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Information Works in Saratoga Springs, NY, USA

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Copyright 2019 by Richard O. Aichele and Information Works

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Wellness

Wellness and overall medical health are interrelated subjects.

Knowledge is important to make personal medical decisions.

Only 25 years ago, accessing detailed information published in medical articles and studies was extremely difficult for the average person. The Internet changed all that for the better. With the change came the greater personal responsibility to use the information effectively.

The information in this website has been previously published on the Internet and is provided here only as possible subjects of interest that require readers to investigate any subject in greater depth. It is not advice or a recommendation.

Is it true?   Is it possible?    Is it just advertising?    Is it false?

Have you discussed it with your doctors?

Ultimately, it is your decision.

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Cardiac Events such as strokes and heart attacks have and will affect millions of people. For the people who survive a Cardiac Event, follow-up treatments are necessary. Prior to having a Cardiac Event, prevention is vital and an informed person will learn about all aspects of staying healthy with both traditional medical approaches and holistic approaches.

 

High Blood Pressure

Stroke prevention is important. High on the list of causes is High Blood Pressure although that is also one of the easiest tests for anyone to carry out between visit to a doctor. Hgh Blood Pressure and Low Blood Pressure should take seriously. Unfortunately, monitoring blood pressure regularly is not a priority for too many people.

wrap text around imageAccording the the American Heart Association, "High blood pressure damages arteries throughout the body, creating conditions where they can burst or clog more easily. Weakened arteries in the brain, resulting from high blood pressure, put you at a much higher risk for stroke — which is why managing high blood pressure is critical to reduce your chance of having a stroke.

What happens when you have a stroke. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel to the brain is either blocked by a clot (ischemic stroke) or bursts (hemorrhagic stroke). When that happens, part of the brain is no longer getting the blood and oxygen it needs, so it starts to die. Your brain controls your movement and thoughts, so a stroke doesn't only hurt your brain — it can threaten your ability to think, move and function. Strokes can affect language, memory and vision. Severe strokes may even cause paralysis or death.

A majority of strokes are ischemic strokes— caused by narrowed or clogged blood vessels (atherosclerosis) in the brain that cut off the blood flow to brain cells. (Cerebral thrombosis and cerebral embolism are ischemic strokes.)"

Statins

Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed medications as a preventive to reduce the possibility of the first Cardiac Event and later to prevent another Cardiac Event. The intended purpose of statins is to lower cholesterol levels in the blood and reduce the affects of high cholesterol.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, "Approximately 81 million American adults are living with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Cardiovascular disease includes hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and/or congenital cardiovascular heart defects. More than 17 million people with CVD have coronary heart disease (also called coronary artery disease), which is a build-up of fat (atherosclerotic plaque) in the walls of the arteries around the heart. Coronary heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States.

Statin medications (statins) are drugs that help lower cholesterol levels in the blood. Statins help prevent coronary heart disease in patients without a history of CVD (primary prevention) and those who are at very high risk of developing CVD (such as patients with diabetes, genetic familial hyperlipidemias) or have had some form of CVD, including heart attack, stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), angioplasty, coronary artery stent placement or peripheral vascular disease (secondary prevention).

Statins are the first-line treatment of choice for patients with high cholesterol and those diagnosed with coronary heart disease. Statins have additional benefits beyond lowering cholesterol levels (pleiotropic effects); they also help the lining of the blood vessels work better (improved endothelial function), enhance the stability of atherosclerotic plaques, reduce the amount of inflammation and damage done to cells through oxidation (oxidative stress), and keep blood platelets from clumping together (platelet aggregation), thereby reducing the risk of a blood clot (thrombus)."

 

Statins may have a variety of side effects that users should be aware of. In the event of side effects, the doctor may adjust the daily dosage or switch the patient to a different statin. Stroke survivors who are working to regain their former physical and / or mental abilities may be particularly interested in the Muscle Pain / Weakness, Depression and Cognative Impairment sections to avoid confusion of stroke affects and statin medication side effects.

Below are previously published materials with links dealing with some specific areas that were of concern to some patients.

Muscle Pain - Memory Problems     May be caused or made worse by Statins. Some thoughts from Harvard.

Statins To Control Cholesterol     Article covers pros, cons and side effects of Statin medication.

Patients Messsage Board about Statins     Online discussions of statins including approaches some patients used to maintain the benefits of statins while reducing side effects.

Name-Brand Statins Suspected in these cases.     Statin side effects, if they occur should be discussed with the doctor. Some events less severe then described could be possible.

CoQ10 Taken with Statins     To lower cholesterol, 50-100 milligrams of CoQ10 has been taken by mouth daily for up to three months. To treat muscle disease caused by statins, 100-240 milligrams of CoQ10 (including Q-Sorb™) has been taken by mouth daily for up to 2.5 years.

Blood Pressure meds     Evaluating the effectiveness of blood pressure medications.

Brain Responses to Blood Pressure Variations Studies of blood pressure variations on the brain are on-going.

Timing The Use of Mouth Washes     Some thoughts on blood pressure control, exercise and use of mouth washes.

Blue Berries and Health     Confirming what many people believe -- enjoy blue berries for blood-pressure, memory and aging benefits.

Statins and Testosterone.    Testosterone changes may be both a male and female issue. Statins are used by both males and females and both sexes require adequate levels of testosterone.

Statins and Testosterone.    Testosterone changes can be both a male and female issue. Statins are used by both males and females and both sexes require adequate levels of testosterone.

Estradiol    ;Estradiol levels are often checked along with Testosterone levels. A good comprehensive evaluation at your body by a medical professional will include a number of tests. They are important to establish your baseline and be aware of changes in the future which can be evaluated by you and your doctor.

Current Biomed Articles

Drug Prices and Patents

Will sky-high drug prices spur the US to use an obscure power over patents?

Excerpt from a December 4, 2019 article by Jonathan Gardner with credits to Credit: Lydia Polimeni, National Institutes of Health on the website https://www.biopharmadive.com

 

In 2010, people with a rare enzyme disorder called Fabry found supply of the only treatment rationed. Those taking Genzyme's drug Fabrazyme could only get a third of their normal dose, and new patients couldn't get any. The reason? Viral contamination at the company's Allston, Mass. plant. Patients on rationed doses suffering a resumption of symptoms like pain, high blood pressure and vision problems petitioned the federal government to invoke long-standing authority to "march in" to revoke Genzyme's patent and give it to another company that could meet demand. The National Institutes of Health declined, reasoning that in spite of Genzyme's clear mishandling of supply, it would take another drugmaker years of clinical work to catch up.

With the major Democratic 2020 candidates campaigning on lowering drug prices, march-in rights are now back in focus as a tool to achieve that goal. Biopharmas are setting too-high prices for drugs discovered with taxpayer support, the argument goes, which ought to spur the government to take possession of their patents to lower costs. The Trump administration also has shown some interest in pharma patents.

The calls are only growing thanks to "patent thickets," the expansive intellectual property estates that drugmakers use to shield drugs from generic competition well beyond the date of first patent expiration. For example, Abbvie holds more than 100 patents for its $20-billion-a-year injection Humira, which has allowed it to stretch its monopoly out to 2023.

The problem with appealing to march-in rights as a solution is the government has always refused to use the power it holds — as the Genzyme case illustrates. "A lot of people saw the NIH's refusal to march in in that case and said they're not going to ever invoke those rights," said Rachel Sachs, an assistant law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, in an interview. "That argument will always be true in the context of prescription drugs," she said of the government's explanation for its response to petitions concerning Fabrazyme. "If that's going to always be true, the NIH should just come out and say that, unless the company is actually going to go out of business and refuse to sell the drug at all, they will never invoke march-in rights."

NIH's march-in powers are derived from the Government Patent Policy Act of 1980, commonly known as Bayh-Dole for its congressional sponsors. The aim was to speed the transfer of patented inventions like new drugs from government-funded research institutions to the private sector. When the private sector licensor doesn't take steps to "alleviate health or safety needs" through the use of the patent in question, the government can take possession of the license and offer it to another company.

Patient advocates have long argued prohibitively high drug prices should trigger march-in authority — a case made in the past for the HIV drug Norvir, glaucoma treatment Xalatan and prostate cancer therapy Xtandi. The NIH's response in every case has been that the drug's price does not interfere with its availability. Four of the six march-in petitions received by the NIH have been based on price. The fact that NIH, a research agency, holds Bayh-Dole authority doesn't help, either, said Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at Johns Hopkins University, in an interview. "I think NIH is worried about creating cures. They're not worried about drug costs," said Sharfstein, who served as deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under President Barack Obama. "And then you have FDA, which certainly isn't either. They're doing their job of approving generics as a mechanism for reducing drug costs."

. . . . . . Read this complete biopharmadive.com article and the source of this information at: Drug Prices and Patents

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