Prescription drugs and FDA

Beat back bathroom emergencies with herbs

Your body wakes you up because you've got to go... badly.

So, you stumble to the bathroom in the dark... only to find that your big "emergency" doesn't amount to much more than a trickle.

When you've got an enlarged prostate, a.k.a. benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), it can feel like every time your bladder is demanding you run to the urinal, it's just crying wolf.

To rid yourself of those bathroom trips in the "wee hours" (sorry, pun intended) that wreak havoc on your sleep, you're probably willing to take ANY pill your doc prescribes.

But whatever you do, DON'T fill a script for the common BPH drug Avodart (a.k.a. dutasteride) -- because a new study shows that its long-term impact on your health could be DEVASTATING.

The study out of Boston University Medical Center compared men with BPH who took Avodart and those with BPH who took a different prostate drug, called Flomax (a.k.a. tamsulosin).

After about three years, those taking Avodart wound up with some pretty alarming side effects that those on Flomax didn't have at all.

First off, Avodart increased their blood sugar, upping their risk of diabetes.

As if that weren't bad enough, the drug sent their cholesterol soaring and put them at greater risk of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

And to add insult to injury, it also WORSENED the troubles they'd been having in the bedroom.

The researchers concluded that, overall, instead of making life with BPH easier, Avodart DECREASED the men's quality of life.

Getting up a few times at night sure seems like a "drop in the bucket" compared to the problems Avodart can cause!

Now, this news might make you clamor for Flomax, but before you do, I'll warn you: That one isn't exactly side-effect free, either.

Sure, I'd take Flomax's risk of nausea and dizziness over major metabolic harm any day... but there's really no need to pop a pill for BPH at all.

Instead of a drug, try the dynamic herbal duo of stinging nettle and saw palmetto.

Studies have shown that this supplement combo relieves urinary BPH symptoms as well as drugs do -- but without side effects.

Make sure your palmetto extract is 85 to 95 percent fatty acids and sterol -- otherwise, it may not have enough potency to get the job done. Typically, 160 milligrams of it twice daily combined with 300 milligrams of stinging nettle extract daily will do the trick, but talk to your doc about the right dosage for you.

You can often get both of these ingredients in a good prostate support supplement formula, rather than having to buy and take them separately.
But why stop there?

BPH can actually be a symptom of zinc and/or essential fatty acid deficiency -- and you can get more of both of these nutrients by adding unroasted sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds to your diet or by taking high-quality zinc supplements and fatty acid-rich flaxseed oil.

This breakfast staple outsmarts bugs that kill

Whether it's the football game of the year... the latest comic book hero movie... or the sale of the season, anything that's called "super" is usually the biggest and the best.

But modern life has also brought us some pretty dangerous "super" things -- and by far the worst are "superbugs," those infectious bacteria that have outsmarted us and become resistant to the drugs we rely on so heavily to fight them.

Antibiotics for deadly diseases like pneumonia are failing at an astounding rate -- nearly 70,000 people die worldwide every year from infections that antibiotics can no longer beat.

And that number could balloon to 10 MILLION by 2050 if docs keep giving out antibiotic prescriptions like they're Halloween candy and factory farms keep stuffing the drugs into the cows, pigs, and chickens that become our dinner.

Big Pharma keeps promising to develop newer and better antibiotics to thwart the superbugs -- but if you're sick, you need treatment right now.

And who's to say the world's bacteria won't outfox the new "superdrugs"?

But according to a new study, relief may not be that far away -- because something you probably have in your fridge right now can kill the lethal bacteria that even antibiotics can't touch.

I'm talking about plain old yogurt.

In the study presented at a recent meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, the researchers screened nearly 70 different probiotic ("good") bacteria found in commercial yogurt and cheese to see if any of them could fight off pathogenic and drug-resistant bacteria like E. coli, Staph aureus, and Listeria.

It turned out that one particular strain of Lactobacillus bacteria from yogurt -- L. parafarranginis KU495926, to be specific -- was successful at taking down not just one, but 14 of those "bad guys."

That probiotic knocked them out so well that you could call it an infection-fighting "superhero"!

It's not yet clear exactly how this Lactobacillus strain managed to eradicate the pathogens, but the theory is that it produced some inhibitory substance against the unfriendly strains.

Now, that's not to say that probiotics can completely replace antibiotics, which definitely save lives and are often the most effective way to wipe out certain infections.

But since many antibiotics for infections aren't working, docs have started dosing patients up with a second antibiotic to finish the job -- and that just creates a vicious cycle, resulting in more superbugs.

So, make sure you only fill a script for an antibiotic if you absolutely need it.

In the meantime, stock up on yogurt (preferably organic, with no added sugar or artificial sweeteners) that's chock-full of live and active cultures -- Lactobacillus among them.

If dairy bothers your gut, try fermented vegetables like kimchi or sauerkraut and fermented soy products like miso.

You can also find Lactobacillus strains in probiotic supplements from a trusted brand -- opt for one that has billions of colony-forming units (CFUs).