If you’re taking diabetes meds, there’s an urgent new warning out there that you just have to see.

Public Citizen is urging the FDA to ban the drug Victoza because of links to thyroid cancer, pancreatitis, and severe allergic reactions.

In addition, Public Citizen says patients who take this injectable med have quadruple the risk of acute pancreatitis of those who take other diabetes meds. The group estimates that up to 2,000 patients have gotten the condition from the drug since it was approved in 2010.

Naturally, the company that makes the drug insists that it’s safe. What else would they say? I’ve haven’t seen a drug maker yet respond to a safety warning with an apology.

But the drug’s own label tells me this stuff is bad news. It says right on it that it has caused thyroid cancer in lab animals — and while it also says it’s unclear whether that risk extends to humans, that’s clear enough for me.

If you’re a patient taking this med — and with $1 billion in sales last year, I know plenty of patients are — talk to your doctor about your other options.

Of course, most doctors will just shift you from one bad med to another. And if you have diabetes, odds are you’re taking several bad meds at the same time.

That’s why I recommend that diabetics work with a holistic doctor instead — because in many cases, holistic doctors can help their patients find the natural alternatives that can reduce their meds.

Considering the risks of these meds, fewer is better. But there’s something even better than fewer — and that’s none at all.

You’ve heard that you can’t cure diabetes, but you heard wrong. By committing to healthy lifestyle changes, you can reach the point where you’ll no longer need meds or even insulin.

I know you can, because I’ve seen it happen in my own clinic time and again.

The last thing we need is yet another erection pill with the same risks as the old ones — but that’s just what the FDA is giving us.

It’s called Stendra, but don’t bother remembering the name. You’ll be hearing it in commercials soon enough now that the feds have signed off on it.

Like Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra, the new med is a PDE5 inhibitor. The only real difference is that this new drug promises to work faster than the old ones — supposedly getting things going in as little as 15 minutes, compared to an hour or more for the drugs already on the market.

That might sound great — but the side effects of PDE5 inhibitors are decidedly UN-sexy.

They can cause headaches, forcing you to say “not now” just when you’re ready. They can also give you back pain, which will really limit your bedroom activities, and even cause cold-like symptoms.

Not exactly Harlequin romance material.

These drugs have even caused men to go blind and deaf, which would really make it a challenge to use that drug-induced erection. And by the way, the famous “four-hour erections” mentioned in the commercials for these meds is a dangerous condition where blood can’t leave the penis.

It’s called priapism — and it requires an immediate trip to the emergency room, where the fastest way to relieve that pressure is to drain the blood with a needle, apply an ice pack, or inject a medication.

Ouch!

But forget all the side effects (if you can — I’m not sure it’s possible to forget that last one). There’s another reason to skip the meds when it comes to sexual health, and that’s because the problems themselves are almost always a sign of another problem in the body.

For example, the most common cause of erectile dysfunction is atherosclerosis. That’s when your arteries get stiff from too much plaque — and when your arteries get stiff, you can’t get stiff in other places.

Since atherosclerosis is also the leading cause of heart attacks, stroke, and more, it’s something that needs to be fixed urgently. But if your only warning is erectile dysfunction and you can “fix” it with a sex med, you can ignore it… until the day your wife has to call the ambulance.

In other cases, erection problems are caused by diabetes, poor nutrition, hormonal imbalances (especially low testosterone levels), stress, and even many prescription medications.

A holistic doctor can help find the real cause of erection problems and correct it without the drugs or the risks.

Most nutrients are not only safe in high amounts, they’re necessary — because too many people simply don’t get nearly enough of the essentials from diet alone.

But it’s also possible to get too much of a good thing, and a new study shows one of the risks of going overboard with iron. This essential mineral, so crucial to your health, could actually contribute to Alzheimer’s disease if you get too much.

In a series of experiments, lab rabbits given a high-cholesterol diet saw increases in their levels of iron in the brain. And as the iron built up, so did the amount of amyloid-beta plaques linked to dementia.

Amyloid-beta alone is a huge red flag, but it wasn’t the only dementia risk factor that cropped up. At the same time, a neuron protein called tau began a process called phosphorylation.

I don’t want to get too technical here, but that’s another big warning sign of dementia.

That’s the bad news.

Here’s the good news: When the bunnies were given the same exact treatment we give humans for excess iron — chelation, in this case with a chelating agent called deferiprone — blood levels of both cholesterol and iron fell and the amyloid beta and phosphorylated tau began to disappear.

Brain levels of iron didn’t fall — only levels in the blood, which is to be expected. And apparently, that alone was enough to do the trick.

Now, I treat people — not bunnies. But I test all my patients for excess iron because you don’t have to have floppy ears and a love of carrots to face the risks. Too much iron over time can cause or contribute to any number of conditions, including heart disease and cancer.

And while you’ve probably heard of iron deficiency anemia, most people have never heard of hereditary hemochromatosis — a genetic disorder in which the body stockpiles iron, allowing it to build up to dangerous levels.

It’s a lot more common than you’d think.

Have your holistic doctor check your own levels of iron — and if they’re too high, make like a bunny and seek a treatment that involves regular blood draws.

I’ve diagnosed a number of patients with this condition the past 18 years, and I can’t tell you how grateful they were since it resolved their fatigue and joint pain, both common symptoms of this condition.

It greatly reduced their risk of complications like early heart disease and cancer.

One of the most common mistakes I see people making is that they take iron supplements or multivitamins with iron, thinking it will help their fatigue. This is a mistake. Don’t take iron unless you’ve been diagnosed as being iron deficient via a blood test.

For too many dentists, the X-ray machine is more like a cash machine.

They don’t use it when they absolutely need images to diagnose a problem in your mouth. They use it the moment your insurance company will allow them to make a new set of images.

It’s pretty easy money: Push button, cash check.

Meanwhile, you get exposed to radiation and all the risks that come with it — including brain tumors, as a new study finds that dental images can double your risk or more.

Researchers from Yale, Harvard, and several other institutions interviewed 1,433 people with a type of tumor called a meningioma as well as 1,350 people without the condition matched for age, gender, income, race, and more.

They found that people who had annual “bitewing X-rays” had double the tumor risk, while regular “panorex dental exams” starting before the age of 10 caused that risk to shoot up by 500 percent.

The panorex exam is when a single image of all teeth is taken from outside the mouth, and even starting after the age of 10 boosted the risk. In fact, patients of any age who received annual panorex exams had triple the risk of meningioma.

But is this really a surprise? A dental X-ray is basically a blast of radiation aimed right at your noggin — and while meningioma is still pretty rare and often non-fatal, you certainly don’t want to boost your odds of getting one.

Besides, the risks don’t end there — because dental X-rays can also increase your chance of getting thyroid cancer. A 2010 study, for example, found that people who have 10 or more dental X-rays over the course of a lifetime have 5.4 times the risk of thyroid cancer of people who’ve never been X-rayed.

Throw in the fact that many dentists still work with fluoride and mercury along with all that radiation, and your annual exam could quickly become one of the riskiest things you’ll ever do in the name of “health.”

I won’t say don’t ever visit the dentist. Clean teeth and gums are important to your overall health, and people with bad oral hygiene and gum disease have a higher risk of heart problems.

But when you do visit the dentist, set some ground rules: No fluoride… no mercury… and no X-rays unless they’re absolutely necessary and your dentist has a good reason.

Your best approach is to see a holistic dentist, sometimes referred to as a biological dentist, who is sensitive to these issues.

I’m not done with dental health yet — and if you or anyone you love wears dentures, keep reading for a warning you don’t want to miss.