Author: Suzanne B. Robotti

Suzanne B. Robotti

Suzanne is the President and Founder of MedShadow, and the Executive Director of DES Action USA.  MedShadow’s mission is to preserve quality of life by ensuring everyone has access to the risks, benefits and alternates to using drugs to manage healthcare. Read More

Are you worried about ACE inhibitors and coronavirus? You may be hearing that one of the entry methods for the coronavirus in humans is by attaching to the ACE-2 enzyme. This has raised alarms among those with heart disease who use ACE inhibitors (with names ending in -pril, such as lisinopril), and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs, with names ending in -sartan, such as valsartan). Those having severe cases of COVID-19 are often those with hypertension and either type 1 or Type II diabetes and those patients are often taking ACE-1 inhibitors and ARBs. Both diabetes and these drugs increase…

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Can we use a different endocrine disruptor to predict BPA effects, including cardiovascular problems and heart attack ? Maybe so. Many scientists are working to discover the effect of endocrine disruptors such as BPA (bisphenol A) to predict what that effect might be on people. Some studies have raised concern that exposure to endocrine disruptors may be positively linked with cardiovascular disease. Endocrine disruptors essentially confuse the mechanism in human bodies that tells genes when to turn on (e.g., start puberty) and when to turn off (e.g., stop growing hair). Because BPA is ubiquitous in our environment, it is nearly…

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Is your cholesterol high? Has your doctor suggested you might be at risk for heart disease? If so, you have some decisions to make. You need to know that you can likely improve your health and lower your cholesterol by simple lifestyle changes like exercise and changing your diet. You also will likely have the option of taking a statin. The fact that people have choices in their health care is very important and something we explore at MedShadow, an online nonprofit I founded to inform the public about the side effects, risks and benefits of medicine, both prescription and…

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Does it really make sense to put a large group of people on a drug whose effectiveness hasn’t been proven for that group? What at first looked like a creeping increase in statin prescriptions is turning into a gallop. Despite the significant and life-altering side effects that this class of cholesterol-lowering drugs can cause, the USPSTF (US Preventative Services Task Force) is likely to approve a broadening of the group of adults for whom statins are recommended — without including a recommendation to try lifestyle changes to lower cholesterol first. The USPSTF is proposing that any healthy adult between the ages…

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One person demanding proof from drug companies saved millions of US babies. Don’t forget her lesson. Morning sickness can be debilitating. It’s certainly uncomfortable. And for most pregnant women it’s a rite of passage. Very occasionally morning sickness causes so much nausea that the pregnant woman becomes dehydrated causing risk to the pregnant woman and fetus. In those cases women generally go to the hospital. Most other pregnant women have varying degrees of discomfort and interruptions to their lives. Recently Kim Kardashian (I don’t really have to explain who she is, right?) claimed to use Diclegis for relief from morning sickness.…

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 Is the holy grail of morning sickness finally available? Meet Diclegis ! Several months ago, the Duchess previously known as Kate Middleton was hospitalized for severe morning sickness. A week or so later she was recovered, and made the medical term for severe morning sickness, “hyperemesis gravidarum,” (HG) temporarily famous. The FDA has approved the drug Diclegis for pregnant women who experience nausea and vomiting (not HG). As has been widely reported, this drug was available and then withdrawn from the market 30 years ago because of numerous lawsuits claiming birth defects caused by the drug sold under the brand name,…

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Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) It’s been widely reported that Kate and William are expecting their first child. The news included the information that Kate is experiencing an extreme form of morning sickness diagnosed as hyperemesis gravidarum, known as HG. Kate has been hospitalized as the risks are immediate and severe. What is less reported are the long-term risks to the child and mother. Few are conducting research on HG, but one doc who specializes in HG refers to a paper that found children of women who had extreme nausea/vomiting during pregnancy had “more attention problems and difficulty in task persistence at…

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