#82: Medicines with Merit - Installment #4 [36:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (749)

Medicines with Merit - Pharmaceuticals showing promise for the patient with neurological disease.

Focus: Current and emerging applications for Botox: the diluted natural protein from a highly toxic bacterium has many potential uses — maybe even for tension headaches.

And other medicines with merit:

• Ramelteon, a melatonin receptor agonist drug, is approximately 10 times more potent than natural melatonin.
• Pramipexole okayed for restless legs.
• Aspirin may reduce ischemic events in giant cell arteritis: appears to be a safe and effective adjunct in patients whose giant cell arteritis puts them at increased risk for ischemic vision loss and cerebrovascular accidents.
• Rituximab resolved severe vasculitis of the carotid and other vessels.

And last but not least: Granny…. The taser didn’t faze her. Isn’t the use of electricity to stun the body a lot more “holistic” — as a self-defense weapon with merit — than stunning it with piercing lead?

Next week’s show: Our 4th installment of Podcast for Peds - issues related to problems of the developing nervous system, and the young folks who have them. We?re pleased to have as guests Drs. Paul and Kiely Law to tell us more about the Interactive Autism Network!

Weblinks:

• Dr. Alan Scott, botox pioneer of 1980.
• Mechanism of action for botox
• Intrathecal baclofen for cerebral spasticity
• Cannabis sativa for spasticity in MS (Vanderbilt University)
• First-ever finding of genetic risk factors for restless leg syndrome
• Information on hormesis
• Botox ‘Emerging’ Applications:
  • Chronic Low Back Pain
  • Migraine and tension headache
  • BPH
  • Chronic prostatitis (= Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome, CPPS)

Reference (other): Free radical-mediated molecular damage. Mechanisms for the protective actions of melatonin in the central nervous system. Reiter R, Acunastroviejo D, Tan D, Burkhardt S (2001). Ann N Y Acad Sci 939: 200-15. PMID 11462772.

 

 #43 - Medicines with Merit [34:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (368)

Our third installment of Medicines with Merit - Pharmaceuticals showing promise for the patient with neurological disease.

Publication Date: 11/10/06.

Show Notes: Emerging treatment and diagnostic strategies may transform AD from a death sentence to a disease patient’s can manage, much like HIV: SALAS = the operative acronym. And cannabinoids dronabinol and nabilone in the news, and the IOM and FDA have differing opinions on the medical use of marijuana. Plus, a narcolepsy drug might make your patients with primary brain cancer feel better, and TNF inhibitors may protect rheumatoid arthritis patients from stroke. Last but not least, learn about the faux flu fix distributed in China!

 

 03 August 2006: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (632)

Publication date: August 3, 2006

 

 #2 - Medicines with Merit [21:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (25)

Publication date: January 23, 2006.