My nephew’s wife is a neurologist who runs a stroke clinic at one of the two major hospitals in Charlotte. I believe she’s in her mid 30s.
From time to time, medical subjects come up, and I’ve been consistently clear about my skepticism of things medical. She didn’t push back when I asked her if the Framingham Risk Index is still the “gold standard” for assessing heart attack and stroke risk. She agreed that it is. Based on that standard, I am low risk for a male of my age, despite being 285 pounds. I’m not diabetic, never smoked, cholesterol is under 200 without medication, BP is only “Pre-hypertensive” and hasn’t stopped being “Pre” in 30 years. My weight is stable.
She is actually more reasonable than my primary care doctor niece. Upon realizing I wasn’t going to just follow orders and that I actually was well informed, she settled for “well, if you do nothing else, at least take a baby aspirin a day”. Keep in mind she doesn’t know my platelet count. Aspirin is a blood thinner of sorts and the theory is it keeps clots from forming where plaque has narrowed your arteries. But on the flip side, if you inhibit clotting, you might have a brain bleed that doesn’t resolve itself.
Yesterday, the FDA said the advice to take a baby aspirin a day without supervision by a doctor is wrong – that the health issues like stomach bleeding and intestinal tract damage outweigh whatever slight benefit there is to people who have not yet had their first stroke / heart attack.
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/UnderstandingOver-the-CounterMedicines/UCM285159.pdf
So give me advice what to do… My relationship is already strained with my niece and nephew. Actually, of the three, she seems to have the most empathy…
My advice is not to mix family and business. My lawyer friend doesn’t like to give out free legal advice and I don’t like to give out free computer advice.
Regarding medicine, I think you should find a physician that has the same beliefs as you… be beware that Steve Jobs is dead because he believed in “magical thinking” regard to his personal health.
No, he died of a cancer that is incurable.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/public_health/The-Limits-of-Magical-Thinking.html
If I have a tightening in my chest, I quickly take a baby aspirin. So far, that has worked. I don’t take one daily… Maybe, I have just been lucky.
I wonder how Art and his nephew’s wife think about the finding documented in this article… wonder what SRG readers think as well:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/always-hungry-heres-why.html?_r=0&referrerfromCCofSRGlol
We would have some interesting conversations if I thought there was a point. My weight is essentially unchanged for 30 years. One thing I’ve heard along the way (probably Dr Dean Edell) is that rapid weight loss causes gall stones, which makes all the sense in the world. Eating fats suppresses hunger.
On top of the other recent stories, this week there was a story that drinking red wine has nothing to do with preventing heart disease, which is the current generation’s rationale for drinking imported wine every day.
Art, if you weight is essentially unchanged for the past 30 years then you’ve found what your rhythm and it is working for you.
As for me, it is essentially the same, except for a couple of years when I was eating Cashew Chicken at my favorite mom ‘n pop Chinese food restaurant. Whenever you consume 30 or so whole cashews in one meal 3-4 times a week the calories add-up fast.
With the spring weather comes a flush of new growth and I am busy working hard at stuff like pulling trees out of the ground using my bare hands, or hauling logs and brush to be burnt, or any number of other tasks. Plus holding down a full time job. Little wonder I have little to no time to stop-in and post these days.