As I write this, it's Valentine's Day and my doctor is after me! Valentine's Day is all about hearts getting together, so it makes sense that my heart should be healthy and ready for whatever comes along, right? I found this email in my inbox:
Awww, it's American Heart month too...
They even took the trouble to make a pretty graphic, with lovers getting together, hopefully with healthy hearts:
What are these numbers they're talking about?
Ah, so it's those nasty numbers you hear about so often: blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol. Oh well, who wants to die of a heart attack? Not me! Let's see what I'm in for.
They talk about the three numbers I've got to know.
All the major authorities agree that high blood pressure is a horrible thing that must be measured regularly and controlled. They really want us to be healthy -- that number of 120 was just lowered to that about 6 years ago from the 140 number it had been for many years. A huge number of people take blood pressure medications to control the pressure and get the number down.
But there's a problem. Not only is hypertension NOT a disease, taking the pills more than doubles your chances of going blind. The more "routine" side effects of the pills can be awful, even harming the heart. And they don't even help you live longer!
Let's hope the next number is worth checking.
With rare exceptions, measuring this is a way of telling how far you are to having diabetes. Which is mostly caused by bad diet and life habits a.k.a. being fat. So what does the doctor do? Maybe they'll talk about that. But the usual practice is to put you on a drug.The data shows that almost no one is helped and that a large number taking drugs are harmed.
Now we've gotten to the last number, the most mysterious of all, the one about "bad" cholesterol.
Like blood pressure, this is one where ALL the medical authorities are united: it's bad and you've got to do something about it -- basically take pills.
There's just one little problem: taking the pills and lowering your cholesterol does NOT help you. It does help pharma -- to the tune of billions of dollars. But you? Nope, sorry. And let's not talk about the fact that serious side effects are experienced by something like 10% of the people who take the pills, and that it demonstrably (by the numbers), shortens the life of women. See this for the numbers, facts and studies that demonstrate this, studies that have never been refuted.
Is it just my provider? No, they're all into it. I got this random email from ZocDoc, a place that tries to "help" you find a doctor and make appointments:
They're all in on it.
Conclusion
I admit it's hard to think that all these prestigious doctors and major institutions could be so wrong. But this isn't an exception. A massive study on hundreds of thousands of people has shown that checks of this kind -- including these specifically -- do not help people live longer, healthier lives. See this for context and summary, and this for the study itself.
There are many wonderful, health-making things doctors can do to help patients. The items mentioned in these Valentine's Day emails don't happen to be among them.
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