Rod's Health

An interesting story broke this week in the news – I saw it on Yahoo! News, but it has been on other web sites as well. The story reports a study from the highly respected British Medical Journal with the title: “Effect of calcium supplements on risk of myocardial infarction and cardiovascular events: meta-analysis”.

The researchers took a look at the effect of calcium on the chances of heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems. They did this by looking at the results of 15 large studies in which the patients had taken calcium supplements for more than a year. There had to be more than 100 patients in the study, and the patients were older than 40 years. Altogether more than 11,000 patients were studied.

There was a small  increase in the risk of heart attacks, but the increases in risk of stroke, a combined endpoint (included stroke, heart attack, and sudden death) and death did not reach statistical significance.

I read the article and saw that the authors noted that “Calcium supplements (without coadministered vitamin D) are associated with an increased risk of MI” [heart attacks]. They also say in the methods that trials were only included if vitamin D was given to all patients in the study. They say that the risk of death is reduced with vitamin D supplementation.

So, what does this mean? Calcium is an important mineral for a healthy body. If we are not eating a healthy, balanced diet, we may need supplementation. However, those supplements need to be balanced and in the correct amounts, just like the rest of our diet. Calcium on its own may not be the healthiest way to take calcium.

Clinical trials often report on the use of one supplement on its own, yet we should not be taking supplements in that way. Here at Rodshealth I believe in taking a balanced, healthy dietary supplement and have been taking the same one for years. Not to say they are for everyone, but my holistic medicine physician agrees that the one I am taking is good. During my recent visit to hospital the docs could not find anything wrong in my blood work, so I figure that the vitamins and minerals (including calcium with vitamin D) are not doing me any harm.

Can you say the same about your dietary supplements?

*In the interests of full disclosure, I am a distributor for the dietary supplement mentioned on this page.

Well, last Sunday was an interesting day. I had intended to write another post for RodsHealth. However, nature conspired against me.

Saturday, my wife Akemi was out gardening, and somehow she angered a wasp which then proceeded to sting her on the leg. Tried ice, vinegar, toothpaste (look that one up on the internet!), and Benadryl tablets. Still the leg swelled up – not to mention stayed extremely painful.

By Sunday afternoon (set aside to write), the leg was swollen and red. Plus Akemi had a bit of a fever by this time. The Nurse Practitioner at the Minute Clinic at the local CVS took one look and said that we had to go off to the Emergency Room. The good news was that there was no charge from the Nurse.

Eventually, Akemi was seen by nurses, who commented that the rash looked “impressive.” The prescribed treatment was injections of Benadryl, a steroid, and Pepcid. What’s that, I asked? We are here for a wasp sting, not a stomach acid problem! Turns out that after an insect sting there is a lot of histamine released (that’s the stuff that caused the leg to swell and get red). Benadryl and Pepcid both work to block the effects of histamine, although in different ways. That was news to me, and I am a pharmacist! Akemi walked out with a prescription for a short course of steroid tablets, and more Pepcid. The Benadryl we already had at home. Well, several days later, the swelling has gone down – still a little bit itchy.

When I got home, I was interested in finding out what the scientific explanation for this is. I found an article on PubMed that said that Benadryl (diphenhydramine) reduces the itchiness (pruritis) of urticaria, while the Pepcid (famotidine) reduces the area of the rash. This study was done in people.

There was a study in mice that showed a synergistic reaction (that means 1+1 is greater than 2) of using the two drugs. So, looks like there might be a reason – but I am not going to suggest that Akemi is a mouse!

Rodshealth is a blog about my health and things about health that interest me. Hopefully, more about things that interest me than about my health. My health is actually very good, which is a good thing for those wanting to learn about other things.

I have sleep apnea that was diagnosed in September 2009, and is now being treated effectively with plain old continuous positive pressure (CPAP). I never knew that my snoring and tiredness during the day could be anything dangerous. I thought it was because I was not getting enough sleep each night, and because I was stressed because of work. Wrong! Wrong!

I woke up on the bathroom floor one morning after passing out. I was in a pool of blood. Scared the heck out of me. Scared the heck out of my wife. Upset my son having to get up so early to go to the hospital. Upset me having to have 20 stitches in my forehead. Upset the docs, because they couldn’t find a cause for it.

I am not excessively overweight (I would like to lose about another 10-15 pounds). I was exercising every day until a little while before this happening. After several tests including a head and neck MRI and various heart tests  (they found nothing), the only thing only thing they could think of was to have a sleep study. Result was, I now sleep with a machine every night.

Took a bit of getting used to, but I will not sleep without my CPAP machine if I can possibly avoid it.

More on my story of sleep apnea later.