Badger_South <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:Ben A Gozar said:Below is the way I meant my note to be read. It was an estimation of
course, but we men aren't exactly known to be running to the doctor at the
rate of women. The sad news is once we pass forty things go wrong and we
men tend to die off rather suddenly. Two of my friends went in for a check
up only for the doctors to have bp readings on both of them of almost
165/[censored]. They both went in for reasons not associated with hypertension. I
visited my doctor for completely different problems I could no longer
ignore and I found out I am not 16 any more. In the United States at least,
I think the Doctor may be closer to correct, than farther from it.
At any rate I do not have an informed opinion on whether it is a true
statement or not, I was just passing on what was told to me.
>When I read it, I gave it a totally different interpretation than
>either of the above: For every man that he sees in the office, he
>estimates there are 15 others with serious health problems who are not
>coming in, and could be at serious risk.
And I'm saying that if you are active, have no obvious risk, such as
smoking, overweight, alcoholic, and soforth that there's no reason to be
this paranoid. Of course if you walk down the street you'll see lots of
examples of couch potatoes walking out of bars, chain smoking. I'd say 90%
of these guys are at significant risk. But without doing a physical, guess
what? I'd be pulling that estimation out of my ass.
Certain risk factors might be predictable based on your genetics - many
black men have high blood pressure, and for them, over 40, go get that
checked. Otherwise, to quote that kind of figure to any particular patient
is a scare tactic, and meaningless. You pretty much know your risk factors,
b/c you know how you're abusing your body. But among a sub group, such as
bikers who have been doing it for 10 years and are lean and fit and active
and don't overdo their vices, would that be the case? My dad is 81, active
all his life, and has smoked a pack of unfiltered cigs a day since he was
25, and still going strong - go figure. In my case, go look at my pic at 50
and tell me what kind of risk factors I have.
http://www.pbase.com/image/18847396/medium
So, IMO, for your doc to say that is meaningless, irresponsible (for making
you paranoid, if it did) and he could have said 9 out of 10 or 1 out of 100
and both been right, depending on demographic.
I'll tell you what's dangerous, though. Go into any hospital to have a
minor procedure and your chances of never coming out again are quite high,
due to nosocomial infection (hospital antibiotic resistant bugs), surgical
mistakes, and other misadventures. So I could say doctors - stay the freak
away from them, b/c you could be misdiagnosed or they could just have seen
a patient with resistant strep and forgot to wash his hands. Did your doc
wash his hands before he left your exam room? He didn't? OMG! ;-)
Go check out some sites that talk about 'what they don't tell you about
medical exams'. Do you know that the devices they use for endoscopy and
rectal exams can not be properly sterilized? THat's right, the chances are
good that the last patient they scoped has left a little bit of blood or
body fluid inside the device and now it's inside you. There's no known way
to sterilize against prion infections (mad cow), so if you have an
operation, you might be innoculated with CJD and not know it. What if
you're having an appendectomy and they nick an artery and you have to get
blood? Or the anesthesiologist gives you the wrong gas (happened to my dad
and they tried to cover it up - he actually went into cardiac arrest b/c
they gave him 5 times the dose needed by mistake when he had a kidney stone
removed). See, it works both ways. ;-p
OK, sorry for the rant....
-B
Ok here's what happened this morning. I got up at 7:20 and showered
and got dressed and the entire time I was drinking bottles of filtered
water, about 3 bottles full, plus. Then I ate a peanut butter granola
bar and a small amount of peanut butter for sustained energy. I
checked my BP and it was 129/92. I checked my blood sugar count with
my wife's kit and it was 102, before I ate anything (fasting). She
told me that was a fairly good reading, diabetes would be 130 - 200+,
while fasting all night. then I took one 99 mg potassium tablet and 3
cal/mag/zinc = 1000 mg total, tablets. Then, I went riding for about
2 hours and rode about 22 miles and the temp was about 77 with about
80 % humid, the temp was normal but the humid. was a little less than
usual here. Everything went fine. I didn't get a bit sick. I even
pushed myself to do more and had no problems. Even when my buddies
wanted to turn back before it got too hot, I wanted to go further but
we turned back, probably a good idea anyway, I thought. I rode all
the way back with no problems. then as soon as I got in the door at
home, I check my BP and it was 116/69. My heart rate was 98 BPM. I
felt perfectly fine and still full of energy. What gives? Was it the
potassium? WAs it the 3 bottles full of water before I rode? Oh one
more thing, during the ride I suddenly had to "go". My bladder was
full. So I stopped and did my business and went on. Then when I got
home I had to go again. That doesn't usually happen.
