Improve your eating habits and save money on prescriptions!

Do you like the arthritis pain relief you get from over-the-counter anti-inflammatory pills (like ibuprofen)?  But do they “bother your stomach”?  Take an honest assessment of your eating habits.  Think about your diet before you declare the cheaper NSAIDs off-limits and switch to the more expensive coxibs like Celebrex® or Mobic®. (Each costs about $100 per month!)  If you tend to skip meals or eat poorly, any anti-inflammatory will cause indigestion, heartburn or a bleeding ulcer!

If you’ve had a stomach ulcer, kidney disease, take blood thinners, or have another fragile health condition, you should NOT take OTC NSAIDs.     Patients over 65 years old have to be especially cautious about OTC NSAIDs, and only take them if followed closely by their primary-care Physician.

NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) work by cooling off inflammation wherever it smolders.  The theory is: No inflammation, no pain.  Inflammation happens because of an elaborate sequence of biochemical reactions in your body. Some of the steps in these reactions are part of normal body maintenance, like controlling normal blood-clotting, and defending the stomach’s lining from the acid within.  NSAIDs block these reactions, and could interfere with your body’s healthy housekeeping.  This is where their “side effects” come from. 

When you swallow an NSAID tablet, don’t imagine that it sits in your stomach and burns a hole on contact.   Instead, it is absorbed into your bloodstream, and then floats around and takes effect.  One of these effects is arthritis pain relief.  On the other hand, it could also hinder your stomach’s ability to protect itself.   You can help your stomach and reduce the chance of side effects by eating properly. 

A sound diet requires you to eat frequent, small meals and healthy snacks throughout the day.  Having food in your stomach will give the acid something to do, rather than digest the stomach itself!   It’s not just a matter of “take it with food.”  By fueling and replenishing your body with a healthful eating plan, you could also do without fancy heartburn pills like Prevacid® (about $150 per month!)

Good health and a state of “wellness” means you respect the way all of your organs and systems are interrelated.  Do everything you can to sustain your body’s vigor, balance and wellness to ward off anything that threatens it with pain and disease--or threatens your wallet with the cost of brand-name drugs!

Comments

[jerry]

Person with good health don't requires any thing fake,artificial to maintain his/her health.

[Bryan]

Actually, good health means freedom from disease so that you don't have to change your whole life to accommodate your disease. What you are preaching is a terrible misconception of health which amounts to little more than living a lifestyle centered around the reduction of disease symptoms. It's only in response to uncured diseaes and the changes they impose in people's lives that people start this obnoxious nonsense talk about "wellness" and "balance".

[Stephanie]

Jerry--you're right that those in good health don't require anything artificial to maintain it. Wasn't that my final point?
However, realize that a lifetime of toxic exposures and sloth doesn't explain all the reasons people have joint pain.
Witness my 79 year-old mother-in-law who fractured her ankle while jogging last week. I'm sure she appreciates the "artificial" screws that are stabilizing her medial malleolus so she'll be ready to compete against her age group this summer!

[Stephanie]

Bryan--I'm trying to understand where you're coming from. If you don't appreciate terms like "wellness" and "balance", what would you prefer?

How would you choose to explain why some people are always vigorous, disease- and symptom-free, and others are stuck with a life of "uncured disease"?

[Bryan]

Dr. Siegrist- I don't think you can understand where I'm coming from. You're a middle-aged allopathic physician. You're trained that it's only the symptoms of a medical condition that matter and that if those symptoms can be "managed" ("management" being a misconception) then the patient has been "treated" and the job has been done; the patient has been helped. The patient's "responsibility", as dictated by the physician, though is that of self "management" of the condition, which doesn't mean _mangaging_ the condition at all but rather it means _accommodating_ the condition. Accommodating it means tailoring your life to it and as everyone with chronic musculoskeletal pain knows, that means either ceasing to do the job you once did or doing it in a modified, i.e. less productive, less fulfilling manner. Of course it means giving up the exercise activities you once loved, and the sports you once loved are totally out of the question. And that's the condition "management" that you're so zealous about- the patient's ceasing to live life in a way which she once loved to live it.

As for the question about "vigor" I couldn't explain why some people are "vigorous", esp. when your idea of "vigor" is probably the same as my idea of "subdued".

I can't explain why some are disease or symptom free or why some are diseased until we agree on definitions of those terms which I don't think we can because you already believe you know what they are. But, I'll tell you anyway. A disease is such inasmuch as it forces you to change your life to accommodate it. Maybe that's not the definition that you were spoon-fed in medical school or the definition that medical professionals currently agree on but as a patient, that's what it is to me. At the same time, of course I can't explain why some people with radiographic evidence of joint damage have no symptoms while those without, do. Not even the so-called experts in orthopedists can explain that.

[Andrew Spark]

Health awareness is a key area where about every thing which related to health care are visible progress has been made in modern time.

[Celebrex Side Effects]

My name is Jane Eaton and i would like to show you my personal experience with Celebrex.

I have taken for 11 months. I am 39 years old. Celebrex works too well, which is why it is so dangerous. It is one of the most effective things you can take for arthritis-type issues, and for controlling inflammation/pain after knee surgery. But the side effects are very extreme: intestinal bleeding/perforation, heart problems, and liver toxicity. I am allergic to Ibuprofen and Alleve, so Clebrex was a life saver. But I am not willing to sacrifice my liver for it. The ER staff told me that they see very serious side effects in Celebrex patients.

Side effects-
I ended up in the emergency room in extreme pain and hyperventilating because of liver problems.

I hope this information will be useful to others,
Jane Eaton

[Stephanie Siegrist, MD]

Liver toxicity at standard doses is a very unusual side effect of Celebrex. All treatments have risks and benefits. When a doctor prescribes a drug, he/she has taken those risks/benefits into consideration. It's important to have follow up visits with your doctor to assess the effectiveness (benefit) and watch for any side effects (risks) while taking the drug. Some patients need to have bloodwork done; sometimes a physical exam or other assessment will do.
The real enemy of the liver is Tylenol (acetaminophen). It doesn't require a prescription and many over-the-counter pills contain it. It's easy to exceed the 4000 mg daily max with cold-and-sinus pills, etc...