Misuse Of Aspirin

3 Reasons Elizabeth Warren Could Be Good for Banks

As I continue digging into my notes from the Personal Finance Online Summit at the White House on Wednesday, there’s plenty of “fluff” from top Obama Administration officials just trying to get a political point across.

But there was a great deal of substance, too – and one of the things I am increasingly impressed with was the face time I got with Elizabeth Warren, expected to be the first director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

I know a lot of fiscal conservatives are skeptical of government regulations, and many more are skeptical of “nanny state” interference under the guise of helping consumers. But after meeting with Warren, I believe she has the best interests of the economy at heart and isn’t just creating another bureaucratic octopus meant to mire businesses in more meaningless regulation.

Here are three reasons that make me trust her – and I urge the president and Congress to appoint her to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as soon as possible.

1. We Desperately Need Trust in the Financial Sector

Perhaps the most compelling reason to have faith in Elizabeth Warren’s mission is the simple fact that nobody trusts banks. Investors think that “mark-to-market” antics have made bank balance sheets completely opaque, taxpayers remain livid over too-big-to-fail bailouts and the prospect of higher bank fees has consumers worried about the impact on their family budgets.

Nobody likes banks. And unless we mend that trust, the economy will have trouble achieving its full potential.

Warren likened the need for comprehensive regulatory reform to the foundation of the Food and Drug Administration at a time when patent medicine and bathtub elixirs made healthcare quite chaotic.

“Before the FDA owning a bathtub and seven boxes of chemicals meant you were a pharmaceutical company, and could put anything out that you claimed.” Warren said. “So the FDA says ‘if you make aspirin, it has to be aspirin.’ Who did that work for? It didn’t work for those who were selling snake oil, folks who said, ‘we’ll put it in a bottle and hope it doesn’t hurt you.’ But it didn’t hurt people. It actually worked and consumers learned they could trust drug companies.”

After that trust came big economic growth – not just in the development of new treatments that gained the full faith and backing of the government and its citizens, but through a host of innovations that led to big profits for those who were willing to put a consumer-first approach on medicine. Warren cited the easy-open pill jars, pills with special coatings for sensitive stomachs and flavored medicine for the kids all as very profitable innovations — with a consumer face.

Aspirin misuse may have made 1918 flu pandemic worse

The devastation of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic is well known, but a new article suggests a surprising factor in the high death toll: the misuse of aspirin. Appearing in the November 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online now, the article sounds a cautionary note as present day concerns about the novel H1N1 virus run high.

High aspirin dosing levels used to treat patients during the 1918-1919 pandemic are now known to cause, in some cases, toxicity and a dangerous build up of fluid in the lungs, which may have contributed to the incidence and severity of symptoms, bacterial infections, and mortality. Additionally, autopsy reports from 1918 are consistent with what we know today about the dangers of aspirin toxicity, as well as the expected viral causes of death.

The motivation behind the improper use of aspirin is a cautionary tale, said author Karen Starko, MD. In 1918, physicians did not fully understand either the dosing or pharmacology of aspirin, yet they were willing to recommend it. Its use was promoted by the drug industry, endorsed by doctors wanting to "do something," and accepted by families and institutions desperate for hope.

"Understanding these natural forces is important when considering choices in the future," Dr. Starko said. "Interventions cut both ways. Medicines can save and improve our lives. Yet we must be ever mindful of the importance of dose, of balancing benefits and risks, and of the limitations of our studies.

Beneficial and toxic effects of aspirin

The use and misuse of aspirin by the elderly

Aspirin, The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug

The well cat book, the classic comprehensive handbook of cat care

Drug abuse and the elderly, an annotated bibliography