I do agree that some doctors are overzealous when it comes to cholesterol or blood pressure. But I think that they do so out of concern rather than trying to keep patients ill.
My take on blood pressure. You need to keep it under control. This can be done easily with diet and exercise. I spent over 20 years as a runner averaging between 15 and 50 miles a week depending on my interest and discipline. This was a great way to control bp, except you risk damage to your joints. I stopped running about 7 years ago. I have great intentions of power walking, heavy hands walking or other exercise, but have not developed the habit. In my case, I have elevated blood pressure now. My doctor was concerned about it and encouraged me to take care of it naturally thru weight control and exercise. When that didn't work (because I wasn't successful at either) he put me on Toprol XL, a low dose of 25mg a day. The stuff works great. I will drop the drug if I ever drop my excess 50 lbs. and/or develop truly beneficial exercise regime. My take on cholesterol. When it's too high, it's a sign that something is wrong. If you are ill for example, your body sends out a lot of cholesterol to address the injury. When the crisis is over, it goes back to normal. I don't believe that it is the cholesterol itself that is the problem here, although it can lead to problems if elevated for extended periods of time. Statin drugs are efficient at reducing cholesterol levels, but I believe that this is merely a parlor trick, masking your symptoms. In this way the drug companies can claim that taking statin drugs reduces your chances of stroke or heart attack by 30%. But I don't believe that this is exactly accurate. I believe that what this does is to allow you to be grouped with the low cholesterol group which has a lower risk in total. I have read that various studies of people taking statins shows that such individuals get no protection from stroke or heart attack. I read this to mean that the problem that lead to the high levels STILL existed even when hidden. Also statin drugs are very controversial. Many people claim serious trouble with memory issues. Anecdotal case in point. My wife always had low cholesterol levels. Around 2003 she started to become ill with her auto-immune disorder and had serious inflammation troubles, which are still not under control. Her cholesterol levels gradually increased at this time. Her primary doctor, did not believe she needed to be prescribed anything for this since her ratio of good to bad cholesterol was outstanding. He maintained this perspective even when her cholesterol was at 299! I think most doctors would have gotten hysterical at this point. When she topped 300 he was too traumatized to continue to pass on it even though her ratio was still marvelous. She went on statins and her cholesterol levels dropped at an amazing rate, which stunned her doctor who did not believe this amount of change was possible unless she was doing something else on her own. She has brain fog, depression, and short-term memory troubles and eventually decided to stop taking the statin drugs, due to all the passionate criticisms she found online. You don't hear much press about the fact that your diet has VERY little to do with your blood cholesterol levels. Your body produces about 80% of the cholesterol in the blood. It is also an absolute requirement to have cholesterol in your body for proper brain and nervous system function. It's my belief that the folks who aggressively pursue an unnatural low-fat/low-cholesterol diet unwittingly trigger their body to ramp up cholesterol production. I could go on, but am SO behind on my email reading thanks to being in this group. Cheers, Steve G --- On Sat, 12/12/09, Dorothy Fitzpatrick <[email protected]> wrote: From: Dorothy Fitzpatrick <[email protected]> Subject: Re: CS>Dentists - Lingual Nerve To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, December 12, 2009, 7:30 AM But often the drugs given by doctors are what causes the body to stay sick, or become sicker. Take vaccines for instance, nearly every single person I meet who had the 'flu vaccine has become *really* ill. The doctors may not be aware of it, but they believe the drug companies who of course, have a vested interest. Some doctors too, like my friend's who has put her on statins and blood pressure meds when she had neither high blood pressure *or* high cholesterol. dee Almost all disease comes initially from incorrect nutrition and/or ignorance of what can make our bodies sick. Not all of course, but most. dee On 12 Dec 2009, at 04:23, Steve wrote: I'm not much into conspiracy theories. I refuse do believe that All Doctors work hard to keep their clients ill. From what I can tell, they are mostly overworked and would be happy to see less of their patients due to good health. I've had a lot of different doctors over the years. Absolutely no evidence that that any of them had anything in mind other than the best care they could give me. Of all of them, my present doctor is my favorite. He wants me well, and is obviously very concerned about what is in my best interest. My wife sees a lot of different doctors because she is very ill. Her doctors don't keep her sick, they don't need to. Her body does that on it's own. I'm sure that, just as in any profession, some doctors do not do a very good job. I believe that these persons are the exception and not the rule. ---
