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capsule moments

FAD DIETS:

The safest amount of weight to lose per week is between one and two pounds.  Those who are attracted to fad diets that promise greater and speedier weight loss may do so but are more likely to gain the weight back later on.  Fad diets go back many years but some, like the grapefruit diet or the cabbage soup diet made promises of helping weight losses of 10 to 15 lb per week.  Of course these were diets that were very difficult to stay on and once off, the weight returned.  In 1963, Weight Watchers began operation and it continues to be a sensible method of losing weight…. slowly.  One of the craziest fad diets goes back to the year 1925 when the Lucky Strike tobacco company launched ad campaign that said “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet”. They were capitalizing of nicotine’s appetite-suppressing characteristic.  The ketogenic diet of low carbs and high fat is a very attractive one.  Replacing carbohydrates with fats is a very tasty diet although I would really miss my pasta!

E-CIGARETTES AND NICOTINE DEPENDENCE:

Our CBC noon radio show did a segment on e-cigarettes and young people. A school principal called in to the show and said even though these vaping devices are banned in the school, the tiny nature of some of them (some even look like a flash drive), make them easy for some students to inhale a quick dose during the day.  It seems they are already addicted and need that periodic “hit” to get through the day.  That’s my fear.  That e-cigarettes will create a generation of teen nicotine addicts who will carry on using into adulthood.  The Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco has determined that people who smoke only nicotine e-cigarettes, will double their risk of heart attacks.  Health Canada has to come out with stricter regulations on who can sell these products and to whom.

VITAMIN C DOSING:

It must be difficult for the public to know what to believe.  Pharmacists like to think they are the purveyors of good, accurate information about medications including vitamins and I have told customers about maximum absorption levels.  But then they read other sources where much higher doses are recommended.  I read a weekly column written by Dr. Ken Walker under the pseudonym Dr. Gifford-Jones.  Many of his columns recommend a product called “Med-C Plus”

which contains 400mg to 2000mg per dose depending on whether you use capsules or powder. I like Dr. Gifford-Jones columns.  Most of them contain good solid medical information but I admit I get a bit uncomfortable when he encourages we buy Med-C Plus for many maladies including heart conditions and cancer.

POST DISCHARGE DRUG ORDERS:

I’m not sure how often this occurs anymore but I sure used to see it when I was in practice full time.  Hospital formularies often don’t carry the same brands of drugs or perhaps not carry some drugs at all that are available in the community.  It is the geriatric age group who often get confused when discharged with a list of medications and wonder how the list compares to what they have at home  Pharmacists can perform a great service to seniors in preventing adverse drug reactions from occurring.