Botox in My Face? Probably Not!

The April Journal of Neuroscience reported that scientists injected rats' whisker muscles with botulism toxin. Tests of the rodents' brain tissue found that botulism had been transported to the brain stems.

Botox is Allergan's (the largest ophthalmic pharmaceutical company) biggest product, with $1.21 billion in sales last year. The drug, approved in 1989, became fashionable among aging celebrities, and many of my friends, who were seeking to smooth facial wrinkles. It it is now used to treat some neurological disorders with fairly good success.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether patients contracted botulism, a muscle-weakening illness, from Botox. Wouldn't you think they would have investigated this, admitedly small, possibility before it was approved.

I must ask you, didn't the idea of injecting botulism into ones face seem beyond reasonable the first time you heard that Hollywood was doing this to preserve the illusion of youth?

Black Labels for ED Supplements

The FDA released a warning to consumers not to purchase or use "Blue Steel" or "Hero" dietary supplements promoted and sold online for erectile dysfunction (ED) treatment.

The chemicals similar to sildenafil, Viagra's active ingredient, which aren't noted on the Blue Steel and Hero product labels, "may dangerously affect a person's blood pressure level," an FDA news release states.

People with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease often take nitrates. ED is a common problem in men with these medical conditions. Because they may have been advised against taking ED drugs, these men may seek products like Blue Steel and Hero because the products are marketed as "all natural" or as not containing the active ingredients in approved ED drugs, the FDA notes.

The FDA advises people who have used either of these products to discontinue use and consult their health care professional if they have experienced any adverse events that they feel are related to the use of these products.

Consumers or health care professionals can report adverse events to the FDA's MedWatch program by phone at 800-FDA-1088 or on the FDA's web site.

Time to Rethink Free Samples

A broken healthcare system needs to rethink a lot of areas that could save patients, government and insurance companies money. Free samples of prescription drugs and dietary supplements is one of those areas.

University of Chicago researchers recently found that, on average, patients spend 30% more for therapies that come with free samples, than on equal or better therapies that don't offer free samples.

So, leaving your doctor's office with a bagful of free samples may seem like a good way to save money, but folks banking on the freebies need to think again.

Samples cost companies a ton of money, and the cost of those samples is simply added into the price you pay for the product. In the supplement world, you are far better off to purchase from companies who don't sample, but who guarantee to return your money if you are not satisifed with the product within a reasonable amount of time.

Food Stamps & Vitamins

Food stamp recipients can use their benefits to purchase “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” regardless of nutritional value, yet USDA policy prohibits the use of food stamps to purchase vitamin and mineral supplements whose specific function is to improve nutritional status.

Does anyone else but me object to a government policy that allows our food stamp tax dollars to be spent on sodas, potato chips, Twinkies and Oreos, but not on a basic multiple vitamin that can help prevent disease?

Airborne settles lawsuit for $23.3 million

It took 6 years for them to stop claiming their product cures the common cold, but who cared, sales of the product soared after the product was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Even after the company stopped making such a claim, sales rose in the last 4 years to over $100 million a year. Yesterday Airborne agreed to compensate duped consumers $23 million.

The Moral: It's not wise for teachers to make outrageous health claims for micronutrients they know little about and to blantly ignore FDA label laws. This sort of nonsense gives the entire supplement industry an undeserved bad reputation.

Defending DSHEA

The editorial below is by Robert Watson, the President of the industry-esteemed company, Vitamin Research Products. VRP manufactures the formulations Biosyntrx designs.

" I was dismayed that baseball officials are blaming the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) for the alleged steroid abuse by athletes. Donald Fehr, Major League Baseball’s union chief, recently testified to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that Congress has played a role in the steroid abuse scandal by passing DSHEA in 1994.

In an interview with The New York Daily News, UCLA professor Don Catlin, who runs the Olympic lab in Los Angeles, jumped on the anti-DSHEA bandwagon, saying, “It was very clear to me that DSHEA was created in order to give the supplement manufacturers a huge shield so they could distribute steroids.”

As the President/CEO of a company that prides itself on producing well-researched, high-quality nutritional supplements that contain exactly what is listed on the label, I’m appalled at these ridiculous statements.

First, DSHEA was passed to protect the rights of consumers. Prior to DSHEA, FDA was arbitrarily treating supplements as either unapproved food additives or drugs, which they are not, restricting consumers’ access to nutritional supplements.

Second, the anabolic steroid drugs athletes are abusing cannot scientifically or ethically be compared to nutritional supplements. Hormones such as DHEA, pregnenolone and progesterone are all found naturally in the human body, do not produce the same potent effects associated with prescription anabolic steroid drugs and have been shown to enhance many aspects of health.

Fehr’s testimony has unearthed the first stirrings of DSHEA unrest in Congress. House Oversight Committee’s chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), agrees with Fehr that DSHEA is ripe for review.

Fehr and the baseball industry clearly are trying to find a scapegoat to distract Congress and pull attention away from the true problem. This misguided approach is endangering DSHEA, one of the most important and beneficial laws Congress has passed. I urge you to contact your representatives and senators and ask them to continue to support DSHEA and your right to have access to nutritional supplements."

Heath Ledger, RIP

Heath Ledger was a talented young actor with a bright future. We extend our sincere sympathy to his family and friends.

If toxicology reports prove that he died from a combination of FDA approved anti-depressants and sleeping pills, we can only hope society will wake up and start to take precautions to protect our innocent children and ourselves from similar fates in the future.

The media-driven mass-medication of our population needs more controls. However, patients and parents need to take more responsibility for the drugs they put in their bodies and their children's bodies by carefully reading the drug inserts, as well as the information most pharmacists provide when they fill scripts.

An obvious question: why isn't every filled FDA prescription logged into a national data base (patient SS number, date of birth, and address, plus prescribing doctor)? Fairly simple programing of this data base could instantly alert all pharmacists to question the prescribing doctor when filling scripts that adversely react with drugs the patients is already taking, as well as expose over-prescribing physicians, and most of those patients who go from doctor to doctor for scripts for physically addicting drugs.