Supplements – Buyer beware!

 General Health, My MCL  2 Responses »
Jan 212012
 

After a recent email, and several exchanges on a few of the message boards I frequent, I felt is was imperative of me to reiterate my stance on the use of vitamins, supplements and herbal remedies.

As long time readers of my blog may already know, I am against the taking of all vitamins, supplements and herbal remedies. But I wasn’t always that way. Prior to my diagnosis I truly believed the taking of Vitamin C, E, Calcium, fish oil (and a few other items) were essential for good health. Obviously that didn’t work, and now I’m even of the opinion it was that belief which led to my diagnosis of MCL.

That’s not to say all of the hype is a complete fabrication. After all, I am a firm believer in the efficacy of EGCG, a by product of green tea. Nor am I saying maintaining proper nutrition isn’t important, because it definitely is. What I am saying is, if you can’t get it naturally, it’s probably not worth getting. And that’s a policy I adhere to religiously, taking no artificially produced vitamins, supplements or herbal remedies.

There have been no clinical studies authenticating or substantiating any of the claims made for the numerous supplements sold on the market. In my opinion, all the hype about many [most, all] of these products is simply a scam by the pharmaceutical and supplement industries to instill fear into the minds of consumers, and separate them from their money.

Worst of all, the supplement industry is not regulated. So buyer beware. Even if the claims were substantiated, there is no guarantee you’re getting what you expect when you purchase any of those products online or at the market.

Even Dr Oz, who I consider the biggest shill for the pharmaceutical and supplement industries, warned about this on a recent show.

So even if you don’t want to take my word for it, at least take Dr. Oz’s.

Isn’t it enough?

 Life, Philosophy  4 Responses »
Jan 152012
 

Isn’t it enough my wife and I are both dying of incurable diseases? Isn’t it enough I have to put up with the constant vilification of so many people, by so many other people in this country, who think they know it all? Isn’t it enough weather extremes (whatever the cause) are creating havoc and misery in many places [even southern California]. Isn’t it enough that in the past 3 months, 2 long time neighbors across the street decided to move, and rent out their houses, and the young couple 2 houses north of ours had to default on their mortgage and moved to New Mexico (the house is still empty), and now I just learned our next door neighbors have sold their home and are moving out as well, even as I write this post.

When can I just throw up my arms, and say enough is enough!

After living in the same house, in the same neighborhood for 26 years, with very few upheavals during that time, and when I finally getting to the point where both Edie and I are retired, and totally content with the way things are (despite all the vilification occurring in the rest of the country and within our government), my whole world [the neighborhood where we live] is being turned upside down.

So is this an omen of sorts? Is it telling Edie and I we need to move as well? Our neighbors across the street and next door were all retired as well.

So far the neighbors that have moved in across the street, seem quiet (I haven’t bothered to meet either of them yet), but they’re only renting, so I would expect them to be fairly transient, and who knows who’ll move in next door. Will the people who purchased the house move into it, or will they rent it out also?

As always, only time will tell what changes will come about, but I can’t imagine anything better coming of them. Things were already pretty good. I think the best we can hope for is they don’t get any worse!

 Posted by at 9:49 am  Tagged with:

It’s been awhile

 Edie  3 Responses »
Jan 112012
 

It seems my cold is finally running it’s course [at least I hope]. On Saturday it was a sore throat, Sunday I was congested and had a constantly runny nose, and yesterday was an extreme headache and a mild cough. Today the cough as progressed a little beyond mild. (I even had to resort to taking 1 Tylenol and some Hall’s throat lozenges to help ameliorate the discomfort.)

But rather than dwell on my problems any more, I thought this would be a good time to update everyone on Edie’s condition, especially since it’s been awhile (just about a year) since I last posted anything about Edie.

Since that time, Edie started on maintenance Velcade (infusions every other week). She had also been taking Biaxin on a regular basis, because her doctor told her it had shown some efficacy in treating Multiple Myeloma, but due to some side effects, she went off it to see if that would help.

About that same time, her free light chains started to rise. Whether that was coincidental, a direct effect of the Biaxin, or the maintenance Velcade, is not for certain, but regardless she restarted the Biaxin. She briefly tried [3] subcutaneous injections of Velcade, thinking that might be better than direct infusions, but did not seem to be getting the desired results, so she returned to weekly infusions of Velcade, and is finally starting to seem some positive results. Let’s just hope the trend continues!

She’s still dealing with neuropathy, and the occasional dizziness, but otherwise isn’t doing too badly. (Not sure I’d be doing as well in her condition, but …….)

On a side note, due to some problems with the Kaiser drug formulary, she has gone off Lyrica, which she has been taking for her neuropathy, and has switched to Nortriptyline. Not sure exactly what the problem is with Lyrica, as the Medicare website indicates it is on the Kaiser formulary, but whatever the case, Nortriptyline is considerably cheaper, and if it’s just as effective, everyone benefits.

Only time will tell.

Steelers lose!

 Life, Philosophy  No Responses »
Jan 082012
 

I’m still sick, and Dr Hamblin died this morning. (So I guess there really isn’t any difference between hospice and palliative care).

This year is definitely not starting out on a good note, and there’s still 358 days left to go.

The optimist in me is telling me things can’t get much worse. Unfortunately, the pessimist in me doesn’t believe that for a minute.

GREAT BIG SIGH!!!

It’s a bummer being sick :(

 General Health, My MCL  2 Responses »
Jan 072012
 

It’s even more so when you’re immune compromised, such as myself, because I can never be sure if my immune system is up to the task of fighting off the illness. Plus I can’t be sure if I’ve just contracted the run of the mill cold, flu or whatever, or if it’s the result of my MCL.

I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time dwelling on how I feel, how soon I’m going to start feeling better, and constantly searching for any evidence of my MCL acting up, such as inspecting for enlarged nodes under my neck and arms.

And that is exactly what I am going through right now.  I started feeling more run down than usual about midweek, but after having a cup of hot tea with lemon, I felt much better. Unfortunately, it didn’t last that long, and today my throat is much sorer, I have a minor headache, and I’m just feeling generally bad.

I’ve always managed to recover relatively quickly, without any long lasting side effects, whenever I’ve gotten sick in the past, so I’m hoping this time will be no different. I only wish I knew in advance how it was going to turn out. It would certainly relieve a lot of stress.

There is one upside though, at least I picked a good time to get sick. It’s heavily overcast this morning, and will likely stay that way most of the day, plus the NFL playoffs begin today, so at least I’ll have something to occupy my mind most of the weekend, should I not feel any better tomorrow.

Of course if the Steelers lose tomorrow afternoon, that could result in another set of issues.

 Posted by at 9:09 am
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