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I think I wrote previously about getting a checkup recently and the doctor telling me if I don't take statin drugs I will probably die soon. That was about 2 months ago, and I'm still alive!
The doctor was an overweight woman, obviously not a health nut. She didn't ask about my lifestyle, and didn't try to figure out why my cholesterol was suddenly 318, after always being normal. The blood tests also showed low vitamin D, which seemed odd since I get a lot of sunlight.
On my way home, I wondered how much time I had left. Then, of course, as soon as I got home I spent time with Dr. Google.
The only thing I could think of that changed in my life between my last blood test and this one was that I took Chinese herbal medicine for 8 months. I have skin problems and an acupuncturist told me the herbal medicine would cure any kind of skin problems (no, it won't).
I read that Chinese pharmacies have been known to add steroids (prednisone, cortisone, etc.) to their formulas so patients will feel better and think the herbs are curing them.
Steroids can greatly improve certain symptoms, but they are terrible for your health. And, it turns out, they can raise cholesterol and lower vitamin D!
So I decided I would wait a couple of months, and go to a different doctor and get tested again. And I got the results today.
First of all, he said my blood tests were great, everything was normal (except Lyme disease, which I had long ago and apparently was never cured, but doesn't bother me).
He said my cholesterol is great, no problem at all. It's still high, but mostly because the HDL is extremely high. And the LDL came down 25 points in 2 months.
So I guess I am slowly recovering from the Chinese herbs.
in other threads, some people told me how wonderful doctors are and they would never prescribe drugs carelessly, or give someone statins for no good reason.
That has not been my experience, or the experience of people I know, or that I have read about. And now I have my own experience. Many doctors are extremely careless about prescribing drugs, especially statins.
3) It is ALWAYS the fault of the uncaring and careless doctors who continue to prescribe statins, see 2 above, EVEN IF the reason you may have been thought to need statins is because YOU THE PATIENT took Chinese herbs and failed to mention this to the uncaring and careless doctors
4)It is NEVER the patient's fault for failing to disclose information that may be relevant to the condition for which they are being treated, again see 1 above...
I brought this up again because of the doctor visit I had today. He is not a typical American doctor, and does not believe that more drugs is always better. He is from India and is an old-fashioned kind of doctor who actually considers the individual patient.
The doctor I saw 2 months ago was a typical American -- overweight and out of shape. And she was a typical modern American doctor -- prescribe drugs first, think later, or maybe not at all.
When I took the Chinese medicine I thought it was all natural and healthy, that is what I was told. I had no reason to think I would be taking steroids for 8 months.
If the doctor had any sense at all, she would have had a conversation with me about what might have changed in recent months. She did not. She was not interested. She just wants everyone with high total cholesterol to take statins.
I tried to explain to her that the LDL / HDL ratio should be considered, not just the total number. She did not believe me.
Oh .. but wait ... how come one doctor told me I have dangerously high cholesterol and need statin drugs, and another one told me the opposite, that my cholesterol is perfectly normal?
Oh .. but wait ... how come one doctor told me I have dangerously high cholesterol and need statin drugs, and another one told me the opposite, that my cholesterol is perfectly normal?
Glad to hear your good news. And got to the root of why the elevation. Dr. Google is something else isn't he/she.
I swear every MD can tell us something different and a friend I were talking about this today..she totally agreed.
I get very suspicious of an MD that does not look/seem too healthy themselves. She was probably taking statins.
Glad to hear your good news. And got to the root of why the elevation. Dr. Google is something else isn't he/she.
I swear every MD can tell us something different and a friend I were talking about this today..she totally agreed.
I get very suspicious of an MD that does not look/seem too healthy themselves. She was probably taking statins.
Yes it is widely believed these days that statins are healthy. Sort of like taking vitamins. The idea that unnatural chemicals could be harmful seems unknown to mainstream medicine.
At the same time, a lot of people I know are as skeptical about drugs as I am.
It's one thing to take an antibiotic, painkiller, or some other kind of drug when you absolutely need it. It's great that certain drugs are available in case we need them.
It is another thing to go straight for the drugs without looking at other options and other answers.
And yes, doctors can say completely different things to the same patient about the same problem. That is because doctors, like us, are human beings, and because most medical problems are not understood. Very often, doctors can only guess. But some of them pretend they are not guessing, because they feel they must stay in the authority role.
My mother's mother was always very skeptical of modern medicine, and she avoided it. She was from the old country, and had that instinct that so many Americans have lost -- the feeling that in general natural is better, if it's at all possible.
My mother's generation was very different, and they so much wanted to be modern Americans. My mother did whatever her doctor said, and that usually involved drugs. There were no conversations about lifestyle and certainly nothing about natural medicine.
Now, many Americans are like my mother, trusting completely in modern medicine. But many others have gone back to my grandmother's feeling, that natural is better, and unnatural can be dangerous.
And yes, a medical professional who is very overweight should always be a warning. Strangely, I have noticed that most people working in a doctor's office -- nurses, receptionists, assistants, even doctors -- are overweight. As if they never heard the news that lifestyle is extremely important.
People who have great faith in modern medicine tend to believe that drugs or surgery are the answers to health problems. They care about prevention, but to them prevention means getting mammograms and colonoscopies, etc. To them it does NOT mean trying to make your lifestyle as natural as possible (a challenge in this very unnatural world).
Also, the medical industry has been promoting the myth that we are healthier than ever before, and that average lifespan keeps extending.
This is untrue and is a DANGEROUS myth because it makes people complacent. They believe they can wreck their bodies and drugs and surgery will come to the rescue every time.
No, we are NOT healthier than ever, and there are many complicated reasons for the increasing average lifespan. Increasing from when to when, for example, is not considered. Infant mortality decreases is not considered.
But this dangerous myth encourages people to eat fast food and avoid moving their muscles.
Where do you get this good4nothin --- I'd change to good4somthin.
I hear what you are saying about grandparents and parents, grands were old country too and parents didn't see "family doctor" much at all ... the modern medicine world exploded...good and not good stuff. I'm my parents' first child so maybe a lot of their thinking rubbed off on me, I know it did.
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