As the year draws to an end, we take a look at some aspects of healthcare that came in for review, including some noteworthy findings that could change the way we use some prescribed medicines.
Medications: The medicines we take on doctors’ advice are meant to help us fight off disease and improve our physical or mental well-being. But some medications have now been shown to cause us more harm than good.
In March this year, experts found that a conventional drug doctors use to treat hypertension and angina may actually increase a person’s risk of cardiac arrest. By analyzing the data of more than 60,000 people, the researchers saw that a drug called nifedipine, which doctors often prescribe for cardiovascular problems, appeared to increase the risk of ‘sudden cardiac arrest’.
Another study, appearing in June, found that anticholinergic drugs — which work by regulating muscle contraction and relaxation — may increase a person’s risk of developing dementia. People may be prescribed anticholinergics if some of their muscles are not working correctly, such as bladder or gastrointestinal conditions, and Parkinson’s disease.
The research looked at the data of 58,769 people with and 225,574 people without dementia. It revealed that older individuals — at least 55 years old — who were frequent users of anticholinergics were almost 50 percent more likely to develop dementia than peers who had never used anticholinergics.
Many studies this year have been concerned with cardiovascular health, revisiting long held notions and holding them up to further scrutiny. For instance, a study in July, which involved around 1.3 million people, suggested that, when it comes to predicting the state of a person’s heart health, both systolic and diastolic blood pressure numbers are equally important.
When a doctor measures blood pressure, they assess two different values. One is systolic blood pressure, which refers to the pressure the contracting heart puts on the arteries when it pumps blood to the rest of the body. The other is diastolic blood pressure, which refers to the pressure between heartbeats. So far, doctors have primarily taken only elevated systolic blood pressure into account as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
However, the new study concluded that elevated systolic and diastolic blood pressure are both indicators of cardiovascular problems. Its authors emphasize that the large amount of data they had access to painted a “convincing” picture in this respect.
Fake drugs: But, while common drugs that doctors have prescribed for years may come with hidden dangers, they are, at least, subject to trials and drug review initiatives. The same is not true for many other so-called health products that are readily available to consumers through online ‘click and collect’ services.
Some of the medicines available online may never have been assessed by doctors or vetted by specialized agencies. These off-the-internet products could end up putting people’s health, and lives, in danger.
For instance, In August, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning against an allegedly therapeutic product that was sold under various names — Master Mineral Solution, Miracle Mineral Supplement, Chlorine Dioxide Protocol, or Water Purification Solution — and was supposed to be a kind of panacea, treating almost anything and everything, from cancer and HIV to the flu.
Yet the FDA had never given the product an official assessment, and when the federal agency looked into it, they saw that the ‘therapeutic’ contained no less than 28 percent sodium chlorite, an industrial bleach, which can easily be life threatening.
Foods: When it comes to protecting heart health, 2019 studies have shown that food and diet likely plays an important role. One research showed that people who adhere to plant-based diets had a 32 percent lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease than those who did not. People who ate plant-based foods also had a 25 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality, according to this study.
Another intriguing study pointed out that protein shakes, which are popular among individuals who want to build muscle mass, may be a threat to health. Fitness protein powders, the study authors explain, contain mostly whey proteins, which have high levels of the essential amino acids leucine, valine, and isoleucine.
The research, in mice, suggested that a high intake of these amino acids led to overly low levels of serotonin in the brain. This is a key hormone that plays a central role in mood regulation, but which science also implicates in various metabolic processes.
So, if too much of certain types of protein can have such detrimental effects on health, what about fiber? Dietary fiber, present in fruits, vegetables, and legumes, is important in helping the body take up sugars little by little. But how much fiber should we consume?
According to a study commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), a person should ideally consume 25–29 grams of fiber per day. The study showed that a fiber-rich diet could lower the incidence of coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and colon cancer. Fiber-rich whole foods that require chewing and retain much of their structure in the gut were found to increase satiety and help weight control and favorably influence lipid and glucose levels.
On the other hand, several studies from this year draw attention to just how detrimental foods that are not 100 percent natural can be. A small trial in May, showed that processed food leads to an abrupt weight gain. Participants who ate processed foods as part of the study rapidly gained more weight than the ones who ate the non-processed foods.
The researchers blame this on the speed with which individuals end up eating processed foods, in particular. If you are eating very quickly, you are not giving your gastrointestinal tract enough time to signal to your brain that you are full and this leads to overeating.
While some of the studies that made the headlines in 2019 were conclusive, many encourage further research to confirm their findings or further investigate the underlying mechanisms.
