredible. Yeah it can be pricey switching over to fresh and organic groceries... but this YOUR heath. You deserve to eat the best and most fresh food available... luckily we live in country where this is very accessible, so take advantage of it.

[Sr. Mints]

After having surgery on my face to remove some skin cancer, I was told to put vaseline or Fucidin on the stitches, but not Polysporin because prolonged use of Polysporin causes a reaction (or something.)

Can you clarify?

[troutman]

Should you be “Eating Clean”?


http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/...ory/nutrition/

Categorizing foods as or diets as “clean” is clearly a successful marketing strategy, but is less useful when it comes to daily decision-making about good nutrition. Some of the concepts that underlie “eating clean” are supported by good scientific evidence. But the “eating clean” philosophy is imbued with a considerable amount of pseudoscience and a large amount of the naturalistic fallacy. Calories matter, and supplements probably don’t. For that reason, I would not recommend any of the “Eat Clean” and related books. There are too many inaccuracies to compensate for the good advice buried within. Dietary design needs to be based on good evidence, not anecdotes and logical fallacies.

http://www.agbioworld.org/index.htmlhttp://www.skepdic.com/organic.html

http://www.skepdic.com/organic.html

The bottom line is that fresh fruits and vegetables are good for you and it doesn't matter whether they're organic.

The evidence for the superiority of organic food is mostly anecdotal and based more on irrational assumptions and wishful thinking than on hard scientific evidence. There is no significant difference between a natural molecule and one created in the laboratory. Being natural or organic does not make a substance safe* nor does being synthetic make a substance unsafe.

http://nutritionwonderland.com/2009/...ganic-farming/

Myth 1: Organic Foods Are Free From Pesticides And Harmful Chemicals
Myth 2: Organic Foods Are More Nutritious
Myth 3: Organic Farming Is Better For The Environment

Is Organic Food More Healthful?
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/...ore-healthful/

A recent review of the literature of the last 50 years shows that there is no evidence for health benefits from eating an organic diet. The only exception to this was evidence for a lower risk of eczema in children eating organic dairy products. But with so many potential correlations to look for, this can just be noise in the data.

Another important conclusion of this systematic review is the paucity of good research into organic food – they identified only 12 relevant trials. So while there is a lack of evidence for health benefits from eating an organic diet, we do not have enough high-quality studies to say this question has been definitively answered. It is surprising, given the fact that organic food was controversial in the 1950s, that so little good research has been done over the last half-century.

No Health Benefits from Organic Food
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/...-organic-food/

A recent review of 240 studies has concluded that:

The published literature lacks strong evidence that organic foods are significantly more nutritious than conventional foods. Consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

After having surgery on my face to remove some skin cancer, I was told to put vaseline or Fucidin on the stitches, but not Polysporin because prolonged use of Polysporin causes a reaction (or something.)

Can you clarify?

Polysporin, or Neosporin? I have seen a lot of reactions to the Neosporin; people react to the Neomycin in the compound and end up with an allergic reaction with redness, skin pain, irritation, burning, swelling, itching, rash, or hives - the skin may weep or develop blisters.

Early on and throughout my daughter's issues, we were vehemently told to avoid the Neosporin because of the above - but Polysporin was ok.

1)Why would taking a daily vitamin give me a wicked headache? I read that it might be the niacin?

2)I take either naproxen or ibuprofen for my back. My doctor said that prolonged use of these are bad for you. True? and How? and What other alternative do I have?

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by Minnie

Polysporin, or Neosporin? I have seen a lot of reactions to the Neosporin; people react to the Neomycin in the compound and end up with an allergic reaction with redness, skin pain, irritation, burning, swelling, itching, rash, or hives - the skin may weep or develop blisters.

Early on and throughout my daughter's issues, we were vehemently told to avoid the Neosporin because of the above - but Polysporin was ok.

It was definitely Polysporin they told me avoid. I've never heard of Neosporin, in fact.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

Does senokot help boost the metabolism? I was constipated about a month ago and took some two nights in a row and have noticed my metabolism has picked up since then. Maybe a coincidence I don't know. Nothing really changed in my diet either.

Not to my knowledge. Likely not connected