Another good physical. The drive home sucked once I got to Atlanta since part of I-85 is shut down due to the massive fire which took out a bridge so there was a lot more traffic on I-285. This was at noon. I shuddered to think what I-285 was gonna be like at 5:00 PM since it already sucks at that time on Fridays. It will take months to rebuild that bridge which carries 250,000 cars a day. This is a major disaster for Atlanta traffic.
My HDL cholesterol was up dramatically. That’s the good stuff. The reason? I started drinking whole milk, using real butter, and eating more eggs. I read a book over Christmas that stated that saturated fat has gotten a bad rep and is actually good for you. The gummint nutrition recommendations have been wrong for years. Go figger. Insty has posted about this as well. Plus whole milk tastes better than 2% or skim and butter tastes better than margarine. I’ll have another physical with my HMO in 6 months and I’ll see if the HDL continues to remain high. My LDL was unaffected. Yes, two physicals a year. I’m a 70 year old crip and I use the VA to supplement my Medicare and Medicare Senior Advantage. Can’t have too much health insurance.
You said: Can’t have too much health insurance.
Just as long as you’re the one calling the shots. (No pun intended)
Since I use the Navy hospital for my medical needs, I get a new PCM (primary care manager) about every two years. Since I first started going there regularly after my rather disturbing MI over 20 years ago, I’ve been assigned to at least a dozen different docs, almost all of which were fresh outta med school.
I picked the internal medicine clinic at the Naval Hospital instead of going with a civilian family practice or HMO when TriCare forced me to make a formal decision. My reasoning was that a Navy doctor isn’t much interested in return business ‘cause he or she isn’t trying to build a practice, just get the hands-on experience for certification.
What the Navy doc wants to do is fix you up and get you out of there, not like a civilian who’ll want you to keep coming back for those insurance payments. And each new doc comes in up to speed on the latest trends and fads in the field.
The doc who was standing over me when I came to in hospital after my little cardiac attention-getter was the regional top gun cardiologist at that time. He was dead set against ALL sorts of fats and refined sugars. Told me to abandon anything that came from the body of a pig, avoid whole milk, never use butter, and eat no more than 2 eggs every 15 days, preferably not both at once and never fried.
In rehab, the nurses reinforced that belief system. All were 4-year-degree pros, one with several years’ experience in cardiac surgery, one a nutritionalist/dietician, and the other a physical therapist. My genetics cursed me with an inverted HDL/LDL ratio, which means I need to keep my overall cholesterol down to around 120 to keep the LDL under control. This was in the late 90s, and of course by following their advice I wound up dangerously anemic.
Today the docs are telling me the same thing you say here: avoid margarine, not butter; avoid skim milk; eat eggs sensibly, like 3 or 4 per week, and sure they’re fresh; but cut down on the cheeses, breads, and pastries . . . and NEVER drink diet sodas of any kind. Their advice today is eat basically what I like, but only about half as much as I used to when I was in my 30s ‘cause human metabolism slows in middle age to rates about half what they are in youth.
They all agree to remain active, avoid tobacco, drink in moderation, and eat plenty of fruits and veggies. J. H. C. Sounds exactly like my grandmother’s advice!
I just wonder what the advice might be 20 years from NOW.
At the rate we’re going, do you think there will be any healthcare twenty years from now?
There IS no fix for health care. At least not a simple one. None. The problem is that people have begun to consider it their right, when there’s no mention of it in the Constitution, OR the Bible. The Constitution mentions the PURSUIT of happiness. And that’s what trying to remain alive and healthy is – a pursuit, not a right.
Hell, I have the right to TRY to play on the PGA tour, but that doesn’t guarantee me success. Every kid in the country has the RIGHT to try to play in the NFL or the NBA or MLB, but that’s not the same as actually making the team with a megabuck signing bonus.
Until we raise the age eligibility for MediCare and Social Security, until we get rid of the outrageous penalty settlements for medical malpractice, until doctors can stop playing defensive medicine and quit ordering completely unnecessary tests and procedures for routine complaints as a shield against lawsuits, until big gummint gets out of bed with big pharm, and until people quit smoking and stop getting fat, there’s simply no such thing as affordable health care when virtually all the new signups for the ACA were those eligible for MedicAid, which means they can’t afford insurance.
In 20 years there might not be a US, and if there is, only the wealthy and connected will be able to afford decent health care at the rate we’re going now.
Since the Republicans don’t have the balls to simply repeal Obummercare and institute free market reforms (tort reform per bocopro and selling insurance across state lines and other stuff- see Ann Coulter’s latest column – http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2017-03-29.html) we are headed to single payer gummint run health care with rationing and long wait times. This has been the wet dream of Dimocrats for ages and they are close to getting there. If they hadn’t hated Nixon so much we would prolly have it already since that was on his agenda. There would then be a two tiered system so the wealthy and well connected (think Congress and the political class who would exempt themselves from gummint run health care) could opt out. Obummercare was simply a step in that direction. It was designed to fail so the people would demand that Congress “Do sumpin’!” and that “sumpin'” is single payer. Trump has even expressed interest in it. The time to kill Obummercare was in the Supreme Court where Roberts was either blackmailed or paid off or the 2012 elections. The Dimocrats fucked over the insurance companies who thought they were gonna make a lot of money with people being forced to buy insurance. They got conned. That is why we didn’t have the Harry and Louise ads like we did when Crooked Cankles tried to give us Canklescare. The insurance companies were in on the scam. Now they will get fucked over even more with single payer. Never trust a Dimocrat, a RINO, or a cuck.
On another note, I have been saying that we would degenerate into a socialist dictatorship within the next 30 to 50 years. Before the rise of Trump, especially since Obungler got reelected in 2012, I dropped my estimate down to 20 to 40 years. Now, with the rise of Trump and populism, I’m not so sure. We may be headed for a civil war and guess who has all of the guns? In that event, it all depends on which way the military would go. My nephew is career Army and I asked him what would happen if he were ordered to shoot on civilians. “Like in The Running Man”, he asked? “Yep”, I replied. He said he would like to say he would refuse like the Arnold character did. Unfortunately, there is a precedent on the military shooting on American civilians when WWI vets marched on Washington. Will the generals be Dimocrat appointees and sycophants like we had under Obumbler or will they be American patriots who would actually defend the Constitution? Fortunately, if the country does collapse, and there is a real good chance of that with all of the leftist assholes running around, I won’t be around to see it. I may be around to see a race war and once again, who has all of the guns? Bring it on!
Denny, what was the name of the book you read? Thanks,
Mike
The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz
Thanks Denny, I just ordered it
Another good reason to eat butter – it helps guys make testosterone. Same for avocados.
You will be amazed at all of the shoddy research and politics in the nutrition industry. The person who wrote it had no agenda and was surprised as to the results she found. It appears that Atkins is right and the real culprit is carbohydrates. Remember Jim Fixx who wrote The Complete Book of Running? Back then runners were advised to load up on carbs before races. Fixx was big on carb packing. This apparently healthy runner died in his 40’s of a heart attack with clogged arteries. Go figger.
A few years back, my bil went on a low carb, high saturated fat and protein diet and lost 40 pounds. Alas, his mother took ill and he spent a lot of time with her at her condo the last year of her life and ate a lot of “comfort food” and put a lot of weight back on. Now he’s back on his diet and I expect he’ll be back down at a sensible weight again over the next year.
I’m big on one dish meals, myself. Huge carnitas burrito, maybe some chips and a couple of buttered flour tortillas. Real health food.