Stimulants and Sudden Cardiac Death

Now the FDA wants to shoot holes in a study that, yes, has limitations, but is the FDA pushing the limitations aspect of the study as a way to possibly politically cover themselves when they have approved these medicines for treatment in the most susceptible of populations - our children.

It must be said that these medications can be life-changing (for the better) for many individuals-improving their overall functioning and quality of life; but that they are over-used, over-prescribed and misused/abused is undoubtable.

Read below, an article that discusses the FDA's reservations with the recent study in the Archives of Psychiatry (one of the nation's leading medical/psychiatric journals), that discloses an increase in the incidence of sudden death in individuals taking stimulants.

FDA questions heart risk findings on ADHD drugs

The FDA said the study published on Monday in the American Journal of Psychiatry found there may be an association between use of stimulant medications used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and sudden cardiac death in healthy children.

"Because of the study's limitations, parents should not stop a child's stimulant medication based on the study," an FDA statement said.

Stimulant medications used to treat ADHD include Novartis AG's Ritalin and Shire PLC's Adderall and Vyvanse.

See/read the article HERE

Folic Acid, Biochemistry, Food, Disease AND YOU

Office sent me to do another talk on L-Methyl Folate yesterday. I love giving these talks as it ends up being a very practical guide as to how biochemistry permeates our day-to-day activity in very simple ways. It's for clinicians but as Medical Director for The Center, I am scheming with the practice manager on how we might have similar informational talks open for the patients/public.

FOOD - you know you gotta have some.

Folic Acid (along with B12) are important vitamins that occur in our diet (we make a little bit of folic acid in our bodies and get the rest from our food--not B12 which we get solely from our diet).

As most science-fiction shows are apt and ready to remind us we are 'Carbon-Based Lifeforms'. It turns out that we 'stitch' together our carbon units like strings of pearls and like rungs in complex 3-D ladders -- one carbon at a time, most of the time. This '1-carbon' metabolism is fueled by the food we eat--YES! you ARE what you eat!

Unlike other machine-examples made by man, we as AUTOPOIETIC (pronounced auto-po-yetik) machines. We: self-build, self-repair and make other copies of ourselves; with just the building blocks found in our food.

When you put gas in your car, no matter how clean it is and how much 'octane' and additives it has, your car's paint job doesn't get any better, or rust spots don't go away -- YOU ON THE OTHER HAND, will improve your skin's tone and the sheen in your hair and the energy in your stride and the swiftness of your thinking, depending on the 'fuel' you put in your 'gas tank'.

The processes of breakdown and buildup of materials in our bodies are summed up and called metabolism (catabolism for breakdown + anabolism for buildup).

And this brings us to Folic acid and B12. We use several important vitamins as co-factors (mortar and additives if you will) for the buildup and breakdown of our bodies and our components. These two substances in particular, add to what is called the Methyl pool (CH3).

(uh oh feel eyes glazing over already -- but wait...)

Back to stitching pearls and stuff... we use this CH3-thingy as one of several important sources for those carbon-pearls I mentioned above. Folic acid and B12 'grease' these gears and provide some of the 'teeth' in those gears and help metabolism move along.

Learn more about how L-Methyl Folate can help certain neurological disorders like depression here and Alzheimer's Disease here and neurological symptoms of diabetes here.

Father's Day, Stress, Fish Oil and Brain Stimulation

Well - had an awesome father's day - spent it with my wife and some of my kids (from previous marriage).

You will always want to minimize stress-- did you know that stress has been conclusively shown to decrease brain size-- no matter what type of stress we are talking about (Physiological stress: a cold, a burn, surgery, etc; Psychological stress: divorce, losing your job, finances, school, etc). Stress from a divorce affects everyone - especially if they are contentious; even in divorces like mine which are over 10 years old.

RELAX! - So to offset these current stressors that most of us seem to be exposed to (especially in these harder financial times): relax!!! Try and find some pleasure in your day. It doesn't have to cost you a lot of money - it could be leaving your work environment for lunch and going outside and eating your sandwich away from the stress/noise/smell/chaos of work.

READ! - it has been shown that the more education/stimulation your brain gets the better protected you are against the effects of stress on your brain - and things like dementia. Got an Amazon Kindle DX for father's day from my parents, kids and wife (it's expensive) - and it is awesome! I can now REALLY geek-out and carry over 3000 books with me and my medical literature (articles), and get the newspaper (NYT) and the NEJM delivered directly to the device. Yes, I am reading a lot! ;)

TALK! - talk to your friends, family - anyone who will listen (and is reasonable) - we tend to withdraw when under stress as a defense mechanism (like other animals, when we feel attacked we go on the defensive--be a 'superior'/'advanced' animal and go the other way)! I'm very lucky I got kids (most of them anyway) who love me and I am married to my best friend.

EAT WELL! - do NOT just eat when you are stressed or upset or under attack -- EAT WELL -- when we are stressed, no matter what the cause, our body goes into defense mode - that means we will crave simple foods (do not want to make things complicated if we are going to run/hide/fight) so we look for 'comfort' foods -- simple carbs or complex carbs with a high glycemic index/load -- again, be the 'advanced' animal and go the other way - load with protein in the morning and throughout your day - take in plenty of nuts, fish oil and other good sources of fat --all of these will reset your fight or flight response and help you be cool and energized to face those exact stressors that are pushing your buttons.

LOVE YOURSELF! -- that sounds psychobably but its still true - take care of yourself. Show yourself some love, some healing.

And teach your kids to do the same!