It is well known that there are often conflicts in drug maintenance. I found this out all too well in the past year as I experienced my father going through failing health, hospice, and finally, in September, myocardial infarction (heart attack) from which he could not be revived. He was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes (controlled with pills) in 1995; found to have a blood clot in his leg in late 2009 for which he was treated with Cumadin, a blood thinner (which in turn so adversely affected his blood that he quickly went to a Type 1 Diabetic--daily injections). The prolonged treatments caused him to develop HIT--Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia, or extremely low blood platelet count, which could not be reversed. His arms had to be bandaged up from his hands almost to his armpits because the blood pooled under his skin there so severely, which is a typical symptom of leukemia (also stemming from the HIT), for which he was diagnosed in the last two weeks of his life. Drugs have *contra-indications*--negative side effects, and to be blunt, the Heparin basically slowly killed him. A friend of mine who does health advocacy told me not long after his death, that he could have been treated with daily aspirin and chelation therapy, which would not have caused thrombocytopenia. That's what I get for not staying in touch with her, but I don't know if I could have gotten that changed for him.
My life-long health maintenance has been keeping my weight in check; so I've been a big consumer of Diet Coke, drinking one or two cans a day. The last time I had a check-up, I had an electro-cardiogram and was told I had minor heart palpitations. My doctor told me to get off the Diet Coke because they were likely due to all the caffeine I ingested. So....I went to non-caffeinated Diet Coke.
Well then I was told that Diet Coke, or any soda (we call it pop in the midwest) is carbonated using phosphoric acid, and phosphoric acid "leaches" the calcium in our bones. Well, something else I have as a petite middle-aged female is early onset osteoporosis (bone loss) for which I started a regimen of Boniva several years ago. So, now knowing that....I switched to sports drinks, namely, Gator Aid and Powerade.
Because I spent most of the summer in Florida to be near my father as his health deteriorated, I got to drinking about one 32-ounce bottle of Powerade a day....with the intense Florida heat, it got kind of addicting. One day I thought I'd take a good long look at the Nutrition label. One serving contained 14 grams of sugar; I thought, okay, about how much is 14 grams of sugar? So, a quick Google search revealed that a there are about 4.2 grams of sugar in a teaspoon...do the math, that 32 ounce bottle, which I thought couldn't be as sweet as a Coke, contained the equivalent of just over 13 teaspoons of sugar. So I was doing more to prevent the osteoporosis, but also doing more to bring on diabetes. Obvious solution was the less tasty Powerade Zero, which contains Splenda instead of sugar.
Next thing you know Splenda will be found to be a carcinogen. Oh well, I didn't worry about the aspartame in the Diet Coke. Or maybe, eventually, it will be just water. Bottled or filtered?
Postscript: For all you ladies out there with the same problem(s) as me, I highly recommend Ostivone (or Ipriflavone Complex) and High Potency MenaQ7 in addition to Calcium Citrate with Vitamin D as daily supplements for bone support. Swanson Vitamins is the cheapest and best place to get it!
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