Health-related discussions

Not About Food
41

I think too many doctors prescribe statins without giving people info and a chance to change their eating etc. I read a book by a Brown University professor, The Truth About Statins (found out about it on CH). She recommended a cardiologist in SF for me, Dr Rita Redberg, you can watch an interview on You Tube.

She said the only reason to take any drug is if they relieve pain or prolong life, she thinks statins do neither.

My cholesterol is in normal range because I almost never eat beef or pork (never eat lamb, detest it).

Doctors should let you know that vegetarians and vegans have better cholesterol levels.

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42

I know I’m a lot less healthy when I stick to a vegetarian diet. I gain weight when I go vegetarian because I eat a lot more cheese and carbs than I when I’m eating eggs, poultry, seafood and meat. I have given meat up for Lent about a dozen times, and I finally stopped because I was eating too much dairy which led to weight gain and other health issues.

I cannot tolerate a vegan diet.

If a meat-free diet works for you, great.

Meat is not inherently unhealthy.

I feel my best when I stick to a Mediterranean diet, one which includes squid, small fish, shrimp, lentils , cheese, honey, nuts, chicken, pork and lamb, like my Mediterranean ancestors ate.

None of my Greek or German relatives who live in Europe are overweight like me and most of my relatives in North America. They learned moderation and/or impulse control better than I ever did.

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43

I think Americans snack more between meals than people in other countries. And we’re bombarded with ads for fattening foods. In India and Middle East they don’t eat as much cheese as we do.

Not to mention all the fast food joints.

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44

(post deleted by author)

45

Deleted only because I got too far off topic but I like this tool which is similar to one my new DR uses to determine who should consider statin use. I had not seen it before: ASCVD Risk Estimator + (acc.org)

As she pointed out, personal medical and family history also needs to be taken into consideration. I wonder how many MD’s use this.

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46

Back in 2016 I was dxd with pre-diabetes. A1C was someting like 5.7 then 6.0

The lab explained
Hemoglobin A1c 5.7-6.4% Increased Risk of diabetes mellitus

or = 6.5% Consistent with diabetes mellitus ADA Therapeutic goal <7% HbA1c
Additional action suggested >8% HbA1c Immediate action suggested >10% HbA

I had good success with this online program. Sort of like you guys but with a focus on a different kind of livestyle.

Next HbA1c was 5.5, then 5.3, etx, and five years later and I’m still doing parts of the program,
weight stayed off and A1c stayed down, although this year it was 5.6.

I feel very fortunate that it worked that way for me.

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47


Agree on both. I’ve told this story before, but not on this thread. Sort of a “tale of two friends” type of thing:

(1) Army buddy Ron, in his early 20s, had been practicing to try out for Special Forces medic when he found out his triglycerides and cholesterol were ridiculously high and a really low HDL/LDL ratio. He was in fantastic physical condition already, and switched to a vegan diet for 9 months with no significant changes. The doctors told him he was one of those with hereditary hyperlipidemia and nothing would change it. His father and an uncle had both had heart attacks in their early 40s. He could have benefitted from a statin, to the extent that simply reducing one’s cholesterol is a “benefit”, but they weren’t available then. I lost track of him after we both moved on to other duty stations.

So some folks will be high in triglycerides and total cholesterol no matter how strict a diet they are on. This is likely a minority.

(2) Doctor friend Joe at my last employer, mid-40s. In good physical condition, ran a lot of half marathons and practiced for them regularly. He found out his cholesterol was about 230 and his HDL/LDL ratio too low. He knew I’d been cooking for years for a vegetarian daughter and we started swapping recipes because he wanted to try going all veggie. Worked very well for him, cholesterol dropped about 40 points, primarily reduction in LDL, so his HDL/LDL ratio was then favorable.

One other thing I’ve mentioned somewhere here at HO is that taking an evening stroll to de-stress has been found to reduce total cholesterol and triglycerides, and to improve HDL/LDL ratios.

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48
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49

Interesting reading about cholesterol in The Great Cholesterol Myth.

It is free on Kindle unlimited, but a lot of it boils down to not eating super processed food, especially industrial seed oils that have been and still are touted as being good for you.

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50

I’ve shifted away from rapeseed/canola and soy oils and now mostly use EVOO (Calif olive ranch) for a lot of room temp and low temp stuff, and avocado oil for higher temp cooking (Chosen brand, which luckily for me seems fairly well thought of given it’s the only brand my local store carries). I think if I were to start making mayo again I’d probably use the avoc for that because EVOO would add too strong a flavor to mayo for me.

I still use toasted sesame oil for wok dish recipes, but there I’m only using 1 tsp or so for about 4 servings, with the remainder of necessary oil being avoc. But that’s how I’ve always used it, because it’s so strongly flavored.

I only deep fry once or twice a year, so I’ll still get the refined canola or peanut for that use rather than blow ~ $25 at once on 2 liters of avocado oil.

51

Went in for a procedure. Just before he put me under, the anesthesiologist told me what was in the cocktail he was going to give me. It was a few things, plus fentanyl. Alarmed me, but it was in a controlled medical setting, so I didn’t jump off the able. I lived to bake again.!:yum:

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52

The cocktail I got most often was valium-demerol-versed. I’m fairly certain that I did not have any fentanyl, but this was late 2008 to mid 2009 time frame.

I had 10 surgeries under general anesthesia within 15 months, each with the same cocktail prior to going under GA. The pre-sedation stuff never did much for me. And the GA was a problem, too, because in about 8 of 10, I woke up on the operating table instead of (what they expected) hours later in recovery.

I never have been a good sleeper.

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53

I had a short outpatient surgery once with versed and a fentanyl patch. Long before fentanyl became an issue. I had no problems.

What worries me is that people in hospice, who are by definition terminal, may not receive adequate pain management because of the opioid mess that has evolved.

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54

I may have missed this, but I had both hips replaced at a two month interval. Hydrocodone prescribed each time. Back then (7years ago), at each post op visit do you need more? No thanks. After two weeks when I really didn’t need them anymore, I decided to take one at night to go to sleep.,That didn’t last long. I lay there thinking thoughts, and even bad thoughts turned into good thoughts. I don’t know how else to describe it.

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55

I had the same prescription after open heart surgery. I never even used up my original prescription.

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56

Our family’s hospice experience is a few years back, with my dad in 2018. But they were then able to do what was needed in terms of pain management and breathing management. We were really grateful for that.

I really do hope that more recent regulation has not made it worse for people in hospice. I mean, there’s clearly a difference here.

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57

Yeah, such as why worry about addiction for a terminally ill patient. I thought we’d gotten past this decades ago. The Brits at least had the Brompton Cocktail.

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58

Exactly as you say. Those in hospice, who are terminally ill, they are not drug abusers. Hopefully no (I’m in U.S.) regulation treats them as such. But as I mentioned before, my most recent experience is my dad in hospice about 5 years ago.

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59

A few decades ago one of my lungs collapsed on a flight to Toronto. Having two lungs saved it from being a disaster. In hospital I was given a shot of Demerol. It took away the pain, but also made me hallucinate. A shot the next day took away the pain; no hallucinations though. Made me aware of how easy it is to get hooked. No third shot.

60

After cataract surgery on one eye, I returned home with a patch on that eye. I live in an apartment building where a number of older women live, and in the lobby there were a few I know. They looked at me with concern because of the patch. I said to them, “You should see the other guy!” :rofl:

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