Drugs & Doctors of Shame!

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Drugs of Shame Series

How about starting the series with a Doctor of Shame who in the ER gave to a migraineur 3 Drugs of Shame?

Imagine that you are in horrific pain! You are also partially blinded by the pain and parts of your body are paralyzed because you have hemiplegic migraines. You head to the ER and the resident neurologist gives you the following three medications:

Tramadol, Ergotamine tartrate, and Propranolol

Before I give you the details of the drugs in brief, I show you what I could find simply by placing the 3 drug names into an online dug interaction checker:

Interactions for the following two medications I put in there:

“Tramadol and Ergotamine tartrate

Interactions  All (1)  Significant (1)

Ergotamine tartrate + Tramadol

Ergotamine tartrate and Tramadol both increase serotonin levels in the blood. Too much serotonin is a potentially life-threatening condition. Severe signs and symptoms include high blood pressure and increased heart rate that lead to shock.”

So your doctor is giving you two medications that both achieve the same chemical alterations in the brain: overdose by duplication. One of the side effects of such overdose is an increased blood pressure by blood vessel constricting so the third medicine, Propranolol, is doing what? Reduce blood pressure? Nah… It increases it further! It is a strong vasoconstrictor that is not even supposed to be given to a low blood pressure patient (the migraineur in questions has typical blood pressure of 90/60, way below normal!). So as you see, a clueless doctor can sure make a mess of already shameful drugs!

These 3 drugs will be revisited later in greater detail but for now in brief, I just explain the main functions and how they work so you can see the cluelessness. Later each drug will have its own decorated page under Drugs of Shame. The purpose of this introduction to Drugs of Shame is to show you how many doctors have absolutely no clue what the drugs they prescribe do and by what mechanism.

The three medicines in brief:

Tramadol: is an opioid that binds to the μ-opioid receptor and also acts as a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor so it is an SNRI. Inhibiting reuptake in the brain is synonymous with plugging the overflow in your sink or tub. When the brain had enough serotonin and norepinephrine already, it does not know about it because its overflow hole (reuptake) is plugged (inhibited). Hence the brain continues to make these neurotransmitters thinking it needs to make more. This in turn overflows the brain with serotonin and norepinephrine endlessly, 24/7. Tramadol alone is already troubling and can cause serotonin syndrome on its own.

Ergotamine (Ergot for short): is structurally similarity to several neurotransmitters like serotonin at the5-HT1A receptors, dopamine at the D2 receptor and epinephrine, and can thus bind to several receptors acting as an agonist. Agonists “excite” the receptors to take up more. So one medication is already flooding the brain (Tramadol) with these neurotransmitters forcing the brain receptors to sponge up as much as they can and now they are instructed to sponge up more and more!  At the same time Ergot acts as a vasoconstrictor as well. It works by constricting the intracranial extracerebral blood vessels through the 5-HT1B receptor and by inhibiting trigeminal neurotransmission by 5-HT1D receptors. This not only causes a double dose (overdose) but also causes the BP to increase.

Propranolol (Inderal) is a beta blocker that increases blood pressure by vasoconstriction achieved by vasospasm. Vasospasm refers to a condition in which a blood vessel’s spasm leads to vasoconstriction. This can lead to tissue ischemia and tissue death (necrosis). Cerebral vasospasm may arise in the context of subarachnoid hemorrhage. Propranolol is not recommended for the treatment of hypertension because of its relatively high rate of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Propranolol has inhibitory effects on the norepinephrine transporter and/or stimulates norepinephrine release (? which one??? So we know what we prescribe?). Propranolol increases synaptic norepinephrine at the α-adrenergic receptors so this is yet one more medicine that double doses—or rather in this case triple doses since all three drugs contribute to norepinephrine release. In addition propranolol may function as a partial agonist at some serotonin receptors. Propranolol also blocks the voltage-gated sodium channels.

In quick summary:

  • Tramadol forces neurons to make two neurotransmitters: serotonin and norepinephrine and increases blood pressure by its vasoconstriction. It is also an opioid.
  • Ergotamine increases serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine and has a vasoconstriction action.
  • Propranolol is a vasoconstrictor that either inhibits or stimulates norepinephrine (we don’t know which?) and most importantly it blocks voltage-gated-sodium-channels. Voltage gated sodium channels are necessary to manufacture neurotransmitters!

So 2 drugs are given to load the brain with neurotransmitters and the 3rd drug prevents that!

Note also that all three constrict blood vessels and increase blood pressure that can cause stroke and other harm. All three take part in modifying brain neurotransmitters in some way that have serious consequences to our body, not one of which has anything to do with reducing migraines! Not one of these drugs is expressly for migraines albeit off label they have been used so.

Migraine is a special brain with enhanced sensory neuron connections (migraineurs smell better, hear better, see better in dark so light bothers them), etc. So their brains need different energy for their heightened activity! The energy they need is extra voltage and not neurotransmitter release enforcement guards with blood pressure increasing!

Please read my book to understand what a migraine brain is! Do yourself a favor: when you are hit with a migraine or know someone who has migraines, please buy them the book Fighting the Migraine Epidemic or have them send a message to me via the comment option below! I am glad to help! Save your life and run from doctors!

Your comments are welcome as always!

Angela

Posted in Drugs of Shame, Healthcare, Migraine-Blog, Must Read, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Drugs of Shame – Introduction

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

Drugs of Shame Series – Introduction

So let’s talk drugs. In particular, I only focus on drugs that are prescribed for migraine pains of members of my migraine group on Facebook, since that is my area of expertise. I ask many questions on a questionnaire and know what medicines they take. The number of medications migraineurs receive these days is staggering. Most migraine pain sufferers take anywhere from 3 to 20 medicines. One of my functions is to analyze conflicts, interactions, and duplication of the medicines. It is very scary when I find duplication of medicines that damage the brain.

New research shows that migraine is not a disease but in fact a structurally different brain that medicines cannot “cure” only “dull the pain down.” I also happened to be a scientist and I figured out the cause of migraine pain. I can say with great confidence that a migraine-brain is a brain in energy crisis that can easily be changed into pain-free brain without any medicines. Migraine-brain is structurally different from all other “normal” brains and so it cannot be “cured” from migraines since it is a brain type represented by a different physiology. The pain of this unique brain is caused by the different energy requirement a migraine-brain needs from a brain that is not a migraine-brain. The cause of pain, pain prevention, and long-term treatment with proper energy is explained in my book.

Here I focus on medicines that are prescribed to dull and take away the senses that also take with them the ability to think, to make decisions, to work, and a host of other negative side effects.

Many migraineurs are children. In fact my Facebook migraine group has several moms whose children—as young as 2 years old—have migraine pains. Some of the members who have migraine pain themselves have started at age 2 and 20, 30, and 70 years later they still have the migraine pain in spite of all the prescribed medicines they have been taking. If you visit Facebook and type “migraine” in search for groups, you will probably get over 100 groups filled migraine pain sufferers, some with over 15,000 members, taking all kinds of prescription medicines. Yet they are all having migraine pain on a regular basis in spite of their medicines. Some migraineurs even have electrical or magnetic stimulators and still are in groups complaining of pain. Some in my migraine group had electrical brain stimulator built-in under their skins, still they were put on many migraine medicines, and still had migraine pains enough to join my group.

Because medicines for migraine pain do not address the underlying cause, they do not work. Some of them work some of the time but none of them works all the time. The few occasions when they do work signal the unique time when the particular neurotransmitter type they provide happens to be identical to the one the brain was unable to create. This happens when these specific neurotransmitter-making neurons are unable to generate action potential–these show up as dark regions of no electrical activity in scanners and are called regions of cortical depression (CD)– and are the very ones that would have to manufacture the neurotransmitters but cannot for lack of enough energy. This can happen with serotonin, for example, when the serotonin-making neurons have no energy. If they are not able to create serotonin, providing serotonin externally will in fact take the pain away. It seems, based on my statistics in my group and in other groups, that serotonin happens to work approximately 30% of the time but when it works is not predictable. For a person it may work one time but not the next time. Hence taking serotonin all the time as preventive makes little sense in terms of preventing migraine-pain from happening.

Instead, most members in my group apply special methods to change their brain energy levels to match the brain they have rather than to force the brain down to a non-migraineur’s brain type and take medicines for the pain.

The many medicines that are prescribed to treat migraine pain with little success goes unnoticed by all doctors and pharmaceuticals because they can prescribe and prescribe and prescribe and make billions of dollars in the process so why should they stop? Can you envision a day when migraineurs do not need any medicines? According to the WHO (World Health Organization) over 10% of the global population has migraine pain. In the US the percentage is more than double the global average. It is in no one’s interest to admit that migraine pains do not need medicines!

Note I do not use migraines as a term. I use migraine-brain or migraine pain. The term migraine has no meaning anymore. So please follow my future postings on the list of medicines in no special order but in order of what I prefer to show the damage many people have to suffer as a result of the pocket books of pharmaceuticals. If you want to find out about migraine-brain, please read my book linked to above and join my migraine group to learn more.

Watch for the series of articles that will appear regularly on Drugs of Shame!

Your comments are always welcome!

Angela

Posted in Big Pharma, Drugs of Shame, Migraine-Blog, Must Read | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Migraineurs Are Forced to Quit Drugs in Secret!

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Yep, I am serious: migraineurs are forced to quit drugs in secret because of prescription-paid doctors!

I run a large Facebook group with migraineurs. My group has a goal: become migraine free without adding any new drugs and if possible, reduce those a migraineur takes. We use the Stanton Migraine ProtocolTM which is a non-medicinal but scientific understanding of what migraine is, why it causes pain, and how to prevent or abort it without any medicines, without any herbs and without any supplements. Just by understanding what is causing it, prevention and treatment is completely possible. The explanation–though not the protocol–is available in paperback or e-book from many sellers (I used the links to Amazon).

In the Facebook group, once members start the protocol they see results very quick–some are able to abort their migraines immediately but those on many medications often cannot for some time. Many medications prescribed to migraineurs interfere with hydration of the cells. A very large number of these medicines block the functions of the voltage gated sodium pumps that would allow the cells to open their doors for nutrition while others block the high voltage gated calcium channels, which would permit the neurotransmitters to be released by the neurons. Both sodium and calcium blockers are systemic, meaning they block the functions of cells all through the CNS and sometimes even the heart and other vital organs.

In spite of that, many migraineurs are able to overcome their pain by at first increasing some parts of the protocol to override the block of the medicines. Once they are pain free, they would like to stop their medications! There is a long list of medications I am collecting that will be written up under the title “Medicines of Shame” in later blog posts. But the worst part of it is that often times these medicines are extremely addictive–or let me be politically correct: “discontinuation syndrome” is the proper name now and not addiction.

This means that reduction can take a very long time–sometimes over a year–of a single medication! Reducing a medication this slow requires the doctors’ cooperation since they have to refill the prescriptions at decreasing doses as the patient feels at comfort with the reduction speed and NOT at the speed the doctors usually prescribe. I now understand why that is. Since many doctors have a vested interest in their patients continuing to take these medications, the last thing on their mind is to let them reduce it comfortably! No way! Let’s make them so miserable in the reduction that they will come right back on and take it again!

So now patients check first for the name of their doctors in the open database that lists (supposedly) doctors who take payments (interestingly some doctors’ names do not appear even as doctors; no idea why). Those who take no payments simply show as $0 accepted.

However there are many doctors who take tens of thousands of dollars each year for prescribing medicines. For them to have a patient quit medicines is money lost!

Conflict of financial and medical oath interest!

Hence if migraineurs find their doctors in the database, they need to hide that they are reducing and quitting else they get dumped and go through living hell and then back on the drugs again! Unfortunately this happens quite often. Often enough to prompt me to create this blog to call attention to doctors of shame who chose money of their own financial wealth over the welfare of their patients!

Shame on you!

Opinions and comments are welcome! Please share this blog so those doctors to whom this is relevant get their faces burning and feel like hiding!

Angela

Posted in Big Pharma, Healthcare, Interesting reading, Migraine-Blog, Must Read, This & That, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Act Now Against Cipro! The FDA is Ready!

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Cipro is only one killer of many in the fuoroquinolone class antibiotics!

As some of you may know, I have filed at the FDA a Citizen’s Petition again the antibiotic drug class fluoroquinolones, the most frequently prescribed antibiotics today. I started my attack with Cipro as guilty #1 since that is what nearly everyone gets and the number of people getting sick from Cipro is staggering. Cipro is now also understood to be the cause of the Gulf War Syndrome since soldiers were mandated to take it every day against anthrax in the field.

Many people have been permanently injured–some even have committed suicide. I am a firm believer that fibromyalgia is yet one more of the diseases we may be able to point to this class of drugs. The citizen petition docket is still open.

I just received a letter from the FDA stating that the matter is so complex that they have not yet been able to make a decision–please see below.

FDA letter to me about Cipro docket

FDA letter to me about Cipro docket

 

This may be the time to act and add comments please to help the FDA make the decision in our favor! Here is the link to the docket:

Where to comment:

comment here

comment here

http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FDA-2014-P-1753

Please act!!!

File a comment!

Thank you on behalf of all who suffer and those who committed suicide!

Angela

Posted in Big Pharma, FDA, Fibromyalgia, Healthcare, Must Read, This & That, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Cluelessness At Its Best

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

I posted a very negative review on Yelp about a hospital where my mom was grossly misdiagnosed based on symptom treatment rather than medical tests. This diagnosis took her like after 6 weeks of torture. I now have evidence–vie autopsy–that she was indeed completely misdiagnosed.

I posted a negative review before I knew the autopsy and look what they are asking me to do now! This is completely public information that I do have the right to share since all information is visible to all on yelp, but I have removed the names and contact information of the person who sent the note for security. You can find the public post here if you have a Yelp account or maybe even without.

Negative Yelp Review

  • Hi Dr. Angela!
    St. Jude prides itself on delivering the highest quality patient care and we are so sorry for your experience more than a year ago. We are in the process of rectifying some of the negative reviews on our Yelp account and I was wondering if you would consider taking this review down or improving the rating. We hope that you have since received fair and helpful services at St. Jude. If this issue is still an ongoing one, please feel free to reach out to me personally to see how I can help. We greatly appreciate your consideration and look forward to serving you in the future.
  • DrAngela S.
    • DrAngela S.  (this  is me so I leave my name up for your view)
    Dear X…,My mother’s autopsy came in and is in complete conflict with the diagnosis one of your doctors gave, which ultimately, after 6 weeks of total torture, took her life away.

    Rather than removing the case I actually would  prefer to advertise and let the world to know how horrible treatment and malpractice your hospital is involved in–I will find a way to make it publicly known. The saddest part is that even as a scientist doctor myself I was not able to convince your doctors of the wrong diagnosis; they were not willing to prove me wrong or right; I was just ignored and told things like “you mother cannot have serotonin syndrome because it is rare”! I think your doctors are extremely unprofessional and uneducated. If I had an emergency and you were the nearest hospital I would beg to be taken to a hospital farther!

    Unfortunately in the case of my mom I was right and the diagnosis I gave was the correct one. Your doctors were wrong and clueless. It cost her life.

    The fact that St. Jude doctors are not even willing to listen to patient history and dare to jump into symptom treatment is terrible. If it leads to death, it is horrible.

    My ratings are not adjustable; the damage is done. I am glad I am a medical professional and so my review has weight. I hope as many people stay away from St. Jude as possible.

    St. Jude provided the worst care a hospital can give. I am glad you are rectifying some of the issues but that will not bring my mom back nor the many other people who were given the status of “hospital delirium” which does not exist; it merely means “we have no clue.” Shame on St. Jude doctors! Nothing will change the rudeness of your doctors and their total incompetence that my mom and I had to endure!

    Sorry. I cannot change my experience. It is spilled milk. I hope you understand.

    Angela A. Stanton, PhD.

    Please feel free co contact me, I only bite if you want to bite me!

Posted in Big Pharma, Healthcare, Interesting reading, This & That, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Once Upon a Time There Was Facebook

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Was you mean?

Yes, I think the correct term is was since the way it now operates it will not be too long before it will have to close its doors to revamp how it manages membership. Let me tell you a story (a true story).

Once upon there was a Ph.D. who wanted her title such as Ph.D. after her name on Facebook but it was not allowed and since all Ph.Ds are called Dr. so she put Dr in front of her name (first name and connected, like DrAngela) and that was permitted. She was like that for a long time, running several groups, one being a very successful migraine group since, you know, she figured out what causes migraines and how to prevent and stop them without any medications. She even wrote a book about it available all over the world (in paperback) and (in e-book). Her migraine group on FB has over 1600 members now (this after several hundred was removed) and all getting well, no migraines, changing their lives, being able to travel and go back to work or church, temple, mosque, or anywhere they wish, including enjoying loud concerts and getting scuba certified. These may seem simple to you but impossible for people with migraines. It is only possible if they have no migraines! So these people not only have no migraines but most have already stopped all medications and those who have not yet are in the process of reduction.

In any case, the group has been a success and people from all over the world have become members. Because there are no medications involved, it requires people to learn what differs in a migraine brain and how to supply the necessary increased energy needs–if you want to find out more, join the FB group while it is still there or buy the book or do both.

There have been many disgruntled members in the past because the migraine cause discoverer is a PhD and not an MD–of course MDs do not perform research only treat people so that goes without saying that it is not expected of an MD to actually find the cause of any illness. They are expected to recognize an ailment and provide medicines or send to specialist or surgeons but they do not actually conduct research.

Another key factor you need to know is that MDs have to pay to the Board of Medicine a fee for the right of having their Dr. title in front of their names but PhDs do not need to do that. An MD is only an MD in his/her own country but not anywhere else. A PhD is a Dr in every country and can start teaching and doing research immediately. So when some members attacked this PhD for “how dare you, you are not an MD” the response was obvious: of course not… if I were I would never have found the cause and would never be able to apply a treatment without medicines! MDs cannot prescribe a salad or water or more salt! They must prescribe medicines!

One of these members wanted to kick this PhD off Facebook and did so saying “she is not using her real name.” So this PhD had to go through the humiliating experience of uploading proof of her name: driver’s licence with number covered that clearly shows her name, date of birth, and photo. After 24 hours of being kicked off, she was forced to change her name. Title had to be dropped and Facebook also pulled her middle initial so now she is not actually with her real name but this is what Facebook considers her real name… not sure why.

Now while all this was happening, this kicked off PhD opened up a new Facebook account under a different name and identity with simply providing an email she created specifically for this purpose to see if proving identity was really necessary. Nope! She now has 2 Facebook account: the one Facebook forced on her with an incorrect name without the title and a fake identity that is just fine.

She ran a search and took screen captures of many Facebook members with titles, fake names (I mean clearly fake name like “kissmy…” names equivalent and is ready to test Facebook’s strength in every which way possible! If you had a similar experience, please let me know.

If you are an attorney interested in a public defamation case with such humility, please also contact me! Must be a California attorney.

Your comments are always welcome!

Angela

Posted in Interesting reading, Migraine-Blog, Must Read, Press Release, This & That, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Magnesium and Anxiety and Adrenal Fatigue

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

Important little minerals that can change your life. Have some!

Beat the curse's avatarrinspre01's Blog

Supplements For Adrenal Fatigue

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198864/

image
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Posted in Why Me | 2 Comments

Sugar, How We Love You and How You Kill Us!

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

We all know that sugar is not good for us but we probably don’t know the details of why it is so bad so we just continue to eat it. Even if we know it is bad.. well.. just a bit of a teaspoon here and one there.

Of course it is not just the sugar we eat but also the things we eat that we do not know are sugar that matter as well. For example, there is rarely a child in the US whose parents don’t think that fruit juice is bad for their child if they took the fresh fruit and squeezed it themselves fresh off the tree. The fact is that the moment we separate the fruit from the fiber, the juice becomes only sugar. The same with the new fad “juicing,” the fad “shake” and “smoothies” are all sugar water or sugar milk.

Another sad truth is that healthy foods have a lot of sugars in them and we trust that because the label says it is good for us, it really is. Well here is a film that is playing called That Sugar Film played by Gameau, the same guy who went on McDonald’s diet for some time. This time he went on healthy food diet: low fat, ate no sugar, no soft drinks, no ice cream, no chocolate, no cakes. Within 3 weeks he was told he had fatty liver disease. This is serious folks!

That Sugar Film

That Sugar Film

The movie is out now so go watch it! Here is the write-up of what it is all about. Sugar also dehydrates and causes migraines plus makes you swell. So next time you are trying to remove your ring from your finger and you need soap and water to do that, remember what you ate. Chances are whatever you ate had sugar in it!

Please watch what you eat! Your life depends on it!

Comments are welcome!

Angela

Posted in Healthcare, Must Read | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

FDA Report a Drug Adverse Reaction

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

The FDA has MedWatch to allow consumers to report adverse medical conditions but every time I try to find the link, they move it to hide it. So I decided to dedicate a page here for the link that I can update periodically! Here is the link as of now. 

So anyone wishing to submit an adverse reaction to any medicine–be it prescription or over the counter–please use this form. The more report you make, the safer we will get!! So use the form please!

Comments are welcome!

Angela

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Drugs Destroy Minds

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

Watch this video and judge for yourself

I have been criticized before for saying that ADD and ADHD does not exist but are fabricated diseases for money. So here is for all who though I was joking!

Here is the full film (over an hour)

Enjoy!
Comments are welcome!

Angela

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