understanding medicine
understanding medicine from across the world
On our facebook group, and others, I see many asking the question of
PPI’s Should you take these long term?
Medication across the world
UK Drug Information
UK Database contains drug information on over 1,500 medications distributed within the United Kingdom.
Search the UK Drug Database A to Z List of UK Medications
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U.S.A Drug Information
Search the U.S.A Drug Database A to Z List of Medications
The resources below have been provided to help narrow your search to specific, targeted drug information. Information is available for both consumers and healthcare professionals on over 24,000 prescriptions and over the counter medicines available primarily in the USA.
http://www.drugs.com/drug_information.html
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International Drug Names
The Drugs.com International Drug Name Database contains information about medications found in 185 countries around the world. The database contains more than 40,000 medication names marketed outside the USA and is presented in multiple languages.
Many of the medications listed here are marketed under different names in different countries. Country and region specific information is shown where available. Please note that some medications may also be available in countries not specified.
http://www.drugs.com/international/
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Other site’s we have found or been told about
U.S. National Library of Medicine
Apple and Android phone app's
Medication Guide
The easiest way to lookup drug information, identify pills, check interactions and set up your own personal medication records. All mobile-optimized to speed up your browsing experience. Available for Android and iOS devices.
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Pill Reminder App
Use our Pill Reminder app to keep a complete list of all your medications. When you add your meds, you can also choose to get pill reminders and/or script reminder notifications right on your mobile device. You can also add personal notes and get easy access to important information about your medicine online such as side effects, dosage and safe use during pregnancy.
ONLY on Apple Phones Pill Reminder app
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-meds-pill-reminder-by-drugs.com/id453359236?mt=8
May 30, 2019
Is this true?
Heartburn drugs linked to fatal heart and kidney disease, stomach cancer
Death risk increases the longer such drugs are used
A study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System has linked long-term use of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) to fatal cases of cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and upper gastrointestinal cancer. The researchers found that such risks increase with the duration of PPI use, even when taken at low doses.
The report goes onto say
A study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System has linked long-term use of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) to fatal cases of cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and upper gastrointestinal cancer. The researchers found that such risks increase with the duration of PPI use, even when taken at low doses.
Extended use of popular drugs to treat heartburn, ulcers and acid reflux has been associated with an increased risk of premature death. However, little has been known about the specific causes of death attributed to the drugs.
Now, a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System has linked long-term use of such drugs — called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) — to fatal cases of cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and upper gastrointestinal cancer.
More than 15 million Americans have prescriptions for PPIs. Further, many millions more purchase the drugs over the counter and take them without being under a doctor’s care and often indefinitely.
The researchers also found that such risk increases with the duration of PPI use, even when the drugs are taken at low doses.
The study is published online May 30 in the journal The BMJ.
“Taking PPIs over many months or years is not safe, and now we have a clearer picture of the health conditions associated with long-term PPI use,” said senior author Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the School of Medicine. He has led several studies associating PPIs to chronic kidney disease and an increased risk of death.
Other researchers independently have linked PPIs to adverse health problems such as dementia, bone fractures, heart disease, and pneumonia, among others.
PPIs — sold under brand names such as Prevacid, Prilosec, Nexium, and Protonix — bring relief by reducing gastric acid. PPIs are among the most commonly used classes of drugs in the U.S.
For the study, researchers sifted through de-identified medical records in a database maintained by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Examining medical data acquired from July 2002 to June 2004, the researchers identified 157,625 people — mostly Caucasian men ages 65 and older — who had been newly prescribed PPIs, and 56,842 people who had been newly prescribed another class of acid-suppression drugs known as H2 blockers. They followed the patients — 214,467 in total — for up to 10 years.
The researchers found a 17 percent increased risk of death in the PPI group compared with the H2 blocker group. They calculated 45 excess deaths attributable to long-term PPI use per 1,000 people. Death rates for PPIs were 387 per 1,000 people, and death rates for H2 blockers were 342 per 1,000.
“Given the millions of people who take PPIs regularly, this translates into thousands of excess deaths every year,” said Al-Aly, a nephrologist, and clinical epidemiologist.
PPI use was associated with deaths caused by cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and upper gastrointestinal cancer. Specifically, 15 per 1,000 of the PPI users died from heart disease; four per 1,000 from chronic kidney disease, and two per 1,000 from stomach cancer. Death rates due to cardiovascular disease were 88 among the PPI group and 73 among the H2 blockers group. For stomach cancer, death rates were six in the PPI group and four in the H2 blockers group. Death rates due to chronic kidney disease were eight and four in the PPI and H2 blocker groups, respectively.
Additionally, the study found that more than half of the people taking PPIs did so without a medical need, although the data did not indicate why the patients had been prescribed PPIs. Among this group, PPIs-related deaths were more common, with almost 23 people per 1,000 dying from heart disease, almost five per 1,000 from chronic kidney disease, and three from stomach cancer.
“Most alarming to me is that serious harm may be experienced by people who are on PPIs but may not need them,” Al-Aly said. “Overuse is not devoid of harm.”
The study also found that more than 80 percent of PPI users were on low doses of the prescription drug, or those equivalent to doses offered in over-the-counter versions. “This suggests the risk may not be limited to prescription PPIs, but it also may occur at over-the-counter doses,” he said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has expressed interest in data presented by Al-Aly’s research team. “PPIs sold over the counter should have a clearer warning about the potential for significant health risks, as well as a clearer warning about the need to limit the length of use, generally not to exceed 14 days,” he said. “People who feel the need to take over-the-counter PPIs longer than this need to see their doctors.”
Al-Aly’s research team will continue to study adverse health effects related to PPIs, in particular regarding those at the highest risk.
“A lot of people may be taking PPIs unnecessarily,” Al-Aly added. “These people may be exposed to potential harm when it is unlikely the drugs are benefiting their health. Our study suggests the need to avoid PPIs when not medically necessary. For those who have a medical need, PPI use should be limited to the lowest effective dose and shortest duration possible.”
Came from.
Xie Y, Bowe B, Yan Y, Xian H, Li T, Al-Aly Z. Estimates of all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality associated with proton pump inhibitors among US veterans: a cohort study. BMJ. June 1, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1580
This research was funded by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the Institute for Public Health at Washington University School of Medicine.
Washington University School of Medicine’s 1,500 faculty physicians also is the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching, and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
Antibiotic use in early life disrupt normal gut microbiota development
january 26, 2016
This was something I have been sent by a Parent and asked If I could be the awareness of this to other Parents, I guess at the end of the day you do what you need to do for your child who is ill. The use of antibiotics in early childhood interferes with normal development of the intestinal microbiota, shows research conducted at the University of Helsinki. Particularly the broad-spectrum macrolide antibiotics commonly used to treat respiratory tract infections, have adverse effects. Macrolides appear also to contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. I guess we all read the papers where they are already saying the use of antibiotics is too widespread, and more is needed to find a better way,It is already known that early-life use of antibiotics is connected to increased risk of immune-mediated diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, and asthma, as well as obesity. The effect is thought to be mediated by the intestinal microbes since antibiotics in animal studies have been found to change the composition of the intestinal microbiota and reduce biodiversity. However, to date, there is no information on the long-term effects of antibiotics on children’s microbiota.
The study, conducted at the University of Helsinki and led by Professor Willem de Vos, included 142 Finnish children, aged 2 to 7 years. Researchers investigated how many courses of antibiotics the children had received in their lifetime and how the use of antibiotics was reflected in their intestinal microbiota. In addition, they investigated the association between use of antibiotics and asthma and body mass index. The study is published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
The results showed that children’s intestinal microbiota composition clearly reflected the use of antibiotics. Antibiotics reduced the bacterial species richness and slowed the age-driven microbiota development. Particularly the microbiota of the children who had received macrolide antibiotics, such as azithromycin or clarithromycin, within the past two years differed from normal. The less time had passed since the macrolide course, the larger were the anomalies in the microbiota.
“In general, it seems that the gut microbiota recovery from antibiotic treatment lasts more than a year. If a child gets repeated courses of antibiotics during their first years, the microbiota may not have time to fully recover”, says the researcher, Katri Korpela, whose doctoral thesis project includes the newly published research.
The results support the recommendation to avoid macrolides as the primary antibiotic and generally restrict the use of antibiotics to genuine need. Antibiotics should not be used to treat self-limiting infections and never ‘just in case’, the researchers emphasize.
http://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2016-01-antibiotic-early-life-disrupt-gut.html
- First Online:
Tracheo-Esophageal Fistula (TEF) in a Newborn Following Maternal Antenatal Exposure to Olanzapine.
Abstract
There is a dearth of evidence on the safety of the use of antipsychotics during pregnancy. Olanzapine, a pregnancy category C drug, has no unequivocal evidence of harm to the fetus. Against this backdrop, we report the first case of a tracheal- esophageal fistula (TEF) in a newborn following maternal antenatal exposure to olanzapine. A 29-year-old woman with the acute psychotic disorder had been treated with olanzapine for the last 7 years. Her first pregnancy, while taking olanzapine, resulted in a miscarriage at 4 months’ gestation, following which she discontinued olanzapine. She reconceived after a few months and delivered a full-term normal child. However, due to the recurrence of psychiatric illness after her second pregnancy, she was prescribed olanzapine again, which was continued throughout her third pregnancy. The outcome of the third pregnancy was a full-term female baby with a TEF.
Read the full report here.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40800-016-0044-6
A microfluidic model of human lung inflammatory disorders provides a new and systematic way to analyse disease mechanisms and test new drug candidates
(BOSTON) — A research team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University leveraged its organ-on-a-chip technology to develop a model of the human small airway in which lung inflammatory diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the third leading cause of mortality worldwide, and asthma can be studied outside the human body. As reported advanced online on December 21 in Nature Methods, the platform allows researchers to gain new insights into the disease mechanisms, identify novel biomarkers and test new drug candidates.
COPD and asthma are inflammatory reactions in the lung which can be dramatically exacerbated by viral and bacterial infections, as well as smoking. It is known that many of the associated disease processes occur in the conducting airway sections of the lung that shuttle air to and from the alveoli or air sacs. However, much less is known about how inflammation induces distinct pathological processes such as the recruitment of circulating white blood cells and the buildup of mucus, which compromise the lungs of these patients, or how clinical exacerbations are triggered.
“Inspired by our past work using the organ-on-a-chip approach to model the lung alveolus, we created a new microfluidic model of the lung small airway that recapitulates critical features of asthma and COPD with unprecedented fidelity and detail. Now with this micro-engineered human lung small airway, we can study lung inflammatory diseases over several weeks in chips lined by cells from both normal donors and diseased patients to gain better insight into disease mechanisms, as well as screen for new therapeutics,” said Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., the senior author on this work who is leading a multidisciplinary team of Wyss scientists that has been at the forefront of organ-on-chip technology. He is also the Wyss Institute’s Founding Director, the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Demand for such opportunities is especially high since small airway inflammation cannot be adequately studied in human patients or animal models and, to date, there are no effective therapies that can stop or reverse the complex and widespread inflammation-driven processes.
“To closely mimic the complex 3D cellular architecture of actual human small airways, we designed a microfluidic device that contains a fully matured human small airway epithelium with different specialised cell types exposed to air in one of its two parallel microchannels. The second channel is lined by a human vascular endothelium in which we flow medium containing white blood cells and nutrients so that the living microsystem can be maintained over weeks. We then modelled inflammatory asthma and COPD conditions by adding an asthma-inducing immune factor or by setting up the system with lung epithelial cells obtained from patients with COPD,” said Remi Villenave, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral fellow in Ingber’s group and the co-first author on the publication. In both cases, the team was not only able to observe highly disease- and cell type-specific changes but could also exacerbate them with agents simulating viral or bacterial infection.
Read on click on link.
FDA Approves First Drug Comprised of an Active Ingredient Derived From Marijuana to Treat Rare, Severe Forms of Epilepsy
This approval serves as a reminder that advancing sound development programs that properly evaluate active ingredients contained in marijuana can lead to important medical therapies
June 28th 2018
