Drug recalls

What side effects are discovered in previously approved drugs will cause the FDA to pull any drug or food additive from the market?  And why would those side effects not have been found during any testing before approval?  Tough questions.  In the case of Pradaxa, a drug replacement to replace coumadin, an actual rat poison that was found to reduce the clotting tendencies of blood, there are reasonable and understandable answers.  Pradaxa clinical trials were done on over 500 people and only two died in the two year study.  Now that they have a million people taking the drug, when 265 deaths occur from internal bleeding, it becomes a concern.  However, not enough of one to pull the drug from the market.  I used to take coumadin, I hated the side effects and 6 months ago I stopped taking it.  I now take some strong herbal supplements and aspirin daily to do the same thing.  I think it works, I mean I bruise as easily now as I did when on coumadin, I just do not comb out 8 or 9 hundred hairs every morning.  Coumadin causes hair loss.  

Daliresp, the easy to remember name for a drug called Roflumilast.  My pulmonologist gave me samples of this COPD medication to try.  Seems not much was working for me back in Austin, so he thought he would see if that would help.  I took it for a month and a half, went back to see him and he asked how I was and if anything changed in my life.  I told him I was pissing blood like crazy.  He said stop taking the Daliresp.  I did.  The next day my urine was normal.  Scary.  I don't think that this is an isolated incident as he knew immediately what was causing it.  I am not certain if it also causes kidney stones, because I have had kidney stones in the past.  I have passed about 12 stones in my life.  However I haven't passed one for many years.  I used to drink 3 or 4 pots of coffee a day and now am down to 2 or 3 cups.  One of the causes of stone formation.  So, was that huge stone I had that caused an ER trip during my move from Austin to Arizona caused by normal circumstances, or from a drug I took 2 months previously. 

Drugs are scary.  But when you are sick, and feel horrible, you take what the doctors give you in an attempt to right whatever is wrong with you so you will feel better.  The problem is that this is the wrong approach.  American medicine is all about treating the symptoms, and not the curing the problem causing those symptoms.  And the problem is compounded by Americans that eat the Standard American Diet (SAD) and tell the doc they feel crappy.  The doc prescribes drugs to cure high blood pressure, arthritis, and other maladies and forgets to tell the patient that eating high fat, low nutrient processed foods is the actual CAUSE of all their problems.  I recently found out that in medical school, wannabe doctors only have to take one semester of nutrition.  That's it.  One semester wherein they are taught that eating bread made with bleached and bromated enriched white flour is as nutritious as whole wheat.  No wonder there is a problem in America.  Those professionals that we have charged with the task of healing us have no concept of what can be done to actually heal us.

When I was in the hospital for my hip replacement, the nutritionist came to see me for menu planning as they believed I would be there for the normal stay of 3 to 4 weeks for recovery.  (I stayed 8 days, I couldn't stand the food so worked VERY hard at PT)  I told her I was a vegetarian.  She then suggested a menu plan. Salad and vegetables.  I told her that was nice but did they offer brown rice.  She looked at me like I was from outer space.  I then asked her if any of the foods they provided like, yogurt, salad dressings, bread offerings, or anything else come without high fructose corn syrup.  No, they did not have any of those.  Thank GOD for my wonderful friend and companion Key who brought me Chinese food with brown rice every day.   This is a perfect example of how backward the thinking is of modern medicine, how can someone recuperate and improve when the only food offerings are loaded with chemicals proven to be toxic and processed foods devoid of nutrients?