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TRIALS ON EVENING PRIMROSE OIL AND MS (MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS)
During the 1970s many patients with MS began to take evening primrose oil, without the oil ever having been tested in a trial. Then in 1978 a trial took place in Newcastle, conducted by Professor David Bates and others.
The researchers divided 116 people with MS into four groups. One group was given evening primrose oil (Naudicelle), six capsules a day; one group was given olive oil in capsules; one group was given ‘Flora’ to eat as a spread; and one group was given another spread. No one knew what he or she was taking.
At the end of the two years, there was no significant difference between any of the groups, as measured by the Kurtzke disability scale.
Of all the groups, those who did best were the ones who took the sunflower seed oil spread ‘Flora’. The duration and severity of their attacks were less severe. In this group, the amount of linoleate in their blood went up from 28% before the trial started to 39% at the end of the trial.
Professor Bates came to the conclusion that the amount of polyunsaturates taken has to be enough to affect plasma levels. Only when this level has been achieved does the PUFA have an effect on the severity and duration of relapses.
At the time, the results of this trial were taken to prove that evening primrose oil does not work for MS. But this is not a correct or fair assessment at all, and in fact the results of this Newcastle trial were later re-analyzed by a Canadian doctor by the name of Robert Dworkin. Some years later after the Newcastle study, Dr Dworkin looked closely at its results, but he also pooled these results together with results from two other trials, one jointly in London and Belfast (Millar and others) and one in Ontario.
What Dr Dworkin found was extremely important: patients who had very low levels of disability at the start of the trial, who took polyunsaturates, did not get worse in a two-year period.
This was indeed a crucial discovery – the length of time that a patient had had MS made a difference to the outcome of the trials. The newly-diagnosed, who were 0-2 on the Kurtzke disability scale at the start of the trials, were the ones who showed little change or deterioration by the end of the trial. This applied only to the group which had been treated with PUFAs.
The conclusion from this is that treatment with PUFAs helps to stabilize MS in the recently diagnosed who have no real disability.
So in fact the Newcastle study – far from showing the ineffectiveness of evening primrose oil and other polyunsaturates for MS – does the opposite. But it does show that someone with MS does need to take a certain amount of linoleate for it to be effective.
The trial results do show that six capsules of evening primrose oil on their own, without any additional intake of linoleic acid, is not enough to affect plasma levels of linoleate. The answer, surely, is to take eight to 12 capsules of evening primrose oil a day, plus use sunflower seed oil spread and a cooking oil high in linoleic acid.
Some people have also criticized this particular trial on other scores. Firstly, there was no advice given about cutting down on saturated fats in the diet. (Saturated fats are thought to compete with polyunsaturated fats.) Secondly, the Naudicelle capsules used at that time had orange and black coloured shells which used the dye tartrazine. It is known that tartrazine interferes with fatty acid metabolism. Since then, evening primrose oil capsules have been produced in clear gelatin shells, with none of the same problems.
It is a pity that no one has conducted another trial with evening primrose oil taking all these factors into consideration. Since there has been no scientific evidence in favour of evening primrose oil as a therapy for MS, it is not prescribable on the NHS and has to be bought from chemists or health food shops, or by mail order from the manufacturers. Many people with MS find evening primrose oil too expensive to buy so don’t take it at all.
*29/60/5*
