Archive for April, 2010

Eating A Healthy Diet Could Cut Alzheimer’s Disease Risk

Posted by on April 26th, 2010

Health officials in Western countries believe that the increasingly aging population that is developing as medical research leads to longer lives is going to lead to an explosion in Alzheimer’s disease over the next 20 years, as more and more people develop the condition who in the past would most likely not have lived long enough to experience the debilitating disease. The good news is that according to a new study, published this week in the online edition of Archives of Neurology is that research shows that diet can significantly lower your odds of developing Alzheimer’s.

The authors of this study followed over 2000 people over aged 65 free of Alzheimer’s in New York and assessed their diets. Study participants provided information about their typical diets and were assessed for the development of dementia every 1.5 years. Dementia, the most common cause being Alzheimer’s disease, describes progressive symptoms such as memory loss, mood changes and a decline in the ability to talk, read and write caused by damage or changes to the brain.

The authors were able to identify a dietary pattern that had a significant association with protection against Alzheimer’s. Those who ate the identified style of eating had 38% risk reduction in acquiring the disease. The dietary pattern they identified was rich in:

  • Salad dressing (olive oil and balsamic)
  • Nuts, such as walnuts and pecans
  • Salmon and fish
  • Tomatoes
  • Chicken
  • Cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower,arugula, bok choy, collards, kale, mustard greens, rutabaga, turnip greens, and watercress)
  • Dark and green leafy vegetables

They also had a lower intake of:

  • High fat dairy
  • Red meat
  • Organ meat
  • Butter

Eating a variety of healthy, nutrient-rich foods and, at the same time, minimizing your intake of foods that may harm the brain is what seems to matter most when it comes to reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that suggests what you eat to protect yourself from heart disease are the same foods that can keep your brain healthy. A healthy diet can prevent Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension, risk factors that damage blood vessels that have also been linked to a greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Comments Off

Top Pollen Allergy Tips

Posted by on April 19th, 2010

Now that winter is fast becoming an unpleasant memory and spring has moved in, it’s nice to think the sneezing and sniffling from those nasty winter cold and flu bugs are over and done with. However, for those that have a seasonal allergy to pollen, spring is often a nightmare.

At this time of year depending on where you live, many species of trees are budding at the same. Trees now releasing pollen include maple, elm, juniper and poplar. Birch is expected to start later this month, which is also when the season is expected to peak. People with pollen allergies are usually the first to be able to tell you that the trees are a-budding because they get itchy in the eyes, nose and the roof of the mouth.

Pollen Allergy’s are the most common allergy that affects people in North America. Almost 1 in 6 people have allergic reactions to the tree and plant pollen. The pollen spores are supposed to fertilize other plants, but a lot of it never reaches their targets.  Instead, they enter human noses and throats, triggering a type of seasonal allergic rhinitis, which many people know as hay fever or rose fever (depending on the season in which the symptoms occur). Of all the things that can cause an allergy, pollen is one of the most widespread. Many of the foods, drugs, or animals that cause allergies can be avoided to a great extent; even insects and household dust are escapable. Short of staying indoors when the pollen count is high–and even that may not help–there is no easy way to evade windborne pollen.

Allergists from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology have come up with a list of tips for seasonal allergy sufferers to weather this “perfect storm” of pollen. They say that although the symptoms can be quite bad and unpleasant, there’s no reason to suffer, because there’s relief available. Canada Drugs Canadian Pharmacy carries a full assortment of the most popular over-the-counter allergy medication and for those that suffer from minor allergic reactions. If you have more severe reactions than the ACCAAI recommends that you should be talking to your doctor about being referred to a professional allergist. An allergist can work with you to determine if it’s just pollen you are reacting to, or something else. Most people with severe allergies are allergic to more than just pollen and can benefit from finding the source of their allergic suffering and stopping it, not just treating the symptoms.

Some other quick tips from the ACCAAI include:

  • Monitor pollen and mould counts. Here’s The Weather Network’s Pollen Report, for example.
  • Keep windows and doors shut at home during allergy season as well as the windows in your car.
  • Stay inside during mid-day and afternoon hours when pollen counts are highest.
  • Take a shower, wash hair and change clothing after being outdoors working or playing.
  • Wear a mask when doing outdoor chores like mowing the lawn. An allergist can help you find the type of mask

Comments Off

TV Report Explains Prescriptions Costs

Posted by on April 15th, 2010

The long running Canadian investigative journalist program W5 recently did a very interesting report that scrutinized the pharmaceutical industry’s long-standing claim that developing each new drug costs over a billion dollars. The show called tells the story of Robert Landrigan from Surrey, British Columbia who found himself fighting for his life in a battle against spreading colon cancer and also in a battle to get access to drugs that could prolong his life and Ontarian Dan Childerhose fought for the drug he needed to treat his multiple myeloma, a rare form of blood cancer.

The entire show can be watched and streamed online.

W5 also interviews Dr. Marcia Angell, physician, Harvard professor and author of The Truth about Drug Companies. Angell and other experts offer viewers a shocking look at where they say the pharmaceutical industry really spends its money, and it becomes clear that despite the claims that Americans pay more than anyone else in the world for prescription medication to cover research and development costs, that most of that money is actually used on aggressive marketing campaigns to sell their product. The reason that Canada Drugs and other international pharmacies are able to offer savings to our customers is because most medications are simply sold and manufactured cheaper in other countries, while American consumers pay much more for the same pills as consumers in other countries.

The W5 story is an excellent examination of pharmaceutical company practices and raises questions about why drug costs are so high for so many people.

Comments Off

Movie Stars Swap Cigarettes For The Nicorette Inhaler

Posted by on April 13th, 2010

The Nicorette Inhaler came out with a neat new ad last week that is running on TV and at the multiplex before movies this spring and summer. The ad that you can watch below parodies several film genres like the western, melodrama, and beatnik musical by removing the film stars cigarettes and substituting in inhalers.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-vlocHqCcA&feature=player_embedded]

Canada Drugs carries the Nicorette Inhaler and a full assortment of smoking cessation products like Nicorette Gum, and therapeutically generic equivalent generic products. We can make the tough road to giving up cigarettes a little easier and help you keep your resolution to quit smoking by saving you up to 50% off of Nicorette Inhalers and Nicorette Gum over what you could pay at your local pharmacy.

The Inhaler is a product many smokers have found helpful in their quest to leave the cigarettes behind because besides your bodies’ cravings for nicotine, many smokers find it hard to quit because you’re craving the hand-to-mouth ritual of the smoker. The inhaler addresses this need. The Nicorette Inhaler is made up of a mouthpiece and a replaceable nicotine cartridge. You “smoke” on the mouthpiece and press the cartridge to release nicotine and, because it is held like a cigarette, your hands are kept busy too. For those that need to keep their hands busy or don’t like chewing gum, the inhaler is another successful option that can help you quit smoking today! You can buy Nicorette Inhaler without a prescription from Canada Drugs online pharmacy make the choice to quit today.

Comments Off

Unaffordable Prescriptions Go Unfilled

Posted by on April 1st, 2010

More Americans than ever before are going without the life saving prescription medications that they need, according to a report issued  last week by leading clinical and health care analytics firm Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions. The annual report found that patients in the U.S are increasingly taking power over their prescription decisions that are at odds with their prescribing physician’s advice and the reason for theses decisions are often driven by economic reality and the price point of many of the most commonly prescribed drugs.

The report showed that commercial health plan patients abandoned new prescriptions at the pharmacy at a national rate of 6.3 percent in 2009, up 24 percent over 2008. The abandonment rate for new prescriptions of brand-name drugs alone was 8.6 percent in 2009, up 23 percent from 2008, and an astounding 68 percent since 2006. Prescription abandonment is defined as when a patient receives and sends a prescription to a pharmacy, but never fills it. This abandonment of prescriptions was most prevalent amongst medications for symptomless problems, drugs like high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  This is unfortunate because drugs like Lipitor, Plavix and other common drugs that treat these health issues can significantly make life better for those that use them, but the costs are making them impossible for many to afford.

Wolters Kluwer also reported that patients appear to be less tolerant to co-pay than they were during the years leading up to the 2008 recession. The average co-pay for brand-name medications, the amount the patient pays, was only $5 more in 2009 than it was in 2006 ($31 on average in 2009, and $26 in 2006). However, the rate at which patients abandoned those medications increased at a significantly higher rate, up 68 percent since 2006. Taken together, patient abandonment and payer denials resulted in 14.4 percent of all new, commercial-plan prescriptions going unfilled in 2009, up 5.5 percent from 2008.

Canada Drugs works very hard to find the lowest cost and safest medications, as well as offering more affordable generic alternatives to ensure that when a customer gets a new prescription from their doctor that the price is more reasonable than what they can often find in the U.S, or is often even less than the cost of their insurer co-pay.

Comments Off