Category: medical news

Master of the Obvious on Proton Pump Inhibitors

~ Pharmer

Proton Pump Inhibitors Linked to C difficile Diarrhea.

Some obvious things need a study to be established as fact.

The acidity of the stomach is good for beginning the digestion of proteins and for protecting the gut from unwanted, microbial, disease causing organisms. It also contributes to immediate and later absorption of vital nutrients such as iron. When the proton pump inhibitors such as prevacid, nexium, protonix first came onto the market, and were said to be much more effective in reducing stomach acid, Pharmer told the retail patients to be careful what food they ate at the picnics and wedding receptions. It would be easier to get bacterial food poisoning while taking a proton pump inhibitor. Pharmer also began mentioning to patients that it would decrease absorption of iron.

Who paid the FDA to put proton pump inhibitors over the counter? (Weren’t the H2 blockers, e.g. cimetidine, famotidine, enough?)

People are chowing down on these strong stomach acid suppressors, using them like Tums. Diarrheal episodes abound. Clostridium difficile (among other beastly buggs) blooms throughout the nursing homes, community, and hospitals. It’s getting more and more difficult to deal with, as resistance to antibiotics increases.

Amazing! There’s an association between use of the proton pump inhibitors and clostridium infections.

Proton pump inhibitors are what you use when life style changes fail and none of the other antacids work. See a physician who isn’t so crazy with the prescription pad.

Journal editor defends pro-infanticide piece: Killing newborns is already legal in Holland | LifeSiteNews.com

~ Pharmer

Learn about the Groningen Protocol, a standard which determines which newborn babies may be killed in the Netherlands.

Pro-life people have known about the infanticide occurring in America and throughout the world for many years, but it seems that the rest of people are still in shock from the pronouncements by two Australian “bioethicists” that this is OK, based on considering it as an extension of abortion.
The authors after getting so many “love letters” about their publication, have explained that they “join disability activists who condemn the routine recommendation of abortion for no other reason than to prevent the death of an affected baby.”
They see waiting until birth as a better alternative, because there is less chance of a false diagnosis of anomalies and a better assessment can be made of a newborn.
Journal of Medical Ethics editor, Julian Savulescu, who has also argued against waiting until patients are dead before organ harvesting, has taken time out to defend the pro-infanticide article, saying essentially that it is nothing new.
What’s new is that the general public is uncomfortable with killing a baby who is visible.

British court rules Catholic midwives can be forced to participate in abortions | LifeSiteNews.com

~ Pharmer ~ 1 Comment

British court rules Catholic midwives can be forced to participate in abortions | LifeSiteNews.com.

Yes, it can be a lot harder to exercise rights of conscience once you rise into the supervisory and administrative ranks of health care institutions that must offer abortions.

Under socialized medicine, there might be some allowance for health care professionals to conscientiously avoid killing their patients. The problem with rising to the supervisory roles is that one would be forced to oversee the health care professionals who participate in this killing.

This is the crux of the case of two midwife supervisors, Miss Mary Doogan and Mrs Connie Wood, in the UK health system who did not want to involve themselves in that aspect of health care.

The judge in the Edinburgh Court of Session ruled against the midwives, saying that their job was not covered by conscience protections in the Abortion Act.

Judge Lady Smith excluded the senior midwives of the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow from conscience protection because they were not actually performing abortions themselves.

“Infanticidal Lefties!” We Told You So

~ Pharmer ~ 2 Comments

After-birth abortion: why should the baby live? — Giubilini and Minerva — Journal of Medical Ethics.

After about 40 years of hearing that the pro-lifers’ slippery slope arguments against abortion and euthanasia were not valid, or a departure from reality, Pharmer takes this opportunity to say We TOLD you so!.

As if this is news, the internet has taken up the above example, authored by “bioethicists” (qualified to be on Obama’s health advisory team) that infanticide of any newborn is OK, if the baby is considered inconvenient to the lifestyle of the parents.

Wesley Smith is giving the same article one more go around at Second Hand Smoke. Even he seems tired of writing about them.

What seems to be a shock in the media is just old news to pro-lifers, who knew our leftist, ideological opponents, and realized their nature from the beginning. Killing and slavery is still their thing. They have not evolved to anything higher throughout the centuries.

The question is whether those of us without this appetite for destruction are going to continue to fund the plans of these people to kill and enslave us.

Are you attending to your boycotting? Are you paying attention to the “service” projects that your kids are doing in school? Are you directing your charitable efforts towards groups aligned with your ethical beliefs?

Celestial Discharge

~ Pharmer

Prayers for the family and close friends of Dr. Anant Bhati, who departed to the next life Friday night, 2/17/12.

Fox News story

Cinti Enquirer story.

Dr. Bhati was head of Gynecology at the biggest hospital in Cincinnati, on the board at the next biggest, Coroner of Hamilton County, and quite a bit more. He was one busy guy, hugely respected for his competency and his character. Pharmer has this to say about Dr. Bhati going to God early…… good for him, bad for us.

Drug Shortages Are Speeding Cancer Deaths, Survey Says

~ Pharmer ~ 1 Comment

Drug Shortages Are Speeding Cancer Deaths, Survey Says.

The above claim comes from the results of an Epocrates survey of prescribers. The participants are paid a bit for their time, but the input is stirred up to make the submissions anonymous. What they found is that slightly less than half of the oncologists think that the drug shortages of chemotherapeutic agents have caused recurrences of tumors in their patients. This is due to the inability to properly schedule their treatment regimens due to short supplies. About 40 percent of the respondents think that some patients have died sooner as a result.

This article attributes most of the problem to economics: inadequate reimbursement for generic injectables, which discourages production. Pharmer recognizes the contribution of tax rates and government regulatory burdens from employment, to work place, environment, and production to the problem. The documentation of compliance imposes a dizzying cost, preventing new starts into production of pharmaceuticals.

There’s a Drug Shortage Prevention Act being pushed through to address this problem. It appears to address the manner of FDA oversight of drugs on the market to prevent that agency from causing more shortages, but apparently not the reimbursement issue. This might be best, if the cost of drug production is significantly reduced.

Pharmer likes to watch Medscape, because a lot of useful information is distilled there, though by no means without bias. In order to see most of the articles, you have to join. Check it out.

Bad Bugs: Antibiotic Resistant Gonorrhea

~ Pharmer

Experts Warn of Antibiotic-Resistant Gonorrhea: MedlinePlus.

Be afraid, very afraid……..  it’s getting harder to kill those gram negative diplococci, Neisseria gonorrhoeae .    A double whammy of third generation cephalosporin  (cefixime or ceftriaxone)  plus azithromycin or doxycycline is needed to kill the little buggs.   After those regimens fail,   the doc’s don’t know what to try next.

There’s a  strain in Japan  (H041) which is apparently resistant to everything.  Researchers are studying its mechanism of antibiotic resistance and  transmission of this trait to other strains.

Think about that next time you want  to party without your pants.

 

 

Reid will allow vote on repeal of administration’s birth control mandate – The Hill’s Healthwatch

~ Pharmer

Reid will allow vote on repeal of administration's birth control mandate – The Hill's Healthwatch.

Senator Harry Reid has changed his mind, and decided to allow Sen. Roy Blunt’s Bill to repeal Obama’s birth control/abortive drugs/sterilization mandate to pass to the full Senate for a vote.
This new decision comes after Obamanator’s unilateral “compromise” to shift the administration of the mandate to insurance companies. This includes all the religious entities which are self insured. The compromise still steps on freedom of religion, still has religious organizations paying for things they consider sinful, and still forces people to sell and to buy things which they don’t want.

Here are two possible motivations: One is that Reid’s constituency includes a lot of self insured religious organizations, and they climbed down his throat.
Another is that Obama needs to bail on this very unconstitutional mandate, and Reid has been ordered to allow Congress to rescind it.

You might want to inform your Senators and Congressmen that you expect them to kill the abortive mandate of Obama/Sebelius. It is likely that most of the Dems realize that all their religious voter support will evaporate if they don’t vote for Sen. Blunt’s legislation.

Abortion Clinics Blame it on Stericycle

~ Pharmer

2 Texas abortion clinics fined for fetus disposal – San Antonio Express-News.

It would probably help if Legitimate health care facilities understood how their  medical waste disposal service operates.

Stericycle,  based in Illinois, is in hot water for improper disposal of  human fetuses killed at a pair of Texas abortion clinics.

It seems that there was no problem with Stericycle’s steam disinfection method, but in Texas,  the medical “waste”  (containing little corpses in various states of dismemberment) is supposed to be buried……. NOT thrown in a municipal  landfill. 

Stericycle has been fined 42,612 for failure to comply with the regulations.

Whole Woman’s Health Clinics in Austin and McAllen are paying up also,  a total of about $40,000 between them.    They’re placing the blame on Stericycle of course.

Take home information:  Pharmer knows that a LOT of hospitals and clinics employ Stericycle to dispose of their medical waste.  People who have  miscarriages might want to bear this in mind, if respectful treatment  of the body is a concern.

Georgia Supreme Court Knocks Down Law Restricting Assisted Suicides | Fox News

~ Pharmer ~ 2 Comments

Georgia Supreme Court Knocks Down Law Restricting Assisted Suicides | Fox News.

It appears that Georgia has no law against assisted suicides. There has been a law which restricts the advertising of assisted suicide. The Final Exit Network has been advertising this, and the fact that they helped a 58 year old cancer patient kill himself. This lead to a conviction of four of their members, which was overturned by the state’s Supreme Court last Monday.

The Supreme Court said that to ban the advertising, when there is no law against assisted suicide, amounts to a restriction on freedom of speech. The opinion, by Justice Hugh Thompson, suggested making a law against assisted suicide itself, rather than selectively going after those who publicly proclaimed their activities.