Dr Donohue's blog

These drugs are in the class thiazolidinediones, or glitazones. There have been reports of these medications worsening heart failure and perhaps causing other heart-related problems. Any change to your diabetic regimen should be made in concert with the doctor.

Recent findings called into question the value of Ezetimibe, which is sold under the name Zetia and in the combination pill Vytorin. A recent study suggested it might increase plaque buildup in the coronary arteries.

These drugs include advil, motrin, alleve, naproxen, ibuprofen. They are effective for reducing pain and inflammation. However, with prolonged use (more than say a few weeks) they can cause fatal stomach bleeds and cardiac mortality such as that alleged to be caused by vioxx. Tylenol (acetaminophen) is safer for daily use, so long as you take no more than the recommended dosing. This is 1000mg (2 extra strength tabs or 3 regular strength tabs) maximum 4 times per day. For arthritic joints, strengthening exercize is quite effective. There is some evidence that glucosamine - chondroitin might be

If you are taking proton pump inhibitors for a long time (PPIs, such as nexium, protonix, prilosec, prevacid) you should consider trying to get off them. There have been reports of bone mineral loss due to impaired calcium absorption among people on prolonged PPIs. Also, it has been shown that such people have approx. double the rate of pneumonia and clostridium difficile colitis (a potentially fagtal bowell infection). It turns out that stomach acid has a purpose - primarily, it would appear, to prevent infections. A minority of people on PPIs must be on them long term to avoid dangerous

Beta Carotine = bad
Vitamin E = bad
Vitamin C = no effect
Echinacea = no effect

What good is any supplement? A slew of recent good data is supporting taking vitamin D. Recent studies have shown vitamin D supplementation might reduce breast cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer by as much as 50%.

What dose to take. It seems that the USRDA of 400 IU of vitamin D per day is too low. It is just enough vitamin D to prevents rickets. It is early to say but it appears that we should be getting 1000 IU per day to get sufficient anticancer effect.

Is this just another premarin or vitamin E that doctors are pushing today and will be pulling tomorrow? I cannot say for 100% certainty, but I believe that vitamin D will likely emerge as one of the few supplements you can take that is likely to make you live longer.

The medical establishment has done another about face. Well it never officially endorsed vitamin E, but your "early adopters" certainly did (with some reason: there was reasonably optimistic test tube data suggesting vitamin E might prevent cancer or heart disease).

A recent large study looking at all data thus far collected on vitamin E supplementation showed that people who took "high dose" vitamin E (i.e., the standard 400 IU vitamin E tablet) had a statistically significantly higher risk of ... *death*.

OK, so "death" - how bad could that be? Well you'd be surprised how FEW medical studies show an effect on overall death rate. Even in areas where we consider the data to be quite strong, like anti-cholerterol or anti-high-blood pressure medicines, seldom is the endpoint of death addressed. Reason: it requires a very large study and a large effect.