Acid-suppressing drugs substantially increase the likelihood of recurrent pneumonia in the elderly

This post includes a synopsis of a study published in the American Journal of Medicine 2010 Jan;123(1):47-53 and a recipe for beef and spinach salad.

Study title and authors:
Recurrent community-acquired pneumonia in patients starting acid-suppressing drugs.
Eurich DT, Sadowski CA, Simpson SH, Marrie TJ, Majumdar SR.
Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. deurich@ualberta.ca

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20102991

The study found that acid-suppressing drugs such as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and histamine 2-receptor antagonists (H2s) substantially increased the likelihood of recurrent pneumonia in high-risk elderly patients.

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) include:
Omeprazole (brand names: Losec, Prilosec, Zegerid, ocid, Lomac, Omepral, Omez)
Lansoprazole (brand names: Prevacid, Zoton, Inhibitol, Levant, Lupizole)
Dexlansoprazole (brand name: Kapidex, Dexilant)
Esomeprazole (brand names: Nexium, Esotrex)                                                                   Books:

Pantoprazole (brand names: Protonix, Somac, Pantoloc, Pantozol, Zurcal, Zentro, Pan)

Rabeprazole (brand names: Zechin, Rabecid,Nzole-D,(NEHAL PHARMA Pvt. Ltd.), AcipHex, Pariet, Rabeloc. Dorafem: combination with domperidone

Histamine 2-receptor antagonists (H2s) include:
Cimetidine (brand name: Tagamet)
Ranitidine (brand name Zantac)
Famotidine (brand names Pepcidine, Pepcid, Gaster)
Nizatidine (brand names Tazac, Axid)

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Recipe of the day

Beef and Spinach Salad                                                                                    Food Mall: Beef

Ingredients:

1 pound washed/drained and chopped spinach
1/2 cup sliced red onions
1/2 pound finely sliced beef
½ cup toasted cashews, sesame seeds or pine nuts (optional)
1 tsp cayenne pepper optional
Grounded black pepper and sea salt to taste.
1tbs olive oil

Instructions:
- In medium saucepan place olive oil over medium heat. Stir in ingredients until lightly toasted.

- Mix well.

- Remove from heat and let cool.

Love Drop for Ethan and Alex

Last month the Love Drop Team raised over $2,500 and boxes after boxes of goods and items to help Jill and her family get through a hard time in their lives (homelessness & financial worries). We did this in 1 month. All 400+ people came together and gave a few bucks each to impact one family's life. If you participated in this, THANK YOU. The final presentation can be seen here. (It's pretty cool!)

This month we start all over again and circle around 2 beautiful kids with severe autism -- Ethan & Alex. Our goal is to raise $13,000 so we can get them a highly trained service dog. And if possible, two iPads so they can speak again (they can't even say "I love you" to their mom -- these iPads allow them to get their voice back).

Here are 3 ways you can help:
1. Join the team - This is the best way to help out, and all it takes is $1.00.
2. Join our blogger network - Blog about our Love Drops each month like I am :) It's easy, it's rewarding, and it REALLY helps spread the word (which in turn helps our families). Love Drop will give you all the content you need.
3. Give a gift or provide a service - Gift cards (iTunes would be great!), two iPads (so we can help the boys speak again!), and anything else you think could help out.

Cardiologist questions the benefits of statins

This post includes a synopsis of a paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal November 8, 2005; 173 (10) and a recipe for huevos rancheros.

Study title and authors:
Questioning the benefits of statins

Books:

Eddie Vos* and Colin P. Rose

*Sutton, Que.; Cardiologist, McGill University, Montréal, Que.

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/173/10/1207-a

Vos a cardiologist at McGill University, Montréal, notes that:
(a) Statins have failed to deliver in reducing all cause mortality
(b) There are no statin trials with even the slightest hint of a mortality benefit in women.
(c)  In patients over 70 years old evidence shows no mortality benefit of statin therapy.
(d)  In the ALLHAT study says it best: "trials [primarily in middle-aged men] demonstrating a reduction in [coronary artery disease] from cholesterol lowering have not demonstrated a net reduction in all-cause mortality." What is the point of decreasing the number of "events" without decreasing overall mortality, when the harm caused by the side effects of statin therapy is factored in?

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Recipe of the day

Huevos Rancheros

Ingredients:

◦1 lb. link sausage

◦6 eggs

Food Mall: Sausage

◦1 green onion, chopped

◦1 avocado, chopped
◦Salsa

Method:
For the sausage, use a knife to split the link 3/4 of the way through and use your fingers to split it flat. Cook the sausages in a saute pan, that’s on medium high heat, with the casing side down. Why? Because the casing needs to render out otherwise the sausage will curl up, won’t crisp up and will taste oddly chewy.

While the sausage is browning, whisk together the eggs with a bit of salt. Remember, the salt helps keep the eggs tender. After the sausage is done, scramble the eggs in the sausage renderings, however you like–runny, slightly runny, hard and rubbery.

To serve, lay a few sausage links down on your plate, top with eggs, spoon with salsa and then sprinkle the green onions and avocado on top.

Statin users with pneumonia 10% more likely to die or be admitted to an intensive care unit than non statin users

This post includes a summary of a study publshed in the British Medical Journal 2006; 333 : 999

Study title and authors:
Statins and outcomes in patients admitted to hospital with community acquired pneumonia: population based prospective cohort study

Sumit R Majumdar, associate professor, Finlay A McAlister, associate professor, Dean T Eurich, research associate, Raj S Padwal, assistant professor, Thomas J Marrie, professor

Books:

Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

This study can be accessed at: http://www.bmj.com/content/333/7576/999.full?rss=1

The objectives of the study was to determine whether statins reduce mortality or need for admission to intensive care in patients admitted to hospital with community acquired pneumonia; and to assess whether previously reported improvements in sepsis (blood stream infection) were a result of the healthy user effect.

Majumdar found that the Statin users were 10% more likely to die or be admitted to an intensive care unit than non-users and reports of improvements in sepsis WERE a result of the healthy user effect.

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High cholesterol leads to an expanded lifespan

This post features data that shows high cholesterol is associated with longevity and a recipe for chilled turkey loaf.

High cholesterol, rather than being a malignant condition that would predict a short life expectancy, is actually associated with higher longevity, and not only with longevity but also with a healthy life. Below are the stastistics for healthy life expectancy from 163 countries.

Click on http://www.canibaisereis.com/download/cholesterol-longevity.gif for a larger image.

The association between higher cholesterol and healthy life expectancy, and thus a pleasant longevity, is very clear. People with high cholesterol live the longest.

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Recipe of the day

Books:

Chilled Turkey Loaf

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs (about 4 small) turkey drumsticks

• 6 c water

• chicken stock

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 t sea salt

• 1 T lemon juice

• 1 t thyme

• 1 t sage

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed

• 1/2 c chopped green onions

• 1/2 c chopped parsley

• 1 small jar (2 oz) diced pimento

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

Food Mall: Turkey Drumsticks

In a 6-quart kettle, combine the turkey, water, bouillon, bay leaf, and sea salt. Cover and simmer until meat is very tender and begins to fall away from the bone, about 2.5 hours.

Lift out meat and set aside to cool. Add lemon juice to cooking liquid and boil, uncovered, until reduced to 3 cups.

Remove meat from the bones, discarding skin, tendons, and bones.

Tear meat into fine shreds and combine with the thyme, sage, garlic, onion, parsley, pimento (drained), and

black pepper.

Pack meat mixture into a 5x9-inch loaf pan, then pour in the cooking liquid.

Cover and chill until set, at least 6 hours.

Run a knife around the pan sides to loosen. Dip pan into hot water for 5 seconds, then invert onto a serving plate and slice.

Excess liver fat reduced on a low carbohydrate diet

This post includes a summary of a paper published in the British Journal of Radiology 2006 Sep;79(945):712-5 and a recipe for omelet muffins.

Study title and authors:
Low-carbohydrate diet induced reduction of hepatic lipid content observed with a rapid non-invasive MRI technique.

Books:

Hollingsworth KG, Abubacker MZ, Joubert I, Allison ME, Lomas DJ.

Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge and Addenbrookes Hospital, Level 5, Box 219, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK.

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16940371?dopt=Abstract

The study investigated what effect a low carbohydrate diet has on liver fat.

It found all subjects demonstrated significant reductions in liver fat on the low carbohydrate diet.

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Recipe of the day

Omelet Muffins

Ingredients:

■6 eggs

Food Mall: Eggs

■1/4 – 1/2 cup cooked meat, cut or crumbled into small pieces

■1/2 cup diced vegetables
■1/4 tsp salt
■1/8 tsp ground pepper
■1/8 cup mayonnaise
■1/8 cup water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease 6 muffin tins with butter or coconut oil or for easier removal line with paper baking cups. The baking cups also help the muffins hold their shape.

In a bowl, beat the eggs. Add meat, vegetables, salt, ground pepper, and any other ingredients and stir to combine.

Spoon or scoop into the muffin cups.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until a knife inserted into the center of an muffin/omelet comes out almost clean. The omelets will continue to cook for a minute or two after removed from the oven. Remove the omelets from the muffin cups and serve, or cool completely and store for another day.

Omelet Muffins



How To Nip A Problem In The Bud

I have many bad character traits but one thing I'm grateful to my masters for teaching me is simplicity. Maybe I'm a little stupid but I don't think over and over again in the way I've noticed many of my Western students do. They run their problems round and round their mind like marbles.

Shantideva said:

“If you can solve your problem, Then what is the need for worrying? If you cannot solve it, Then what is the use of worrying?”
This quote is very powerful because it moves us away from worry and inaction and gets us to the root of what we need to do.

What is it that is making you anxious or worried?

Can you do something to change it?

If the answer is yes then do it.

If the answer is no then you need to find a way to accept it.

This is the end of the story.

You don't need to think about this problem anymore.

Move on.

 If you find it hard to move on then this Chinese proverb is for you:

塞翁失馬焉知非福 (Saiweng Shima, Yanzhi Feifu). The Old Man Who Lost His Horse

During the Han Dynasty—in the third century B.C.—an old man living on China’s border one day lost his horse. His neighbors all said what terrible luck that was, and sympathized with the old man. But Sai Weng said: “Maybe losing my horse is not a bad thing after all.”

The next day the old man’s horse returned, together with a beautiful female horse alongside him. All the neighbors said: “What great luck!” But the old man responded: “Maybe this is not such good luck after all.”

The old man had a strong young son. The boy fell in love with the new horse and rode her every day. One day the new horse got spooked by a wild animal and threw the boy from her back. He broke his leg very badly and was permanently crippled.

All Sai Weng’s neighbors said: “What a tragedy, your strong son will never walk without pain again.” But the old man again said: “Maybe this is not such a bad thing after all.”

And so it went that when the New Year came, the emperor’s army passed through the border region and recruited all able young men to fight in the frontier war. Because the old man’s son was crippled he could not fight and was left in the village to farm with his father. Sai Weng said to his neighbors: “You see, it all turned out okay in the end. Being thrown from the horse and breaking his leg saved my son from fighting in the war and almost certain death. So it was in the end a lucky thing after all.”

Whenever a bad thing happens in China, someone will say “Sai Weng Shi Ma” (Remember “The Old Man Who Lost His Horse”) to remind themselves and others that bad things have a silver lining.