After years of doubt as to its effectiveness Lyrica has been approved, and fibromyalgia has been more or less legitimized. This is a good thing. About the only thing worse than being in pain, is having the people around you, including your doctor, characterize you as a nutjob. Pfizer stands to make billions, as do other drug companies who are offering up their own drugs for FDA approval.

Lyrica,apparently works only about half the time, if that, and even then it doesn’t work very well. This drug certainly doesn’t actually cure anything or treat any of the potential causes of fibromyalgia or address any of the deeper mind/body issues. Lyrica in fact, only “works” (they guess, but don’t actually know) by essentially numbing the central nervous system and therefore merely blocking out what your body is trying to tell you.

This article Drug Approved. Is Disease Real?“, besides a good discussion of the risks Lyrica’s side effects, which include severe weight gain, dizziness and edema, also addresses the issue of whether fibromyalgia is a disease, or a condition better viewed as a collection of symptoms, that may be triggered by a wide range of causes.

This line of thinking is more in keeping with the holistic principle of seeking the true underlying causes of our afflictions, and treating the whole patient, instead of concentrating on “diseases”, that can be treated by altering the system with drugs that can push your system even further out of balance, and cause more harm than good.

Still, Dr. Wolfe expects the drugs will be widely used. The companies, he said, are “going to make a fortune.”

There is an interesting story on how drug trial studies are published in the
NYT today.

“The makers of antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil never published the results of about a third of the drug trials that they conducted to win government approval, misleading doctors and consumers about the drugs’ true effectiveness, a new analysis has found.”

The data used to compile the report was all from before 2004, and there has been a supposed increase in transparency since then. With billions of consumer dollars at stake, it is only natural that drug companies would only publish favorable trials. It is human nature to want to believe them, and to doubt ourselves when these “miracle drugs” don’t deliver the results we expect.

It is only when a drug, plant or herb has been in use for many, many years, ( in the case of herbs thousands of years), that the effects for good and ill are truly known. There are a number of herbs that can help with mild depression that have a good track record, like St. John’s wort, however be very careful about mixing herbs and drugs.

News stories like this one about the effects of chemical laden food add to my resolve to eliminate them from my life.  “Consuming too much sorbitol, a sweetener widely used in “sugar-free” chewing gum and sweets, can cause serious bowel problems”, German doctors said on Friday.  Apparently these folks had a serious 20 stick a day habit, but it seems likely that lower consumption would also cause digestive problems that may not even be attributed to the gum.

If you are not making sure you are getting enough EFA’s , essential fatty acids, in your diet, and you have any type of inflammatory arthritis, heart disease, mild depression, etc..you need to get some. Today.

The best way to accomplish this varies, and you need to arm yourself with information before rushing out to buy any supplements.  This subject is loaded with enough acronyms and jargon to make your head explode,   there is a coherent explanation of the GLA, ALA, DHA, omega-3s, 6 and 9 at this website.  The important thing to remember is balance.  The body needs the correct balance of these essential fatty acids for optimal health.

Even the most steadfast western medicine, mainstream medical folks are finally on board the EFA train, which left the station about 20 years ago with the ND’s, naturopaths, herbalists and and “health nuts” leading the way.

What about the claims that you must purchase expensive ($50 a bottle as opposed to $ 10 ) brand name oils to avoid heavy metals and other contaminants?

According to the NIH medline article on fish oil supplements

“Potentially harmful contaminants such as dioxins, methylmercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are found in some species of fish. Methylmercury accumulates in fish meat more than in fish oil, and fish oil supplements appear to contain almost no mercury. Therefore, safety concerns apply to eating fish but likely not to ingesting fish oil supplements. Heavy metals are most harmful in young children and pregnant/nursing women. ”

Based on these facts, I would say unless you are pregnant, (in which case you have to be extremely picky about everything, not just fish oils, and may well choose to abstain until after the breastfeeding phase), it is better to take a reasonably priced oil supplement that you can afford to take on a consistent basis for a long period of time, rather than take a more expensive brand that breaks the budget.

You also may want to consider getting your EFA’s from plant sources, where the fish get their omega 3’s;) There are two critical omega-3 fatty acids, (eicosapentaenoic acid, called EPA and docosahexaenoic or DHA), that the body needs. Vegetarian sources, listed below contain a precursor omega-3 (alpha-linolenic acid called ALA) that the body must convert to EPA and DHA. This choice is more in keeping with the holistic whole herb approach that I favor. A diet rich in these natural plant substances may well preclude the need for supplements, especially for those who are taking them for general health reasons.

Flax is the richest known source of ALA. Flaxseed oil is available in both bottle and capsule forms. The oil can be used as a salad dressing, or mixed in smoothies. Flaxseed oil is highly unstable and never should be heated, and is best kept refrigerated. Whole flaxseed can be used to sprinkle on salads and yogurt and is much more stable than the oil, it keeps well at room temperature.

Hemp seed and borage seed, and evening primrose seed oils are important sources of gamma linolenic acid (GLA). Used both in food, supplement capsules and as body oils. Black Cumin oil, or black seed oil can cause skin irritation and is for food use only. These oils should not be used for cooking, or ever be heated, and are best kept refrigerated.

Greens such as Purslane and romine lettuce, because total fat is so low, are not significant contributors to EFA intake for most people but should be a significant part of diet for myriad other reasons. Soybeans and tofu can make a significant contribution to total ALA intake, soybean oil is not the best choice for general use because of high n-6 content. Walnuts - Highest n-3 content of any common nut; only the candlenut has more (30% ALA).

There is no one best approach for everyone. I am a woman over 50, with inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis. I choose to both supplement with a really inexpensive fish oil , and do my best to include plenty of plant and herb sources of fatty acids in my diet.

This story on spearmint tea caught my eye

Spearmint tea may help to control excessive hair growth in women, say Turkish researchers.

As I get older I am finding more embarrassing stray chin hairs, and it hurts like the devil to pluck out! Facial hair in women is a sign of an unbalance of too much free testosterone floating around in your system, as estrogen naturally decreases after menopause.

It almost seems to good to be true that added this great tasting mint to a cup of tea twice a day could benefit so much, but am going to try it this year.

I dont normally do politics in this blog. But I couldnt pass up commenting on Mr. Giuliani, Mr 9/11.
In 2002, the drug maker, Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., hired Mr. Giuliani and his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, to help stem the controversy about OxyContin. When you read this article, and then read this one, it says something at least about the “law and order” mayor. I will leave it to you to judge what..

Burning mugwort in moxibustion heat therapy is one of the oldest forms of Chinese traditional medicine and is used to stimulate the flow of qi and maintain general health. It especially dispels cold and dampness.

This quote from the Shanghai daily news (a very good source of TCM stories) and others like it have encouraged me to try the indirect method technique for arthritis pain. However burning mugwort in a “moxie cigar” and holding it close to the painful trigger points does not work well for me. However combining moxibustion with acupuncture has worked well in the past. The practitioner used some sort of burning incense cones, not the traditional mugwort, however. Another practitioner used electrical stimulation to heat the needles, a very modern approach.

It would be interesting to receive the treatment in the traditional manner, as the burning of the mugwort may release some relaxing properties of the herb?

Like the man told me at the liquor store, “I can sell you absinthe, but you can’t buy it”.  Absinthe, the drink that made wormwood infamous is back, sans the wormwood. absinthe is back on US liquor store shelves thanks to a change in legislation this year as it contained less than 10 parts per million of thujone, and it’s selling fast even at prices averaging $65 to $75 a bottle.

Known as “the green fairy” or “green muse”, it was a favourite of Oscar Wilde, Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway, and was said to be the reason Van Gogh cut off his ear.  It’s the extract of the herb grande wormwood — or artemisia absinthium — that has long been blamed for causing hallucinations and psychotic behaviour.

Typically absinthe contains extracts from herbs, including anise, fennel, hyssop, angelica, mint, coriander and the big one — wormwood. Used for centuries as a digestive aid, artemisia absinthium oil contains the chemical compound alpha-thujone (as do many other herbs, including sage and tarragon).

Later research showed that levels of thujone in absinthe recipes were often much lower than originally thought.

However a 2000 study by University of California Berkeley researchers discovered that alpha-thujone affects a brain receptor that regulates excitation, reopening the idea absinthe has calculable effects on the brain.

So is drinking absinthe dangerous? According to the Berkeley study, current low levels of thujone in absinthe are of much less toxicological concern than the ethanol content.

Herbalists have long recommended honey based cough syrups, and recent studies have now somewhat confirmed honey’s healing properties.

The study does mention using “darker honeys”, but I am not sure most people will know the importance of that. Raw honey is best, the heating process destroys many of the beneficial enzymes.

December 3, 2007 — Honey may be a viable option for treating cough associated with upper respiratory tract infections (URIs) in children, according to the results of a randomized study reported in the December 3 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The holiday spirit(s)- TCM Rx for good cheer by — As it’s the holiday season and time for drinking parties, we’re taking a TCM look at spirits - not only how to treat hangovers (without alcohol), but also how to use Chinese spirits for good health, writes Zhang…