Artificial Sweeteners and Your Health

An article published in the online version of Primary Care brings up the issue of whether artificial sweeteners are a positive, helping people lose weight, or is there more to the story. Editor David Rakel MD, FAAFP discusses a recent article in the neurologic journal STROKE showing an association between the number of artificially sweetened beverages consumed per day and the onset of a stroke. This relationship was seen only with artificially sweetened beverages not with sugar sweetened beverages.

Dr Rakel goes on to discuss the ongoing public health concern of consuming nonnutritive sweeteners and its effects on weight gain and insulin resistance. Recent studies known as observational studies have linked high consumption of beverages with nonnutritive sweeteners with weight gain, increased visceral adiposity and a 22 % higher incidence of diabetes despite consuming less energy.

The reasons for consuming fewer calories but gaining weight are considered to be many. Sweet tasting compounds including NNS activate sweet “taste receptors” that were once thought to be only located in the mouth but are now known to be throughout the body. This activation results in release of insulin. The continued release of insulin by the pancreas, without energy producing calories present to be metabolized, may lead to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance involves insulin being released in response to food being consumed but is becoming ineffective in moving sugar into the cell where it can be metabolized into energy.

There is additional belief that supplying sweetness without calories may result in disturbances to appetite regulation and communication within the body about when we are full. Products such as aspartame, saccharin and sucralose have been found to have negative effect on the intestinal bacteria or microbiome potentially having an effect on glucose tolerance and metabolism.

We see artificial sweeteners on tables in every setting. Aspartame produces a sweetening effect 200x sugar. Saccharin produces a sweetening effect 500x sugar. Sucralose is 600x sugar sweetening and Advantame 20,000x sweeter.

A teaspoon of sugar only contains 16 calories. Portion control of products made with real sugar may be the safest and healthiest way to eat sweets as the holiday season approaches. A level teaspoon of sugar in your coffee or tea may be far healthier for you than that packet of artificial sweetener.

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Continuity of Care with a Primary Care Doctor Lowers Costs and Hospitalizations

The Annals of Family Medicine published an article that compared the health costs and hospitalization rates of patients who had a primary care doctor, and saw that physician regularly, as compared to individuals who did not. The study used Medicare data from 1,448,952 patients obtaining care from 6,551 primary care physicians.

Upon analyzing the data, the researchers discovered that those individuals who saw a primary care physician regularly and had a primary care physician who “assumed ongoing responsibility for the patient, with continuity framing the personal nature of medical care” the patient’s cost of care per year was 14.1% lower and hospitalization rate 16.1% lower than individuals who did not have primary care continuity.

In an editorial piece accompanying the study, David Rakel, MD FAAFP, noted that in 2016 America spent $3.3 trillion on healthcare. If you extrapolate out the benefits of a continuous therapeutic relationship with a primary care medical doctor the result would be a cost savings of $462 billion.

The message is clear. Find yourself a primary care physician and establish a professional relationship. If you find the care is attentive and compassionate stick with that physician. It will save you money and may save your life.

Statin Related Muscle Pain and Coenzyme Q 10

Statins are used to lower cholesterol levels in an effort to reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. They are used after a patient has exhausted lifestyle changes such as changing their diet to a low cholesterol diet, exercising regularly and losing weight without their cholesterol dropping to levels that are considered acceptable to reduce your risk of vascular events.

Patients starting on statins often complain of muscles aches, pains and slow recovery of muscle pain after exercising. In a few individuals the muscle pain, inflammation and damage becomes severe. One of the known, but little understood, negative side effects of statin medications are the lowering of your Coenzyme Q 10 level. CoQ10 works at the subcellular level in energy producing factories called mitochondria. Statin drugs, which inhibit the enzyme HMG-CoA Reductase lower cholesterol while also lowering CoQ10 levels by 16-54 % based on the study reporting these changes.

The November 16, 2018 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association published a review article by David Rakel, MD and associates that suggested that supplementing your diet with CoQ 10 would reduce muscle aches and pains while on statin therapy. Twelve studies were reviewed and the use of CoQ10 was associated with less muscle pain, weakness, tiredness and cramps compared to placebo. The studies used daily doses of 100 to 600 mg with 200 mg being the most effective dosage. Finding the correct dosage is important because the product is expensive with forty 200 mg tablets selling for about $25.

Since CoQ10 is fat soluble, you are best purchasing formulations that are combined with fat in a gel to promote absorption. As with all supplements, which are considered foods not drugs , it is best if they are UPS Labs certified to insure the dosage in the product is the same as listed on the label and that it contains no unexpected impurities.

Patient Safety and the Joint Commission

Two of my local hospitals just invested $3 – $4 million dollars in preparation for an inspection of the facilities by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAHO). The cost of the inspection runs in the $10 million dollar range after the preparation costs. The inspection is a high stress situation for the administration because if you fail, or lose your accreditation, the private insurers will void their contract with you and you won’t get paid for the work done.

Medicare through the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) is preferential to JCAHO so much so that they perform 80% of the inspections of hospitals in America. When JCAHO was initially formed it was in response to poor care in small private hospitals in non-urban nonacademic centers. They cleaned that up.

The current version uses up a great deal of money, creating a legion of hospital administrators running around with clipboards and computer tablets without making any meaningful dent in mistakes and outcome results. In a recent study published in the British Medical Journal the outcomes and re-admissions rate for the same problem within 30 days of discharge were compared at hospitals which rely on state surveys of quality and safety as opposed to the JCAHO ten million dollar survey. They found that there was no statistically significant difference.

In a related report hosted by the journal Health Affairs, a review of the 1999 report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine entitled, “To Err is Human, Building a Safer Health System” was discussed. That controversial report claimed that 44,000 to 98,000 deaths per year occur due to medical errors. They discussed the work of Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, professor and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research looked at safety at 535 hospitals in four large states between 2005 and 2016. She called the results disappointing noting improvement based on suggestions in the 1999 report in only 21% of the hospitals surveyed and worsening in 7%. Most of her work involved the staffing and role of nurses which is critical to the quality of the care an institution provides.

Staffing or the ratio of patients cared for per nurse per shift is a critical component of safe patient care. Once a nurse on a non-critical care unit is asked to care for more than four patients the time spent at the bedside nursing diminishes. You cannot recognize problems, complications or changes in your patient’s condition if you are not spending time with them.

It seems to me as a clinician caring for patients in the outpatient and inpatient setting for 40 years that the more time nurses get to spend with patients the better the patients do. Maybe it’s time for government to separate the insurer’s ability to pay hospitals and JCAHO accreditation. Maybe the millions of dollars spent per inspection would be better spent on hiring more nurses per shift plus giving them the clerical and technical support they need to spend more time and care for their patients?

Vitamin D Supplements Do Not Reduce Falls, Fractures or Improve Bone Density

Much has been written about the benefits of supplementing Vitamin D in patients. The World Health Organization sets its normal blood level at 20 while in North America it is listed at over 30. Under normal circumstances when your skin is exposed to sunlight your kidneys produce adequate amounts of Vitamin D.

Over the last few years low vitamin D levels have been associated with acute illness and flare-ups of chronic illness. The Vitamin D level is now the most ordered test in the Medicare system and at extraordinary expense. Supplementing Vitamin D has become a major industry unto itself.

The October 4^th edition of the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology contained an article written by New Zealand researchers that looked at 81 randomized research trials containing almost 54 thousand participants. “In the pooled analyses, researchers found that Vitamin D Supplementation did not reduce total fracture, hip fracture, or falls – even in trials in which participants took doses greater than 800 IU per day.” Vitamin D supplementation did not improve bone mineral density at any site studied (lumbar spine, hip, femoral neck, forearm or total body).

They concluded that there is little justification for the use of Vitamin D Supplements to maintain or improve musculoskeletal health, and clinical guidelines should reflect these findings.

Inflammation and Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

For years, experts have noted that up to 50% of men who have a heart attack do not have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, do not smoke and are active. This has led to an exploration of other causes and risk factors of cardiac and cerebrovascular disease.

In recent years, studies have shown an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, in untreated psoriatic arthritis and in severe psoriasis. We can also add atopic eczema to the list of cardiovascular risk factors.

In a publication in the British Medical Journal, investigators noted that patients with severe atopic eczema had a 20% increase risk in stroke, 40 – 50% increase risk of a heart attack, unstable angina, atrial fibrillation and cardiovascular death. There was a 70% increased risk of heart failure. The longer the skin condition remained active the higher their risks.

The study looked at almost 380,000 patients over at least a 5 year period and their outcomes were compared to almost 1.5 million controls without the skin conditions. Data came from a review of medical records and insurance information in the United Kingdom.

It’s clear that severe inflammatory conditions including skin conditions put patients at increased risk. It remains to be seen whether aggressive treatment of the skin conditions with immune modulators and medications to reduce inflammation will reduce the risks?

It will be additionally interesting to see what modalities cardiologists on each side of the Atlantic suggest we should employ for detection and with what frequency? Will it be exercise stress testing or checking coronary artery calcification or even CT coronary artery angiograms? Statins have been used to reduce inflammation by some cardiologists even in patients with reasonable lipid levels? Should we be prescribing statins in men and women with these inflammatory skin and joint conditions but normal lipid patterns?

The correlation of inflammatory situations with increased risk of vascular disease currently raises more questions with few answers at the present time.

Experimental Drug Stops Parkinson’s Disease Progression in Mice

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine published an article in Nature Medicine Journal outlining how administration of a drug called NLY01 stopped the progression of Parkinson’s disease in mice specially bred to develop this illness for research purposes. The medication is an alternative form of several diabetic drugs currently on the market including Byetta, Victoza and Trulicity. Those drugs penetrate the blood brain barrier poorly. NLY01 is designed to penetrate the blood brain barrier.

In one study, researchers injected the mice with a protein known to cause severe Parkinsonian motor symptoms. A second group received the protein plus NLY01. That group did not develop any motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The other group developed profound motor impairment.

In a second experiment, they took genetically engineered mice who normally succumb to the disease in slightly more than a year of life. Those mice, when exposed to NLY01, lived an extra four months.

This is positive news in the battle to treat and prevent disabling symptoms in the disease that affects over 1 million Americans. Human trials will need to be established with questions involving whether the drug is even safe in humans? If safety is proven then finding the right dosage where the benefits outweigh the risks is another hurdle. The fact that similar products are currently being used safely to treat Type II Diabetes is noteworthy and hopefully allows the investigation to occur at a faster pace.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive debilitating neurologic disorder which usually starts in patient’s 60 years of age or greater. Patients develop tremors, disorders sleeping, constipation and trouble moving and walking. Over time the symptoms exacerbate with loss of the ability to walk and speak and often is accompanied by dementia.