Blood Pressure medicine recalled due to contamination from Chinese source

Known as HCTZ Valsartan, or under other names by various generic manufacturers, the FDA and other drug watchdogs in Europe and Canada have reported that the Chinese pharmaceutical company making the raw materials are shipping contaminated drugs containing one or even two kinds of carcinogens.

FDA UPDATE https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drugsafety/ucm613916.htm

Here are links to the recalled drugs and also a list of those not recalled.

NOT recalled https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/UCM615704.pdf

Under recall https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/UCM615703.pdf

Teva
Acativas (Teva)
AvKARE also Teva
Princeton/Solco and RemedyPrepack
AS Medication another Teva and Solco
BRYANT another Teva
 HJ Harkins another Solco Princeton
Northwind
NuCare
Preferred
Torrent

Background - More Aspirin Studies Early Study Inconclusive

See next blog posting for the new studies, this is background.

As with many medical studies the results of studies on men and women and low dose aspirin are confusing and sometimes contradictory but remember that the newest studies published in peer-reviewed journals such as the NEJM or The Lancet, Nature, and Science, are built on the information obtained from the earlier studies and are therefore likely to be correct even when they contradict the older studies.

Studies of the results for women and girls are especially important because until recently most studies were conducted on men and only in recent years has it been shown that the results for women can vary greatly from those for men. That one chromosome is very important.

A randomized trial published in the NEJM in 2005 found only a tiny, 9% improvement in preventing initial heart attacks in women so the new studies should be considered especially important for women when considering the proven risks vs the small potential benefits of low dose aspirin therapy.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa050613

Quoted from NEJM:

"BACKGROUND

Randomized trials have shown that low-dose aspirin decreases the risk of a first myocardial infarction in men, with little effect on the risk of ischemic stroke. There are few similar data in women.

METHODS

We randomly assigned 39,876 initially healthy women 45 years of age or older to receive 100 mg of aspirin on alternate days or placebo and then monitored them for 10 years for a first major cardiovascular event (i.e., nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or death from cardiovascular causes)."

and

"Although aspirin is effective in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction and in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease among both men and women,1 its use in primary prevention remains controversial. To date, five randomized trials involving 55,580 participants have evaluated aspirin in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.2-6 In aggregate, these trials indicate that, as compared with placebo, aspirin therapy was associated with a significant, 32 percent reduction in the risk of myocardial infarction, but the data on the risk of stroke and death from cardiovascular disease remains inconclusive.7Moreover, three of these trials evaluated men exclusively, and fewer than 180 of the 2402 vascular events occurred in women. Thus, at this time, the current recommendations for the use of aspirin in primary prevention in women are based on limited direct data from women" 

Low Dose Aspirin Not Helpful and Actually Dangerous say 3 NEJM published studies

Taking a low dose aspirin has been considered the standard of good health practice for decades to prevent the first heart attack in otherwise healthy people.

Unfortunately this common medical wisdom isn't actually supported by a lot of evidence and now the New England Journal of Medicine has published three studies with more than 20,000 participants showing that not only is this not a good way for people over 65 (and probably younger) to prevent a first heart attack.

Also, because aspirin, even low dose or "baby" aspirin (between about 80 mg and 300 mg) reduces the ability for blood to clot it can encourage bleeding in the brain.


Effect of Aspirin on Disability-free Survival in the Healthy Elderly  
J.J. McNeil and Others   
<http://response.nejm.org/t?ctl=45B57:82F864202E91A81197A27C9082BFE7BDF91BDD2A20A1D99A&uuid=10295107&dateTime=201809260000&key=wZxk%2FaDT8hj7YLGnnkqQUfeBvC5O%2Br%2FO5gm4%2FvQeP%2Fw%3D>   
Free Full Text | Comments

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Effect of Aspirin on Cardiovascular Events and Bleeding in the Healthy Elderly  
J.J. McNeil and Others   
<http://response.nejm.org/t?ctl=45B58:82F864202E91A81197A27C9082BFE7BDF91BDD2A20A1D99A&uuid=10295107&dateTime=201809260000&key=wZxk%2FaDT8hj7YLGnnkqQUfeBvC5O%2Br%2FO5gm4%2FvQeP%2Fw%3D>   
Free Full Text

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Effect of Aspirin on All-Cause Mortality in the Healthy Elderly  
J.J. McNeil and Others   
<http://response.nejm.org/t?ctl=45B59:82F864202E91A81197A27C9082BFE7BDF91BDD2A20A1D99A&uuid=10295107&dateTime=201809260000&key=wZxk%2FaDT8hj7YLGnnkqQUfeBvC5O%2Br%2FO5gm4%2FvQeP%2Fw%3D>   
Free Full Text

Low carb AND high carb diets increase chance of early death - Lancet published study

A study of 15,000 adults age 45-64 in 4 US communities who were part of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study between 1987 and 1989 and weren't on any extreme caloric diet, either high or low, was recently used as the basis of a follow up 25 years later.

By now there have been 6,283 deaths in the ARIC group but the study in The Lancet Public Health also looked at more than 400,000 people in other studies.

Those who had the lowest risk of mortality (death) from all causes were the ones who got about half of their calories from carbohydrates.

BOTH low carb <40% and high carb >70% diets resulted in greater risk of early death.

In addition, if the carbs were replaced by animal fat or animal protein the risk was also higher but if the carbs were replaced by plant-based oils or protein.

The study was recently published in The Lancet Public Health which is available online.

New Sepsis Test Developed by UK MoD

With two revolutionary treatments for sepsis as described in other posts here in CMN, it becomes even more important to diagnose the deadly condition ASAP if ONLY so patient advocates have enough time to find a doctor who will listen to them about the new discoveries already saving lives in the few locations where they are being used.

Survival rates for sepsis aka blood poisoning drop nearly 10 percent each hour it goes undiagnosed and untreated.

The current test takes up to several days to give a full diagnosis of a disease which kills at least 5 million each year out of the approximately 30 million who contract it each year. 

That's more than bowel, breast, and prostate cancer combined.

Even more alarming is the fact that sepsis cases are increasing 10% each year.

In the UK it is believed to cost nearly £15 billion per year.

Now the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense has announced a new rapid test to confirm sepsis, permitting faster treatment. 

Scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) in the UK have come up with a biomarker test which can prove the existence of a sepsis infection even before symptoms appear. The test is 97% accurate, having been studied for more than a decade.

Dr Roman Lukaszewski is the lead Dstl scientist.

Dstl site.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-test-for-sepsis-could-improve-survival-rates-thanks-to-dstl-scientists

Vitamin D delays or prevents diabetes onset

My book on Vitamin D looked at the powerful medical journal evidence that Vitamin D-3 can prevent or cure malignant melanoma but the latest information expands the powerful role of Vitamin D to at least delaying the onset of Typ[e 2 diabetes.

Dodical jes Vitamin D-3 Cure Malignant Melanoma?: How about curry? VITAL information directly from meournals. (Collected Works: John A. McCormick Book 2) Kindle Edition

The mechanism of protection against melanoma cancers is not clear but the way Vitamin D helps prevent Type 2 diabetes is actually clear, the vitamin protects against β cell dysfunction

β cells have a profound effect on insulin sensitivity which is the real problem with diabetes.

Summary from Cell: "A primary cause of disease progression in type 2 diabetes (T2D) is β cell dysfunction due to inflammatory stress and insulin resistance. However, preventing β cell exhaustion under diabetic conditions is a major therapeutic challenge. Here, we identify the vitamin D receptor (VDR) as a key modulator of inflammation and β cell survival. Alternative recognition of an acetylated lysine in VDR by bromodomain proteins BRD7 and BRD9 directs association to PBAF and BAF chromatin remodeling complexes, respectively. Mechanistically, ligand promotes VDR association with PBAF to effect genome-wide changes in chromatin accessibility and enhancer landscape, resulting in an anti-inflammatory response. Importantly, pharmacological inhibition of BRD9 promotes PBAF-VDR association to restore β cell function and ameliorate hyperglycemia in murine T2D models. These studies reveal an unrecognized VDR-dependent transcriptional program underpinning β cell survival and identifies the VDR:PBAF/BAF association as a potential therapeutic target for T2D."

https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(18)30506-3

Arnush, M.Heitmeier, M.R.Scarim, A.L.Marino, M.H.Manning, P.T.Corbett, J.A.
IL-1 produced and released endogenously within human islets inhibits beta cell function.
J. Clin. Invest. 1998; 102: 516-526

Illustration from Cell.com