Following on from my earlier article on pharmaceutical companies, there have been two unmissable exposés in the world media in the past week.
Black pepper extracts could help fight obesity and help people keep the weight off- Kathryn Borg
One of the world’s largest drug companies is at the centre of an urgent investigation after failing to disclose reports that 15,000 people died while taking its medicines. It is a Swiss company which also failed to pass on a further 65,000 reports of suspected side-effects that were recorded by patients.
All of these reactions took place in the US over the past 15 years relating to medicines used to treat breast cancer, bowel cancer, Hepatitis B and skin and eye conditions. There is no evidence so far of any direct link between the problems and the drugs. However, medicine watchdogs are taking the company’s failure to disclose possible concerns as extremely serious.
The extent of the failings were discovered when the UK medicines watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) carried out a routine inspection of the company’s drug safety procedures.
As a result, the company has now been ordered by the MHRA and the EU-wide regulator, the European Medicines Agency, to investigate immediately, and both agencies are “taking action” over these failings.
Additionally, another one of the largest pharmaceutical companies has just been fined £2 billion (€2.5bn) in the US for (among other things) bribing doctors, and encouraging the use of prescriptions of unsuitable drugs to children. The MHRA undertook trials which showed that teenagers and children who took a common anti-depressant were significantly more likely to experience thoughts of suicide.
There were even examples of teenagers who had committed suicide and suggestions that the drug could lead to self harming. However, these side-effects could also apply to adults, and in one case of an inquest relating to a suicide, a coroner in the UK recommended that the drug should be withdrawn for further detailed national studies to take place.
The company also sent doctors on free trips and offered other benefits to persuade them to prescribe the drugs. It paid for articles approving the drugs to appear in reputable medical journals and other media payments were made to increase the ‘plugging’ of the anti-depressant. Thanks to the Freedom of Information investigation, the truth was able to be revealed, hence the large fine.
• Moving on to more positive news, researchers in South Korea have now pinpointed the active ingredient that helps lose weight in black pepper. It is something called piperine, which gives pepper its pungent taste.
Piperine reduces fat levels in the blood and interferes with the activity that helps new fat cells to form. The researchers concluded that piperine, or black pepper extracts, could help fight obesity and help people keep the weight off.
• Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can be helped when they eat more fatty fish, or by placing them on a restricted diet. Dietary changes can have a big impact on ADHD. However, it doesn’t appear to work on every child, say the researchers at the University of Copenhagen.
During analysis they found that some of the results, when encouraging more fatty fish, were positive, but some had no effect. However, if it works, then it works well, so it is probably worth trying. The researchers say there are still many unknown factors.
• The cholesterol story has been running and running. Everything can be challenged, so first we discovered that ‘bad’ LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol isn’t so bad after all, and now it seems ‘good’ HDL (high density lipoprotein) will not necessarily lower your risk of a heart attack.
Looking back over the years, the good versus bad cholesterol model is one of the cornerstones of medicine and launched the multi-billion-dollar statin drugs industry. These drugs are designed to lower artery clogging LDL fats while raising levels of HDL.
However, new research from Harvard Medical School has found that high HDL levels don’t translate into lowering the risk of heart problems. Earlier research had established that LDL cholesterol becomes increasingly important as we grow older and helps to protect the brain against memory loss and dementia.
• Finally, more good news about vitamin C.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore have found that the vitamin can lower blood pressure by five mmHg, which makes it half as good as an ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitor or water pill (diuretic) in sufferers of hypertension.
The immediate impact is to significantly reduce the number of people who suffer a stroke, agreed the researchers.
The researchers believe that the vitamin works in a similar way to a diuretic, allowing the kidneys to remove more sodium and water from the body, thereby helping to relax the blood vessel walls and thus lower blood pressure.
The process does suggest, however, that vitamin C doesn’t directly reduce rates of cardiovascular disease.
Considering that there are many more benefits of taking vitamin C, a vitamin which a human body does not produce automatically as many species do, it seems beneficial.
kathryn@maltanet.net