Do you chew gum? Drink diet sodas or hot chocolate? Enjoy cereals? Then the odds are that you have also consumed aspartame, one of the most widely used artificial sweeteners in the world. It is prominently featured in "sugar free" products that are consumed by men, women and, of particular concern, children. The US FDA [...]
Here's a term you don't hear very often: Posterior Fornix Syndrome. Sounds odd, right? These pelvic pain patients struggle with many of the symptoms associated with interstitial cystitis, particularly nocturia, urgency, frequency and abnormal emptying. But rather than having a bladder disease, their condition is caused by weakness or tears of ligaments (uuterosacral) that support [...]
COVID-19 is a devastating viral infection that not only infects the lungs but also attacks the circulatory system and, for some patients, the urinary tract. Acute kidney injury is found in up to 25% of critically ill COVID patients though they are not sure why that happens.(1) The kidney itself could have been damaged by [...]
We have gotten many phone calls from frantic patients diagnosed with pigmentary maculopathy due to Elmiron® use who wonder what treatment they should transition to. Researchers at the Emory Eye Center who made the original discovery of this new eye disease strongly encourage patients showing changes in their retina and vision (blurriness, difficulty in low [...]
We wanted to know what patients experienced using BLADDER BUILDER® and developed a survey asking past and current customers their experience. The results were very encouraging. Like every other supplement and/or therapy, it certainly did not work for everyone. Forty one percent stopped the supplement for a variety of reasons including cost, physicians who wanted [...]
In absolutely devastating news, the first study demonstrating that retinal damage associated with Elmiron® use can progress after stopping the medication was released by Rachel Shah MD in the Journal of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.(1) It supports evidence presented by Rachel Huckfledt MD earlier this year which found significant progression of eye damage after [...]
Breaking News! After multiple research studies and peer reviewed publications, an FDA citizens petition and patients sharing their stories, the label for ELMIRON® has now been changed in the USA to include a new warning about eye disease. Here is what the revised label says: WARNINGS Retinal Pigmentary Changes Pigmentary changes in the retina, reported [...]
MAPP Research Network Study Clearly Finds Two Polyomaviruses In Urine of IC Patients There is a small, vocal group of patients and clinicians who suggest that IC is the result of a chronic bacterial infection. This "all or none" theory ignores the thousands of patients who have developed urinary frequency, urgency, pressure and/or pain [...]
Since being created by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases back in 2007, the Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain (MAPP) Research Network has continued to study IC more closely in order to design better clinical trials with the goal of identifying helpful treatment for different types of [...]
One of the mysteries of IC are the many related conditions that patients can suffer from. At first glance, IC, pelvic floor dysfunction, irritable bowel syndrome and vulvodynia share a strong commonality, location. All are disorders that occur in the pelvis. You wouldn’t expect to see a dental condition on the list, right? Yet, surprisingly, [...]
