Sugarless gum may harm canines
Q. I am a veterinarian and read your advice about the benefits of using sugarless gum containing xylitol for dental health. I have seen several canine patients with toxicity from this sweetener. Your astute readers should be very cautious with its use around pets.
In dogs, xylitol can lead to a precipitous drop in blood sugar, as well as liver disease and seizures.
A. Thanks for the warning. It is important to keep candy, chewing gum and other products that may contain xylitol out of the reach of dogs. Other food items that can be toxic to dogs include avocado, chocolate, garlic, grapes, macadamia nuts, onions and raisins.
Q. My doctor insists I must take statins to lower my cholesterol even though I experience pain with all of them. Sometimes the pain gets so bad that I struggle not to cry when I walk down the hall of my child’s school.
My doctor says I should accept what he calls “a little discomfort” because studies show statins reduce heart disease. He gets angry if I refuse to take them.
Who is ultimately responsible for my health – me or my doctor? He says this pain is rare, but I know a lot of people who have had the same severe muscle pain.
A. We also have heard from many patients who experience debilitating muscle pain as a side effect of statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs. One reader wrote: “I have had problems with Lipitor and Vytorin. I had severe muscle and nerve pain. My doctor said he didn’t believe it was from Vytorin. I stopped the medication and slowly got better. It took seven weeks.”
Some doctors don’t believe that statins can cause side effects such as muscle or joint pain or memory problems. Others have seen so many cases, they have developed different strategies for lowering cholesterol. If your doctor isn’t taking your complaints seriously, you might need to see another doctor.
We are sending you a CD of a radio interview we conducted with several physicians who have studied such issues. To order a CD of this one-hour conversation on “The Dark Side of Statins,” please send $16 to: People’s Pharmacy (CD-523), P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027. It is also available at www.peoplespharmacy.com. Look for radio show No. 523.
Q. I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned an important issue facing asthmatics. The Food and Drug Administration has decided that generic albuterol inhalers should be taken off the market. The result is that these stalwarts of asthma relief will no longer be available.
Instead, the generic inhalers are being replaced by the exact same medicine with a different delivery system. That means it will cost substantially more. How could a generic magically turn into a more expensive brand-name drug?
A. The FDA has determined that asthma inhalers may no longer contain CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons). These propellant gases damage ozone, and the U.S. agreed years ago to eliminate them from spray cans, air-conditioning units and refrigerators.
This means that lower-cost generic albuterol inhalers will disappear. People with asthma might have trouble finding such products even before the 2008 deadline.
They are being replaced by alternatives that use HFA (hydrofluoroalkane). Brand names like ProAir HFA, Proventil HFA and Ventolin HFA all contain albuterol, but they do cost more than the old, generic CFC-powered inhalers.