A young woman stopped by my weekend market booth recently and had a few questions. She didn't seem in the mood to talk much herself, didn't smile (that I recall) so almost seemed hostile or at least challenging, and then went on her way. In the middle of the next week she called me: Do you have anything for neurological problems? Well, we have something for just about everything, but that was a little vague. So I probed, and after a series of questions found out she was experiencing side effects from a drug called Reglan(R). I'm not familiar with any but a very few pharmaceuticals so the first thing I did was Google the drug. Oh, my goodness! Yes, of course there are lawsuits, and for good reason. Seems Reglan side effects cause "symptoms similar to those of Parkinson's disease, such as slow movements, rigidity, tremor, or a mask-like facial appearance. "Especially in older people, Reglan may produce tardive dyskinesia, a syndrome of jerky or writhing involuntary movements, particularly of the tongue, face, mouth, or jaw. In children and adults under 30, Reglan may cause involuntary movements of the arms and legs, and sometimes loud or labored breathing, usually in the first day or two of treatment. "Reglan may cause intense restlessness with associated symptoms such as anxiety, agitation, foot-tapping, pacing, inability to sit still, jitteriness, and insomnia. These symptoms may disappear as your body gets used to Reglan, or if your dosage is reduced." Tardive Dyskinesia is considered irreversible. But some fools are even giving it to children! If that's not bad enough, it's also being marketed and prescribed to nursing mothers to increase milk supply, but not everyone is happy with the results (or, more accurately, side effects). It's also given to combat nausea during pregnancy and is apparently considered "safe." But given the Reglan side effects that can turn adults' lives into permanent chaos, I personally wouldn't touch it whether I was pregnant or not, but especially not if I were pregnant. How can the drug NOT affect the fetus? How many years into the future would we have to travel to know for sure that it didn't affect the fetus in a way that the future child, future adolescent, future adult would have to bear and deal with? Goodness. Does no one remember DES? Diethylstilbestrol, a synthetic estrogen, was given to some pregnant women, starting in 1938, to help prevent miscarriages or premature deliveries. Like so many of the horrifically insufficiently-tested drugs of today insufficiently-tested drugs of today, it was considered effective and safe for both the pregnant woman and the developing baby. Finally in 1971, the FDA issued a bulletin to doctors to stop prescribing it for pregnant women. And the term "DES Daughters" came into being -- daughters of mothers who had taken DES. These daughters experienced "an increased risk for clear cell adenocarcinoma (CCA) of the vagina and cervix, reproductive tract structural differences, pregnancy complications, and infertility. Although DES Daughters appear to be at highest risk for clear cell cancer in their teens and early 20s, cases have been reported in DES Daughters in their 30s and 40s (Hatch, 1998)." The CDC says that "Researchers are still following the health of persons exposed to DES to determine whether other health problems occur as they grow older." Do you get that? Nearly FORTY YEARS LATER after the FDA's ban of the use of the drug for pregnant women and 70 years after it was first used, researchers are still not sure they've uncovered all the health risks to the children of pregnant women who were administered this drug. And yet, here's a drug for which we know some of the dangers quite early, and we are giving it to children and fetuses anyway. That doesn't make one whit of sense to me. The notion that it's safe and that there would be NO fetuses negatively affected for the rest of their human lives doesn't, in my opinion, pass the common sense test. Fetuses have no better protection than the adults taking it and it seems likely they'd be MORE vulnerable due to their underdeveloped body systems and small size. But what do I know? (Well, I know I want to tear my hair out when I encounter things like this, that's what I know.) Anyway, I was looking forward to working with this young woman, especially now that I have the electro-dermal scanning device to use as an aid. I know in my heart that we have products that could help her. Would they have cured her? Probably not, but who knows?. But alas, she didn't show up for her appointment and didn't return my follow-up phone call. And I'm left to wonder if her strange attitude and behavior aren't also part of her symptoms. I wish her health and healing.
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