The People's Pharmacy® Radio Program

729 Deep Vein Thrombosis

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:57:21 -0500

Veins get no respect. Millions of Americans worry about heart attacks, which occur when arteries are blocked by a blood clot. But blood clots in veins get very little attention, although they can also be life threatening.

Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) occurs when a blood clot lodges deep within the veins of the legs. When such a clot breaks loose, it can go to the lungs and become a pulmonary embolism. These can be lethal. How can DVT be prevented?

Guest: Thomas L. Ortel, MD, PhD, is Professor of Medicine and Pathology at Duke University Medical Center. He is the Medical Director of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Center at Duke and Medical Director of the Clinical Coagulation Laboratory and the Platelet Antibody Laboratory at Duke, as well as the Duke Anticoagulation Clinic. He is the author (with Andra James, MD, and Victor Tapson, MD) of 100 Questions and Answers about Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism.
Patient Web site: National Alliance for Thrombosis and Thrombophilia

728 Health News Update

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:39:49 -0500

Three million Americans have hepatitis C, a viral infection of the liver that can cause long-term illness. The medication used to treat it must be taken for a long time and often doesn't cure the condition. But a new treatment improves the effectiveness of this drug and reduces the amount of time patients have to take it.

Omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory activity. They may be found in walnuts as well as in marine animals. Is one source better than the other, or do they have different effects?

We take your questions about prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, dietary supplements and home remedies.

Guests:
John McHutchison, MD, is Associate Director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute of Duke University Medical Center and director of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Research there. The photo is of Dr. McHutchison.

Joan Sabaté, MD, DrPH, is Chair of the Department of Nutrition in the School of Public Health at Loma Linda University. His article was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2009.

727 Celiac Disease Update

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:14:17 -0500

Symptoms such as severe fatigue or irritable bowel syndrome are sometimes diagnosed as psychosomatic disorders. But intolerance to gluten, called celiac disease, can cause malabsorption that could trigger these symptoms along with others, such as anemia, migraines, osteoporosis, dermatitis, infertility or peripheral neuropathy.

Although celiac disease was once considered rare, studies now show it occurs in 1 of 100 Americans. People with certain other conditions such as type 1 diabetes have an even higher risk. The treatment is simple but far from easy: avoid gluten in the diet.

Guest: Peter H. R. Green, MD, is Professor of Clinical Medicine at the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University Medical Center. He is Director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. His Web site is www.celiacdiseasecenter.org

726 Generic Drug Controversy

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:13:01 -0500

Generic drugs are supposed to be identical to their brand-name counterparts, but they are much cheaper. That's why so many insurance companies and HMOs insist upon their use.

Reports have been cropping up that suggest not all generic drugs meet the high quality standards Americans expect. We get perspectives from the generic drug manufacturers, a scientist analyzing FDA adverse event data, and an investigative journalist who took a year to look into the issue.

Guests: Kathleen Jaeger, president and CEO of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association

Thomas J. Moore, senior scientist at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices

Katherine Eban, investigative journalist specializing in health care. Author of Dangerous Doses: A True Story of Cops, Counterfeiters and the Contamination of America's Drug Supply and of "Bad Bargain," an article in the June issue of SELF. The photo is of Ms. Eban.

725 Allergy and Asthma

Sat, 30 May 2009 06:55:51 -0500

Molds and pollen from grasses and trees trigger allergies that cause a lot of misery. Red, itchy eyes and runny noses are often accompanied by cognitive fogginess. Judgment may be affected. But the common treatments, especially OTC antihistamines, may not make driving any safer.

Asthma triggered by allergies may pose a more serious health threat. How can it be treated so that serious attacks are avoided?

Guest: Beth Eve Corn, MD, is assistant professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she is chief of the Allergy/Asthma Clinic. She is past president of the New York Allergy Asthma and Immunology Society and is a fellow of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, and the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) on the Web at www.aaaai.org

724 Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia

Sat, 23 May 2009 07:07:25 -0500

Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are both elusive and debilitating conditions. They are difficult to diagnose and even trickier to treat. Many physicians chalk them up to psychosomatic problems and don’t have much to offer patients.

The CDC counts these as real disorders: fibromyalgia affects up to 5 million Americans, and chronic fatigue syndrome affects between 1 and 4 million at any given time. Although these problems seem mysterious, they are treatable.

Guest: Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., is Medical Director of the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers (www.fibroandfatigue.com) nationally. His Web site is www.vitality101.com. He is also the co-creator of the iPhone application, Natural Cures.

723 Traditional Diets

Sat, 16 May 2009 06:37:29 -0500

Our ancestors survived without supermarkets, by growing and preparing their own food. Some of their traditional ways of cooking, that involve fermenting foods like sauerkraut or sourdough bread, are sliding into oblivion.

Our guest, Sally Fallon, has been bucking the nutrition establishment to suggest that the old ways of eating have very real and important benefits. She advocates including saturated fats like butter or coconut oil in the diet for good health and she opposes the widespread use of most commercial vegetable oils.

Guest: Sally Fallon Morell, founder of the Weston A Price Foundation for Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, a nonprofit nutrition education foundation based in Washington, DC. Her book is Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. Her Web site is www.WestonAPrice.org.

She also founded A Campaign for Real Milk, dedicated to creating consumer awareness of the health benefits of clean, whole unpasteurized milk from grass-fed cows. (See www.realmilk.com.)