Healthy Bytes

More March (recall) madness - Zelnorm

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Novartis drug Zelnorm has been withdrawn from the market per the request of the FDA.
Zelnorm is for relieving constipation. Apparently the FDA thinks the higher risk of chest pain, heart attack and stroke as a result of relieving constipation with Zelnorm is not a good trade off.

What do I think…
Fe-Fi-Fo-FIBER
Enough with the toilet paper conservation. Eat fiber, don’t get constipated.

Our fine ancestors ate about 100 grams of fiber a day.
Us?… 8 grams. Yup, that would be 92% LESS.

And where do you get fiber…
Veggies, fruit, veggies, legumes, veggies, flax seed, nuts, whole grains.

Not only will be spared constipation, but you’ll get some other massive benefits…

• Fiber slows the rate food and nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream – this keeps
  blood sugar and cholesterol in ideal balance and prevents blood sugar spikes. In fact fiber can lower blood sugar (which reduces insulin) as well as diabetes drugs.
• Fiber speeds the rate food passes through the digestive track – this quickly eliminates toxins.
• Fiber promotes weight loss by signaling the brain you’re full, stop eating.
• Fiber has bulk with far less calories than “empty calorie” foods.
• Fiber has been shown to reduce colon cancer by as much as a third and breast cancer by nearly 40%.

Soluble fiber is better than insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber gets digested; insoluble fiber does not.

Oh and if you really need extra help with constipation, there’s Glucomannan - a fiber product made from the root of elephant yams. It’s soluable and one of the most viscous fibers known (absorbs up to 50 times its weight in water). So it will bulk up food in your stomach… you feel full more quickly, you eat fewer calories.

Now go eat your veggies.

This entry was posted on Sat, 31.Mar.2007 at 7:09 am and is filed under Eating, Health, Pharmaceuticals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.