Oopsie, they made a boo boo

Last week, it was announced by those that be in power that many millions more Americans need to take statins to reduce their heart attach risk. I suspected that this might be an evil ploy by pharmaceutical companies to earn a few bucks....

Well now it turns out that made a big fat boo boo and the calculator/algorithm that was proposed, doesn't work. They did things like using data from the 1990s when more Americans smoked and drank and all sorts of other basic things. This is an example of why more research is often need to confirm things.

So there isn't a  magic pill in statins for millions. Just like there isn't a magic pill for the rest of us.

And don't believe everything you read...

There is no magic pill! Sorry!

I admit I often ask my doctors for a magic wand to make bad things go away. They tell me they cannot provide it no matter how nicely I ask. There is not a magic pill, no matter what the pharmaceutical industry wants to make us think.

In a perfect world, I would like to have a magic pill or magic wand for the following: breast cancer, thyroid cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, degenerating disk disease, and fibromyalgia. None exist. So I am whing.

The use of tamoxifen to help reduce breast cancer occurrence in high risk patients is a smart idea. It is a relatively small portion of the population and something that can't really be affected by diet, exercise or other changeable activities.

But I have a real problem with the new 'brainstorm' to give statins to millions of people who are at a risk of 7% or more of having a heart attack in the next ten years. Let me just say that somewhere around half the panel of doctors who decided this were connected with the pharmaceutical industry - they didn't vote so that is supposed to make it okay. (I would assume they did make their opinions known in pre-vote discussions.)

Doctors are now going to be told to use a new algorithm: "The equation considers age, sex, total and HDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, blood pressure treatment, diabetes, and smoking." HDL cholesterol is impacted by smoking, weight and exercise or lack of it. Systolic blood pressure can also be impacted by the same and salt and alcohol intake.

So let's see, get off your butt, start moving, eat right, and all that stuff, or take a pill for the rest of your life and make the pharmaceutical industry rich? Hmmm.... I prefer the former option over the latter.

I am sure statins have side effects because everything will have some kind of side effect.

PS And this recommendation will impact 1/3 of Americans. The claim is they are cheap but my guess is that the insurance industry will be on the hook for a large portion of these costs.

So what do your doctors write about you?

Don't you ever wonder? You see your doctor, you ask your questions, get your answers, maybe some new recommendations and follow ups, and are on your merry way home. At some point after they see  you, your doctor writes down notes about your appointment. Do you ever wonder what they say about you?

I have had some infrequent opportunities to see my medical records. Partly by happenstance and partly by choice. Some of it is crystal clear and makes sense and some of it requires a decoder ring - that my surgeon provided at the time. I found it interesting.

There was a recent voluntary study (because we need more studies) where doctors shared their notes regularly with their patients who wanted them. They found better compliance with doctor orders among other things.

I know I can go to the hospital where I am treated and get a specific test result for no charge but if I want my full records it will basically cost me $100 for the first 100 pages and then $0.36/page after that. With my  medical file, I'm probably looking at around $1000 for the whole thing. That's just fine. They can stay there.

But I do have a friend who found out what her doctor wrote about her in her medical record - it was something along the lines of 'she will never lose weight because on weekends she drinks a lot and pigs out'. Seriously that's what the doctor wrote. That is now her former doctor. And she got a patient advocate to help in getting that removed from her permanent medical record.

I am sure my doctors write things like "paranoid, chronic complainer, pushy, bitchy, hypochondriac, full of mysterious ailments who uses more than her share of the medical system" in my medical file. Actually I don't think they write that.  I am sure its a very fat file hogging lots of disk space. But most of its probably in doctor speak and I didn't get the decoder ring.

Would a written note at the end of each appointment help my chemobrain/fibro fog memory remember what I am supposed to do and why help me? Probably but I don't need more paper in my life. And I don't want to have to wait until they doctor gets around to writing the notes either.

To soy or not to soy - will it ever be resolved?

Soy products such as tofu, edamame, soy milk, (but not soy yogurt which is just foul - sort of like eating elmer's glue) and other items are supposed to be part of a healthy diet. We have soy burgers, soy chips, soy supplements, soy everything. We are told to look at Asian countries where soy intake is high and rates of Western illnesses such as cancer are much lower as our examples.

But then they tell us don't eat soy or soy supplements because there if you have estrogen positive breast cancer and some other cancers. Soy contains something that is considered a plant based estrogen that could be feeding these cancers. If you have an estrogen positive breast cancer, it could be fed by soy products.

This latest article states that Asians who are historically accustomed to high levels of soy in their diet should have no reason to lower their intake levels. But Western consumers who are not accustomed to soy products should be eat only a moderate amount of soy products until more is known and to skip soy pills or supplements until more is known about their effects.

So? What about those of us with Estrogen positive breast cancer? Do we get to eat soy or not? No mention here in this recommendation. So I will continue my soy avoiding ways for now until they resolve it.