Salt and BP; Are Studies Using Statistics Right?

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

No they are not! And here is why.

Some of you may be concerned about salt increase in your diet because you have heard about the increase of BP. I decided to do a literature research on that and have written my article (still in progress for corrections) but the key part–meaning BP increase as a result of salt increase is already set in stone. I decided to copy-paste here for you selected parts of my summary so you can see how meaningless the studies have been and where the statistical errors stand–number in parentheses are references from the original article as I am working on it:

“…studies show that the increase in systolic BP as a result of increased dietary sodium is from 1.5 mm HG to 4.18 mm HG is healthy participants(16) and up to 5.8 mm Hg in hypertensive patients measured in urine(8)…it is evident that normal daily variations of BP move in a significantly larger range. For healthy individuals the daily variation may encompass a nearly ten times increase in BP just from living than the increase we see in BP from eating more salt. [for reference the normal range is 100-139 mm Hg in systolic that is written elsewhere in the paper.]

While it is understandable that BP increase is of concern, the size of the increase must also be significant for it to be true real concern. It is well understood that increased salt increases blood volume(17)… It is also understood that decreased levels of dietary salt reduces BP by about the same amount as increased dietary salt increases BP. There is a direct relation between salt intake and blood pressure, which is shown with the statistical power test in all studies(18). The change is minor in both directions.

We must therefore ask: is the slight reduction worth the trade-of people experience an increase in their triglycerides by a much 7%(6,8,19,20)? Is it a fair and safe exchange to suggest that a hypertensive patient should decrease dietary salt to end up increasing triglyceride levels by 7% but only reducing BP by less than 4%? As shown above, the reduction of dietary salt culminates in a 1.5 mm Hg to 5.8 mm Hg reduction in BP based on patient condition by many studies. Assuming an individual with hypertension of 150/90 BP, the systolic decrease is maximum 5.8 mm Hg (or 3.8%) from reduced salt diet, but which remains a high BP. At the same time, triglyceride increases by 7% so if that patient had normal triglycerides of 145 mg/dL(21), with the 7% increase as a result of reduced dietary salt it jumps to an unhealthy 155.15 mg/dL. The trade-off is not a good one because higher than normal triglycerides may lead to serious diseases(21).”

As you can see:
1) The article snippet here shows that increased salt increases BP quite insignificantly and reduced salt reduces BP also quite insignificantly as well.
2) Decreased dietary salt increases triglycerides, which is the bad particle component of LDL, the bad cholesterol, by 7%–a significant increase.

Thus should you be concerned about increasing your salt? Not a chance! Enjoy your salted meals! The citation numbers are not starting at 1 since I copy-pasted from an article I am writing.

Sources:

  1. Graudal NA, Hubeck-Graudal T, Jürgens G. Effects of Low-Sodium Diet vs. High-Sodium Diet on Blood Pressure, Renin, Aldosterone, Catecholamines, Cholesterol, and Triglyceride (Cochrane Review). American Journal of Hypertension. 2012;25(1):1-15.
  1. He FJ, Li J, MacGregor GA. Effect of longer term modest salt reduction on blood pressure: Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials. BMJ. 2013;346.
  1. FH MSB. Dietary salt reduction; further lowering of target lowers blood pressure but may increase risk. Evidence Based Medicine. 2014;19(1):22.
  2. Mange K, Matsuura D, Cizman B, et al. Language Guiding Therapy: The Case of Dehydration versus Volume Depletion. Annals of Internal Medicine. 1997;127(9):848-853.
  3. Texas Uo. Power of a Statistical Procedure. 2012. https://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/mks/statmistakes/power.html. Accessed 12/07/2015.
  4. Albert GNT, Hubeck-Graudal; Gesche, Jurgens;. Effects of low sodium diet versus high sodium diet on blood pressure, renin, aldosterone, catecholamines, cholesterol, and triglyceride. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2011;11.
  5. Jurgens G, Graudal NA. Effects of low sodium diet versus high sodium diet on blood pressure, renin, aldosterone, catecholamines, cholesterols, and triglyceride. 2004.
  6. MedlinePlus N. Triglyceride level. In: Chen AM, ed. MedlienPlus Encyclopedia. internet2014.

Comments are welcome as always!

Angela

 

 

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PTSD

Posted on December 5, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

This gallery contains 4 photos.

I am re-blogging an email exchange that is posted by a fellow blogger who since has become an email friend. This is a very serious blog that contains two of my emails to Louise that she asked for permission to … Continue reading →

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Serotonin Syndrome – a Killer that Doctors Need to Learn About

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

NEWS RELEASE

All You Need to Know about Serotonin Syndrome

A new article just got released that I wrote (partly based on emotions since the story is based on the death of my mother). Thus you will encounter typos.. so just ignore those and read the essence of the article: Serotonin kills. While 100% of the doctors can and will prescribe medicines with serotonin in them or SSRIs or SNRI or other variations that do not have serotonin but force the brain to make endless amount of serotonin, I have found none (in person) who actually knew how these drugs worked and what they do. In fact I only found doctors who said the stupidest things like “your mother cannot have serotonin syndrome because it is rare”… No it is not rare.. doctors who recognize it are rare! Only 15% of doctor recognize it. Those who do not, call it delirium. There is now also a new cause of death apparently, it is called hospital induced delirium. You find all these beauties that cluelessly represent serotonin syndrome in my new article Silent Death: Serotonin Syndrome.

Read it and share it!

Save someone’s life and push it under your or their doctor(s)’ nose and stand guard until they test and treat!

If untreated, Serotonin Syndrome is fatal! Always fatal! It is not a pleasant death! But what makes it even worse is how helpless relatives and friends are in the grips of our medical system where doctors are kings of prescriptions and pharmaceuticals are money-making machines of medicines and where the business is to give medicines rather than to treat people. Even pharmacies, that are supposed to catch interactive serotonin medicines, do nothing! Some even post now that they are not responsible for checking! Really? Since when?!

Please read the article and share–push it under your doctor’s nose. Let your doctor hate you but you stay alive! You hear?

Comments are welcome.

Angela

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New Journal Article Published on Migraine

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

NEWS RELEASE

An article I wrote is in “Article in press” mode publishing on December 1st. Title “Migraine Cause and Treatment” in the Journal of Mental Health in Family Medicine.

Abstract

Migraine Cause and Treatment

Background: Research shows that migraine brains have hyperactive sensory organs and multiple sensory receptor connections. Hyper activity of these organs needs extra supply of nutrition to support increased electrical activity. Today’s medicines reduce or prevent the functioning of these neurons by blocking essential voltage dependent calcium or sodium channel instead of providing nutrients. We asked: if we provide support for extra electrical activity of migraineurs, would it prevent migraines without the use of medicines?

Methods: We reviewed published literature and conducted research over 6 months studying 650 volunteer migraineurs in a migraine-research Facebook group. Participants were screened for migraine types, answered a questionnaire on medical conditions, medicines used, and lifestyle. They were provided instructions on the use of the migraine protocol and were evaluated weekly.

Findings: Migraine frequency appears to be exacerbated by carbohydrate-rich and salt- and water-poor diets and may be worsened by medicines that block voltage gated calcium or sodium channels. Stopping these medicines, reducing carbohydrates and increasing saline in electrolytes appears to prevent and/or stop migraines.

Conclusions: H2O and Na+ efflux from cells caused by glucose, electrolyte mineral (Na+, Cl–, K+) ratio may be disrupted in carbohydrate heavy diets causing migraines. Changes to diet that include increased salt intake along with reduced carbohydrate intake appears to prevent glucose induced electrolyte changes which then decreases migraine frequency. In the present study, all participants who made these dietary changes were able to eliminate migraine medications and remained migraine free.

Enjoy reading the full article! I hope to elicit more than usual turmoil since this article goes against all conventional migraine treatments but it actually works and there are no medicines involved. 🙂

Comments are welcome as always!

Angela

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Big Pharma as Organized Crime by Dr. Peter Gøtzsche

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Do Drugs Kill Us?

Watch this: Watch this: https://youtu.be/dozpAshvtsA ( post the link and embed, not sure which will work for whom)

I am not even shocked in any sense of the world.

Here is another one that I found just as the first one finished: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8bt8eUB1CU

 

Comments are welcome as always!

Angela

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The McDonaldization of Medicine” Seriously?

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Fast Food Method Philosophy = Fast Healthcare Method Philosophy

This is the first time I hear the expression “The McDonaldization of Medicine“. It does not mean what you think it means. It has nothing to do with McDonald’s being unhealthy or healthy or red or blue or yellow. Nope. It is a business model for medicine! It was just published in JAMA Neurology, one of the most prominent medical journals in the world. Coincidentally it published on what has come to be known as National Fast Food Day in the US. Coincidence? Not sure!

In case the link does not open for you, the full citation:

The McDonaldization of Medicine FREE ONLINE FIRST

E. Ray Dorsey, MD, MBA1; George Ritzer, PhD, MBA2
1Department of Neurology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York
2Department of Sociology, University of Maryland, College Park
JAMA Neurol. Published online November 16, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2015.3449

Fast Food versus Healthcare Expectations

While one certainly can and should expect a fast food place to provide fast service at lower price and associated lower quality than what one could eat in a fancy restaurant of higher price, one does not expect the same to be true of medicine or healthcare in general. In medicine, where people’s lives are at stake, one does not expect a business model that follows the fast food model: fast in and out, service quick, cheap, and quantity matters more than quality. Fast foods also have one more business model point that is often overlooked: quantity is more important than quality. Thus if McDonald’s (or any other fast food brand has) say ten thousand customers a day, making ten of them unhappy will not cause harm.

A health institution that sees patients as business revenue is not a health institution but a disease institution. Why? Because making people healthy is bad business! Who needs care when healthy? People need care when they are sick. Thus the McDonadlization (ouch I hate this word) of our healthcare system makes the system into a disease system.

Do we want a disease system to manage our health?

Why would we? That’s like asking the proverbial mouse to stand guard over the proverbial cheese. I am glad I happened to read the JAMA’s today story today totally by accident. Normally articles pile up for me to read but fate brought me in touch with reality: We have been McDonaldized!

So how do we stop this nonsense? By making demands from our doctors! When you have your next visit for whatever reason, tell him or her that you pay for the services received and you have earned the right to the detailed explanations, the exact numbers in print as well so you can go to another doctor and have them explain the same thing and see the conflict! Also, do not forget to check the database to see how much money your doctor has taken from big pharma in 2014! Chances are it will amount to more than $10. If so, be aware that you are money (or food or vacation) in the eye of your doctor and not a patient! Some of my migraine sufferers found doctors who made over $80,000 in 2014 on medicines they prescribed! They have a vested interest in you being McDonalized and that you eat as much junk food as possible.

Oh, and by the way, by junk food I mean the following: sugar, sugar substitutes, fruit juices, fruit and vegetable smoothies, fruit and vegetable shakes, vegetable juices and puree like V8 or tomato sauce, and while we are at it, add to the junk food list all non-fat, low-fat, and reduced low-calorie anything, and vegetable oils as well. If you really want to eat healthy, also add to the list of junk food all grains: bread, pastas, cereal, cakes, biscuits, and whatever is made with them. And to top it all off, put all canned and prepared foods to the list of junk foods!

Now then. Shall we head to the grocery store and shop? We really only have about 4 shelves to use for shopping: dairy (get whole milk, whole yogurt if you find any and with no sugar added, whole milk cheese if you find any (you can’t, so buy not American like Brie), then pick up some heavy whipping cream for extra fat (do not add sugar and do buy a whipping machine for like $15 on amazon or elsewhere! Then grab some lovely cage free grass-fed free range eggs, head to the meat counter and buy some wonderful pasture raised beef with fat, pork, chicken, fish (with skin on and wild caught) and then the produce island to pick up veggies, fruits, and nuts and seeds. If you need oil head for the special oil section of olive, grape seed (love that one!), coconut oil, or use butter.

Done. It was easy! Now you have officially been un-McDonaldized… sheesh… the word is getting worse and worse… But once you have done all these, who needs a doctor? 🙂

Comments are welcome as always!

Angela

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Will a Medicine Help You? The Numbers Will Shock You!

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

I love TED. I watch TED programs all the time because in 15-20 minutes they summarize important information that you cannot get anywhere else! This TED is like that.

This is the most important TED you may ever watch in your life. Ignore the beginning and the title since while those are funny and nice, the important part of the message actually comes later! I am wondering how the beginning half of the video connects to the second half–I know there is some resemblance in importance and some connection but the important stuff is in the second half.

The important part is about the numbers used to calculate the percentage of how medicines may help or hurt people for whom they are prescribed! The numbers are so amazing that the process will stop you in your track for any medicine you are taking! Of course no doctor will ever tell you these numbers and the statistical test results of adverse reactions that are included with the medicine do not actually portray the real information you need to know.

Since there is a transcript of the TED video is also available, I am grabbing some of the key points for you in case you do not have the 15-20 minutes to watch this awesome video. Also I find that numbers like this look way better in writing than listened to because they have the chance to dig deeper in your brain.

There is a number called NNT.

What is NNT?

NNT is the number of people needed to be treated (by the medicine or surgery or any procedure) in order to claim one person getting any benefit from the treatment and reach the desired “cure” is achieved.

By all of our selfish thinking, this number should be one. Your doctor would not prescribe anything to you that he/she did not think would help you or would s/he?  To your doctor’s excuse s/he may not actually be aware of what NNT is although it was taught in med school at some point! But this is just as easily forgotten as the metabolic consequences of many medicines or even the metabolic pathways and interactions thereby of the many medicines they prescribe. 

NNT

From the transcribed document at the bottom of this video:

GlaxoSmithKline estimates that 90 percent of the drugs work in only 30 to 50 percent of the people. So the number needed to treat for the most widely prescribed statin [cholesterol reduction medicine], what do you suppose it is? How many people have to take it before one person is helped? 300. This is according to research by research practitioners Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband, independently confirmed by Bloomberg.com. I ran through the numbers myself. 300 people have to take the drug for a year before one heart attack, stroke or other adverse event is prevented. 

“Well, OK, one in 300 chance of lowering my cholesterol. Why not, doc? Give me the prescription anyway.” But you should ask at this point for another statistic, and that is, “Tell me about the side effects.” Right? So for this particular drug, the side effects occur in five percent of the patients. And they include terrible things — debilitating muscle and joint pain, gastrointestinal distress —but now you’re thinking, “Five percent, not very likely it’s going to happen to me, I’ll still take the drug.”But wait a minute... 300 people take the drug, right? One person’s helped, five percent of those 300 have side effects, that’s 15 people. You’re 15 times more likely to be harmed by the drug than you are to be helped by the drug.

…Medical ethics requires it, it’s part of the principle of informed consent. You have the right to have access to this kind of information to begin the conversation about whether you want to take the risks or not.

…For the most widely performed surgery on men over the age of 50, removal of the prostate for cancer, the number needed to treat is 49. That’s right, 49 surgeries are done for every one person who’s helped. And the side effects in that case occur in 50 percent of the patients.They include impotence, erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, rectal tearing, fecal incontinence. (emphasis added)

Thus your chances of recovery from prostate surgery is very slim plus you are 24.5 times more like to have horrible side effects than not.

Looking at it from this perspective, I would demand to see every single medicine’s NNT from my doctor from now on if I were you! I most certainly will. I do not consider myself to be a guinea pig and wish not to be part of any experiment without my expressly asked for and written consent!

Your comments are welcome as always!

Angela

Founder of Stanton Migraine Protocol® and Author of Fighting the Migraine Epidemic and many other books sold worldwide.

Posted in Big Pharma, Drugs of Shame, FDA, Healthcare, Interesting reading, Must Read, Thoughts, Videos | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Low Salt for Heart Health? Look Again!

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Salt is not the enemy! Sugar is!

Those of you still blaming salt for your high blood pressure, cholesterol deposits and heart problems, look again and empty your fridge! Read this article and start eating and drinking right and yes: increase your salt to normal levels too while at it!!! This is not the first article of this kind. I know you have seen many! But the goal is to drill the routine deeper and deeper until you actually get it and start acting upon it!

Dump Sugar!

Why sugar? Sugar (table sugar, raw sugar, organic sugar, honey, maple syrup, sugar candy at the fair) of any kind breaks down into two parts (simplified here): fructose and sucrose. Sucrose is also of parts (also simplified): fructose and glucose among other things.

Glucose heads straight to your head and makes kids pop off the walls, after which they have a sugar crash and they slump down on the sofa playing games.

Don’t blame them! Blame the sugar!

Fructose is the one that causes problems for your heart. Fructose is not recognized by our body as sugar so it does not spike insulin. Great you think? Think again! The metabolism of fructose is the one that

  1. causes your heart to fail,
  2. causes high cholesterol,
  3. causes metabolic syndrome followed by non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,
  4. causes high blood pressure … and many more bad things

Fructose first converts to ethanol (yep, the stuff mixed with your gasoline for your car) which is an alcohol. Thus though you may never ever drink alcohol, your liver is full of it… so much for having an alcohol free life… lol… all you need is sugar!

The liver then has the job of converting this alcohol into fat. The fat it converts it into is the bad cholesterol, the sticky type LDL that is called triglycerides. The cholesterol buildup in arteries then narrow making the passage of blood hard. This causes blockage that leads to heart attacks. This is all from the sugar caused build-up by triglycerides!

To avoid heart problems and to lower your BP, it is not salt you need to reduce but sugar. So stop eating and drinking sugar in any shape or form.

Sugar substitutes lead to diabetes 2. Your best bet is simply learn to not have something sweet in your mouth at all times!

Also, show this to your doctor on your next visit since he/she will call you a bluff otherwise! MDs have little time to read anything and they still go by the art of medicine they learned in med school however that long ago that was! Teach them what they need to know since this information is new! Chances of them knowing this is pretty slim! So help them!

Comments are welcome as always!

Angela

Founder of Stanton Migraine Protocol® and Author of Fighting the Migraine Epidemic and many other books.

 

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Sugar Podcast!

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Sugar Tax like Cigarette or Alcohol Tax!

Listen to this podcast!!! The most important podcast for your health!

Normalize the sugar market

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Where is My Bacon!!

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

What? Bacon and red meat cause cancer? Just hold that thought!

You may have seen the news coming out yesterday or today that eating bacon and red meat cause cancer. If that scared you, here is an article  shared by a NZ anti-sugar advocate and written by  that is worthy of your time in reading (it is short and she wrote it today specifically in reaction to the news).

My comment to this new cancer discovery is this: Many journal articles miss the importance of (or skilled use of) statistics! I can say that the sales of red cars increased by 10% but unless I say what I compare it with or what year or what model or what country or what on earth, does it have any meaning? Statistics must be looked at in the context of which it was calculated.

I used to reject academic journal articles as a reviewer all the time for mistakes like this but they still always got published because the other 2 reviewers (they usually ask 3 and 2 must agree) had no clue what statistics meant and how to analyze the results. Our society and in fact all societies on this planet are dragged left and right by information that is based on silly and totally incorrect science.

I refuse to be a puppet for clueless scientists even if the WHO (World Health Organization) follows the badly computed analysis! It just makes the WHO as clueless as the rest!

So bacon and red meat? You bet!

Loving every moment of my life and while smoking will kill me, bacon? Not a chance!

Your comments are welcome, as always.

Angela

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