Going Deaf With Diet Drinks

I don’t drink much in the way of sodas except for the occasional Diet Coke. But I do like Diet Snapple Tea. And I usually have a pitcher of Crystal Lite in the fridge. I probably suck down 8-12 glasses of some kind of powdered or bottled tea concoction during the course of a day. Especially in the Summer.

And in my goal to stay away from sugar, it’s always the “diet” version. What do all these drinks have in common?

Yep, artificial sweeteners. Most of them contain aspartame to be specific. Never really thought too much about it until yesterday when I woke up with a slight buzzing in my ears. Sort of an annoying little tone that you might expect to have for a couple of days after a really loud rock concert. Really really annoying.

So did some research. Turns out that, depending on who you believe, this buzzing could be a mild case of tinnitus. Tinnitus is the medical term for sounds in the ear that are not caused by any type of external noise. The sounds?  It can be a buzzing, a ringing, or snippets of Celine Dion tunes. No, sorry, that last one comes from Titanicitus, not tinnitus.  Equally annoying.

Anyway. Tinnitus, again depending on what sources you believe, can be linked to aspartame “poisoning”. But before we get into the whole “are sweeteners dangerous?” debate, let’s throw out some fun facts.

There are five artificial sweeteners that the FDA has approved for use in the United States.

Saccharin

First produced in 1878, this was the first of the artificial sweeteners and became popular during the sugar shortages of WW1.

Commonly seen in little pink packs labeled Sweet ‘N Low and is the diet ingredient in Tab, the Coca Cola soft drink that was big back in the 60’s and 70’s.

In 1977, Saccharin was shown to produce cancer tumors.  In rats.  The FDA mandated that the use of saccharin be restricted and warning labels be attached to any consumer food or beverage product that included it.

Well, turns out that the cancer producing qualities of saccharin are limited to rats and their unique metabolism.  Or at least that’s what the FDA claims.  They removed all warning labels on saccharin products.

Aspartame

You know aspartame.  It’s in the the little blue packets that are labeled Equal, NutraSweet, and Canderel.   And in addition to my Snapple Tea and Crystal Lite, it’s an ingredient in over 6,000 other consumer food and beverages.

Aspartame, tentatively approved by the FDA in 1974, is 180 times as sweet as sucrose, or common table sugar.  After experiments demonstrated that aspartame caused cancerous tumors in lab animals, the FDA backed off.

However, in 1981, aspartame was officially approved under “interesting” circumstances.  The FDA Commissioner at the time refused to approve aspartame.

He was fired.

His replacement, Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr., pushed through the approval for aspartame to be used in consumer foods and beverages.  And then he left the FDA to take an executive position with G.D. Searles.

G.D. Searles?

Oh yeah, they make aspartame.

Do a search on aspartame.  Look at the ingredients.  A real smorgasbord of methanol and other seemingly toxic substances.

Sucralose

Okay, these are the yellow packets.  We see them as Splenda, SucraPlus, and other sugar substitute brands.

Approved in 1998, sucralose can be found in over 4,500 consumer food and drinks.  It’s twice as sweet as saccharin, four times as sweet as aspartame, and 600 times as sweet as table sugar.

And an ingredient list that appears to be far more “natural” than aspartame.

Going forward, I’m sticking with drinks that contain sucralose based sweeteners.  At least til we find out what happens with the latest round of rat experiments.

There are two additional sweeteners that have been approved by the FDA.  They are far less common and are typically, due to taste, mixed in with one of the previous three we have discussed.  They are:

Neotame

Made by NutraSweet, this artificial sweetener is over 10,000 times as sweet as table sugar.  It’s chemically similar to aspartame, which means it has some really potentially toxic  components.  But the sweetener content of one “packet” of Neotame equals over ten “packets” of aspartame.

However, due to the bitter aftertaste, it is usually blended with aspartame or one of the other substitutes.

Acesulfame Potassium

Marketed under the names Sunett or Sweet One, Acesulfame Potassium is 200 times as sweet as ordinary table sugar.  It has roughly the same sweetness factor as aspartame, but also delivers a slightly bitter aftertaste.

It is also usually blended with aspartame or sucralose.

Artificial Sweeteners

You do some studying on this sweetener stuff and you begin to realize that when they say “artificial”, they really mean chemically not found in nature.  In other words, probably not stuff we want to be eating or drinking.  Or at least not in massive quantities.

I’ve sworn off aspartame for awhile.  Found some tea mix that uses sucralose, which, although still “artificial”, appears to be far more compatible with the human body.

I’ll let you know what happens with the buzzing.

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Step Right Up…

Get your tickets right here!  See the amazing wonder, the blazing thunder, and mysterious things from the land down under.

On Monday June 1, It Takes Work will be posting the first issue of the We’re Not Kids Anymore blog carnival.

What’s a blog carnival, you say?

**Kid, step away from the curtain**

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you will have the rare experience of being able to view the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the jewels of the Nile.

Okay, carny pitch aside, a blog carnival is simply a collection of recent blog posts that cover a particular subject or interest.  There are blog carnivals for cat fanciers, political junkies, gardening, and thousands of other topics.  These carnivals are typically published on a regular schedule (weekly, monthly, etc) and are posted on a blog in the same genre.

You can find a list of blog carnivals and their release dates at Blog Carnival.

We’re Not Kids Anymore is a new blog carnival that will focus on health, fitness, nutrition, health care politics, and anything else I think may be of interest to my loyal little readership. It will initially be published on a every two weeks schedule, but that may change based on feedback from you guys.

I have invited a wide range of other bloggers in this space to submit their blog entries for inclusion in the carnival. On Monday, you’ll see which ones made the cut for this first release. If nothing else, you may discover a new blog author that you might want to follow.

Looking forward to your feedback.

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Build Muscle, Kill Cancer

Reason Number 53545 To Hit The Gym

A team of scientists led by researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden has determined that men who regularly work out with weights are 30-40 percent less likely to die from a cancerous tumor.

The results, which were published in the Cancer Epidemiology journal, were based on a study of 8,677 men aged 20 to 82 over a twenty three year time span. Each volunteer in the study had regular medical check ups that included comprehensive measurements of their muscular strength.

Scientists closely monitored the subjects between the years of 1980 and 2003. One of the metrics they tracked was how many of the volunteers developed cancer and if they subsequently died from the disease.

The results clearly showed that subjects who regularly participated in a resistance training program (that means weights and/or machines) had higher muscle strength levels than those who only performed aerobic exercise (or no exercise at all), and were 30-40 percent more likely to survive a cancer outbreak.

Although the full relationship is unclear, it is evident that maintaining a thicker and more dense (i.e. stronger) musculature will improve the body’s ability to fight and maybe even prevent tumor outbreaks.

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They Call It An Eye Opener

The wife and I went out to dinner the other night. While sitting at the bar waiting for a table to open up, I noticed a group of twenty somethings sitting at a table. They were talking Mavericks basketball, so i jumped in with a couple of choice comments around the playoff performance of our local team. I ended up asking them what they were drinking and a couple of them pointed to what looked like cokes and said Red Bull and vodka, or an “Eye Opener”.

I asked how many of those they might drink in a night. One of the guys said he’d do 4-5 on a good night out.

Wow!

I know the whole energy drink market has exploded and everyone from children on up are sucking down brands such as Red Bull, Full Throttle, and the one that started the craze here in the states, Jolt Cola. Students use them to pull all night study sessions. Athletes use them before games. Gym rats use them to get up for marathon workouts. And many people just drink them because they taste good.

So what do these energy drinks have that makes them so popular?

Well they definitely do have a kick to them. Most energy drinks contain at least as much caffeine as a regular 8 0z cup of coffee, which equals out to roughly 80mg of “light me up juice”. This compares to a 12 oz soda which typically contains 18-48 mg of caffeine.

But the our energy drink cocktail doesn’t stop with loading up on caffeine. They also come packed with high concentrations of sugar and typically contain a mix of “natural” herbs and vitamins that include:

• Carnitine - A metabolism accelerating amino acid
• Ginko Biloba - Extracted from the seeds of the gingko biloba tree, it has been shown to heighten mental awareness and enhance mood
• Taurine - An amino acid that is naturally produced by the body, it serves to regulate heart beat and muscle contractions. The effects of the long term supplementation of the body’s natural supply are unclear
• Guarana Seed - A plant-based stimulant harvested in Venezuela and Brazil that contains high levels of caffeine
• Inositol - One of the substances in the B-complex vitamins, it improves cell to cell communications
• Ginseng - A root based herb known to reduce stress and increase energy levels.

So, the typical energy drink contains a Starbuck size serving of caffeine plus multiple other “natural” stimulants. That’s quite an energy punch in a can. Caffeine, sugar, and lots of other “natural” metabolism kicking substances.

It’s pretty easy to see that what’s being marketed as all-natural is really just an overly caffeinated soft drink with a few additional questionable pseudo-nutritional ingredients. And like any supplement, there is no control over the quality or toxicity of these herbal additives. Energy drink manufactuers are not required to disclose ingredient purity, storage controls, or processing standards.

The primary risk in the energy drinks, is that people tend to abuse them by drinking several at a time or mixing them with alcohol. The caffeine alone in these concoctions is enough to cause an over stimulation of the cardiovascualr and nervous systems. This can lead to severe bouts of physical anxiety, potential heart overload, and damage to the nervous system.

Caffeine is also a strong diuretic.This means that caffeine encourages your kidneys to expel extra fluid from the body, leading to potential dehydration issues. Couple that with alcohol, which is also a strong diuretic, and you have a drink that can lead to severe fluid depletion in the body.  I can tell you that they will cause one heck of a hangover due to this.

Energy drink manufacturers typically claim that the ingredients in their products can improve stamina, energy, and memory. Most health professionals recognize that those effects come primarily from the high levels of caffeine and sugar. The other “natural” ingredients only serve to increse those caffeine levels while providing little to no nutritional value.

Overloads of caffeine can certainly help you get through an all night study session. But there is risk when you down too much caffeine. It will lead to irritability, physical anxiety, and mental stress. It can lead to heart attack and death.

I think I’m going to stick with my Snapple Tea.

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Fat Is Not Your Fault? Huh?

We have become the blameless society.  Nothing is ever your fault.

“I didn’t get the job.  But it’s not my fault the interviewer didn’t like me”

“Yes, I hit the tree.  But it’s not my fault the car just drove right off the road”

“I ran a company into the ground.  But it’s not my fault!  Now where’s my bailout money?”

Now we have a new diet plan:

The Fat Is Not Your Fault diet.  No, really.  Check it out here.

The whole premise of the diet plan seems to be that diet and exercise are not the key components of a weight loss plan.  There are “other” factors just as, if not more, important.  Of course you have to buy the plan to find out what those “other” factors are.

The program seems to have been designed by a real doctor, so I’m sure there’s alot of medical “evidence” backing the claims.

What’s next? The Wish Away Obesity diet?

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FDA Warning Forces Recall of Hydroxycut Diet Products

The FDA’s latest strike against the supplement industry has resulted in the recall of one of the market’s most popular dietary supplements: Hydroxycut.  An FDA warning against its use has led to the product line being recalled.

Why? Well, over the years, tens of millions of doses of Hydroxycut have been taken by consumers. But recently, the FDA has learned that one person has died due to adverse effects thought to be linked to the usage of Hydroxycut. In addition, there have been a few dozen reports of liver-related side effects also thought to be associated with Hydroxycut usage.

The FDA’s rationale behind issuing the warning is that although the risk of side effects appears to be statistically very low, the American consumer should not be exposed to supplements that even have just a remote chance of causing adverse reactions.

Now this sounds very reasonable. At least until you put in the context of how the FDA handles the miracle elixirs the major pharmaceutical companies put out.

The FDA will tolerate no risks of side effects from a supplement. But when it’s a vaccine or some other Big Pharma drug, risks of side effects are deemed acceptable by the FDA. Case in point: the public furor over the COX-2 inhibitor drug Vioxx. Remember the testimony made by Dr. David Graham, an FDA scientist,  during the hearings?

Graham estimated that Vioxx had killed over 60,000 Americans. But still, an FDA panel voted the drug to be “safe”, even after the manufacturer voluntarily pulled it off the shelves.

So, a pharmaceutical that kills 60,000 people is safe. And a supplement that is linked to just one death is unsafe.

The Ephedra Treatment

Hydoxycut is essentially getting the same treatment ephedra did several years ago. Ephedra is a natural and safe traditional Chinese medicine that has been used for over 5,00 years in China as a critical ingredient in a variety of medicinal formulas including key anti-viral vaccines.

But, you can’t get ephedra in the United States anymore. The FDA banned it. It is now illegal to sell or prescribe ephedra-based medicine or dietary supplements. This is solely because a limited number of people took well over the recommended dosages and experienced ill effects, even death in a few cases. Large amounts of ephedra can put a strain on the cardiovasular system which can lead to heart incidents.

But too much of anything that interacts with the body can potentially lead to adverse reactions. Too much aspirin. Too much cough syrup. Even too much fruit juice.

Most people will follow dosage instructions on prescription medicine. A somewhat fewer number of people will adhere to dosage instructions on supplements - especially weight loss supplements where people will adopt the “if one works, two must be twice as effective” approach.

I have no issue with the FDA recalling dangerous substances, whether they be medicines or dietary supplements. I just think they need to apply the same standards across the board. But instead, Big Pharma’s pet agency will continue to target supplement companies while allowing risky and potentially toxic pharmaceuticals to line the shelves of your local pharmacy.

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FDA: “Who Let The Dogs Out?”

Our favorite government agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has been busy.  After enduring well deserved abuse over the handling of the peanut and pistachio contamination incidents earlier this year, the agency seems to have adopted a more aggressive approach in dealing with food ingredient storehouses and the FDA’s favorite whipping boy, the supplement industry.

On May 7, the FDA sent Federal Marshalls to raid a warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee owned by food producer American Mercantile.  They seized $1.5 million in food ingredients, including cornstarch, orange peels, licorice powder, sarsaparilla, and salt.  In a news release, the agency claimed that after repeated notices, American Mercantile had not treated a rampant insect and rodent infestation problem within the warehouse.

American Merc didn’t clean up their mess, so the FDA swept in and hauled off the tainted food. To quote the FDA news release, “The FDA will not tolerate a company’s failure to adequately control and prevent filth in its facility…the FDA is prepared to use whatever legal means are necessary and appropriate to keep potentially contaminated products out of the marketplace.”

“The food and supplements industry can expect a lot more of this,” says Loren Israelsen, executive director of the supplements trade group United Natural Products Alliance, told the publication. “This is the new FDA, so wake up everybody.”

New FDA? Not exactly.

Big Pharma’s bulldogs have a history of going after supplement makers.

Tomorrow:

Big Pharma Sicks The FDA On A High Profile “Weight Loss” Pill

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Doctor Doctor - Give Me The News…

I have a friend.  This friend’s father died of a heart attack several years ago.  His mother died of cancer last year.  Both at a fairly young age.

That has to be rough and I can’t say for certain how I would deal with it, but I know how my friend has been dealing with it.  He has decided that his time on this earth is short and that if that cold he had last week doesn’t turn into swine flu, it’s bound to lead to pneumonia.  And that nagging pain in his shoulder, that might be a tumor.  I told him he just needs to change his golf swing, but he’s insistent that there’s something going on.  And that that something may be terminal.

Yes, my friend has turned into a stressed out hypochondriac.  And that means our local GNC manager just smiles and rubs his hands together when he sees my friend coming.

Of course there’s the daily multivitamin.  And not just any multivitamin.  It has to be the premium blend that contains roughly 3000% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamins A-Z, 35 minerals including iron, zinc, and something called rebar-ite, and 47 herbs including ginseng, dandelion, and I think crabgrass.  Amazing how they get all that stuff into one little pill.  But, oh wait, he has to take 3 of those pills a day.

But grab your shopping basket, cause my friend’s monthly trip to the Ye Olde Miracle Tonics and Elixirs store doesn’t stop there.

There’s SAM-e for mood and to prevent the onset of osteoarthritis (hey, he is 43…it could happen!)

There’s Folic Acid.  Now this one is a real bargain cause it protects against heart attacks AND cancer.

There’s Milk Thistle for his liver.  Fish Oil and Flaxseed Oil for his heart.  And Resveratrol for overall antioxidant protection.

There’s more, but I can’t keep up with the various miracle pill of the month supplement scams he opens his wallet for.

And yes, I’ve tried to talk to him about his habit.  We even tried an intervention where we slipped him a glass of V-8 Juice to replace his usual $3.95 shot of wheat grass juice.  But to no avail.  He is convinced that the only way to hold off his genetically accelerated date with death, is to fortify his body with every healing and curative pill, powder, and potion he can find.

Yesterday he told me he’d been having headaches.  I’m off to buy some more GNC stock.

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Rising Up For Primetime

We’ve all seen the commercials.

Older couple glance at each other across a room. Eyebrows lift slyly, music kicks in, and the next shot is the woman lounging on a clearly rumpled bed, smiling, while the man lies next to her with a smug grin.

Erectile dysfunction ads are popping up all over television, even during the prime time hours.  Well, Rep. Jim Moran, a Democrat out of Virginia, is leading the charge to have these “lascivious and suggestive” ads banned from the airwaves during hours when children might be watching.  It seems that, in his opinion, it’s okay for children to sit through primetime episodes featuring murder, mayhem, and Ryan Seacrest, but not when they are interrupted by tame commercials featuring the little blue pill.

Moran has actually introduced a bill that would prohibit the broadcast of these ads between 6 am and 10 pm, relegating them to the overnight hours typically infested with ads for chat lines, phone psychics, and ambulance chasing attorneys.  Not exactly the exposure that Pfizer, the maker of Viagra, is looking for.

And they plan on fighting back

According to CNN, Pfizer has responded with the following statement:

“Pfizer is committed to responsible advertising… In line with our policies and the policies of the industry, Viagra advertising is aired in shows most likely to reach men suffering from erectile dysfunction…”

So, that quote got me thinking.

What shows are most likely to reach men suffering from erectile dysfunction? Which of your favorite series appeals to men with, ummm, faulty antennas?

If I had to guess, I’d say those big advertising bucks from Pfizer, GlaxoSmith, and the other ED miracle pill pushers would be targeted at shows like:

• Smallville
• 30 Rock
• One Tree Hill
• Bones
• Desperate Housewives
• Big Bang Theory
• The Unit

Bet you thought this post was going to be educational, didn’t ya?

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Join The An Apple A Day Health Care Plan

Did you know that health care costs in the United States will top $2.2 trillion for the year 2009???

That’s over $7,100 per person!

Let me preface my discussion with the ardent fact that I am not one of those descendants of Truman era health reform that is in favor of putting the government in the role of managing health care.  Our government has enough trouble just trying (and often failing) to oversee the review and approval of pharmaceutical medicines.  Do we really want to expand that oversight to cover dictating what medical treatment options are and are not available?   Do we really think that a Medicare-like program would be scalable and efficient enough to provide reasonable care to those who can’t afford private health insurance?  Do we even think private insurers would survive in a drastically tilted playing field where the government can subsidize their costs with our tax dollars?

There has to be another solution for the long term.

Did you know that health care costs are responsible for over 60% of the personal bankruptcies that are being declared these days?

Health care costs are too high.  No doubt.  But implementing a government run universal care system is not  the answer.  Quite frankly, it is a solution that treats the symptoms of the health care crisis, but not the cause.

Why are health care costs so high?

Many people think the rising costs associated with medical malpractice suits is to blame.  That doctors are passing on the astronomical costs of malpractice insurance through.  That’s some it, sure.

Also, new treatments and medicines are typically more expensive than older methods, so that’s a chunk of the health care costs increase as well.  After all, it cost money to grease the palms of the FDA.  At least for those big pharm companies with the dollars to do so.  Thanks largely to our government’s outdated and onerous approval processes, it costs alot to get new medicines out the door.

But do you want to know what one of the biggest reasons for the spiraling increase in health care costs is?

It’s the growing numbers of diseases caused by the American obesity epidemic.  The treatment of sickness and disease directly related to being overweight is astronomical.  It is estimated that obesity driven health care costs increased by over an inflation adjusted 52% between 2000 and 2007.  This includes increases in costs associated with the treatment of diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and heart disease.

In fact, increases in the prevalence of obesity in the population account for a 14% increase in the total overall health care costs for the same period.

And this doesn’t even account for costs associated with other unhealthy lifestyle choices such as smoking or alcoholism.

If we really want to cut health care costs, we should take responsibility for our own well-being.  Eat healthier. Exercise.  You’ll cut your own medical spending and be doing your part to improve a wasteful and inefficient health care system that needs help.  Just not government help.

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