Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 160 posts

Re: Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

#71

Post by tertius »

calebm wrote: post #61
coldtea wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand your GP examined you and has an actual medical degree while you just read some articles on the internet...

I've got some friends who do medical research, and from what they say, "translational research" (getting the latest research into the hands of the doctors actually practicing medicine) is a HUGE problem. I have been advised that if I (or a family member) ever gets some medical condition, that if I do a few hours of reading up on the latest research on that condition, chances are that I will be better informed on that…

Probably, but your ability to process the information is severely limited to someone who has be trained on how to do so. And I'm not saying that your doctor has been trained to do so.

Re: Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

#72

Post by tertius »

coldtea wrote: post #41
boothead wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is a very good point that I try to keep uppermost in my mind. The thing is though that I'm not sure that having a medical degree and several years as a GP actually gives you much more of a grounding in non-drug therapies than someone who can read the original research (or in my case well referenced and balanced synopses of said research by people who's opinion I trust). Which is where my vague sense of disa…

> actually gives you much more of a grounding in non-drug therapies than someone who can read the original research I don't think one can actually "read the original research" (with the all the prerequisite and pressupossed knowledge that entails) without either having been to medical school and have similar training of his own to such a level. Having access to said research and being able to read it (in the nominal…

I agree here, though I personally wouldn't trust a single doctor to him/herself be able to parse, as you say, the research.

Research is written at a peer level and most doctors are not trained or don't care to know how to interpret the results of research. Not to mention that the vast majority of research is extremely specific.

Re: Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

#73

Post by tertius »

bsilvereagle wrote: post #64
coldtea wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand your GP examined you and has an actual medical degree while you just read some articles on the internet...

> read some articles on the internet... There is a difference between reading something on WebMD and reading something on Google Scholar.

The one tells you, "Go see a doctor" and the other one tells you very little, if you don't know how to interpret what it's saying.

Re: Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

#74

Post by tertius »

boothead wrote: post #10
tkyjonathan wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take matters into your own hands and change your diet. Nothing beats a high anti-inflammatory whole-foods plant-based diet. Check the research.

Indeed, that's what I've done. I've completely eliminated sugar and I've increased my veg intake. As of the end of last week urine strips indicate that I'm in ketosis. I'll have another set of bloods done this week before I go to see a specialist probably after xmas. I intend to take a very self experimental approach with this. At the same time, if it does turn out that I'm one of those people who doesn't metabolize…

How can I get in contact with you? I'm in the same boat.

Re: Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

#75

Post by brandonmenc »

boothead wrote: post #2

It's great to read things like this... I wish my GP would do the same. I recently had a really high cholesterol reading (both total cholesterol and LDL). Everything else (blood pressure, blood glucose etc) seems fine. I'm 38, fit and healthy and nothing that suspect in my family history. I found the attitude of my doctor in all this quite surprising. It amounted basically to "You definitely have familial hypercholest…

> No further questions about what I eat, my stress levels, lifestyle - nothing.

A friend has familial hypercholesterolemia - cholesterol levels were around 1000 as a child, on statins since like, age 10.

At their request, the doctor dialed back the statin dose and cholesterol levels shot back up within days - even on a vegetarian diet with plenty of exercise.

They asked if they could start eating egg yolks again and the doctor said something like, "Go ahead. Your diet does not affect this condition at all."

Familial hypercholesterolemia isn't the same thing as having a 300 cholesterol level because you eat McDonald's. Listen to your doctor - they do know some things.

Re: Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

#76

Post by pkaye »

boothead wrote: post #69
gmarx wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an M.D. and let me first say this is not medical advice :). I long ago called bunk on the mainstream view on cholesterol and cholesterol lowering drugs. I think there will be a time in the future when doctors look back on it with a "what the heck were we thinking" kind of retrospective smugness. That stated, familial hypercholesterolemia is a different thing and it's no joke. It's been a long time since med schoo…

Thank you for your perspective. I am very wary of treading the "mainstream medicine doesn't know shit and drugs are bad" path, and for that reason I very much appreciate a contrary view. My plan is to give it a few months and see if fixing some of my sub optimal lifestyle makes a difference or not. I figure if I fix my sleep, cut the sugar and other crap and if necessary change my SFA to PUFA ratio and it doesn't get…

How is you tryglyceride levels? That should be easy to change with just a diet alone. I believe it is due to consuming excess calories than you really need.

Re: Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

#77

Post by boothead »

atomical wrote: post #70
boothead wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would seem so: http://eatingacademy.com/cholesterol-2/random-finding-plus-p... I think that's essentially what a diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia means. Likewise people seem to vary widely in their ability to handle high carb diets. I guess a cookie cutter approach doesn't really work across the board.

It's curious you don't find this author biased.

I don't find him biased because he's balanced, when he doesn't know he says so and he backs up everything he says with rigorous literature. Peter is also the president of NUSI (http://nusi.org/solving-the-problem/), and as such dedicated to objective dietary science. In addition he's well respected by others whose work I also admire.

Re: Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

#78

Post by boothead »

pkaye wrote: post #76
boothead wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your perspective. I am very wary of treading the "mainstream medicine doesn't know shit and drugs are bad" path, and for that reason I very much appreciate a contrary view. My plan is to give it a few months and see if fixing some of my sub optimal lifestyle makes a difference or not. I figure if I fix my sleep, cut the sugar and other crap and if necessary change my SFA to PUFA ratio and it doesn't get…

How is you tryglyceride levels? That should be easy to change with just a diet alone. I believe it is due to consuming excess calories than you really need.

Trigs were fine. Overconsumption is certainly one more thing for me to look at.

Re: Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

#79

Post by boothead »

brandonmenc wrote: post #75
boothead wrote: post #2

It's great to read things like this... I wish my GP would do the same. I recently had a really high cholesterol reading (both total cholesterol and LDL). Everything else (blood pressure, blood glucose etc) seems fine. I'm 38, fit and healthy and nothing that suspect in my family history. I found the attitude of my doctor in all this quite surprising. It amounted basically to "You definitely have familial hypercholest…

> No further questions about what I eat, my stress levels, lifestyle - nothing. A friend has familial hypercholesterolemia - cholesterol levels were around 1000 as a child, on statins since like, age 10. At their request, the doctor dialed back the statin dose and cholesterol levels shot back up within days - even on a vegetarian diet with plenty of exercise. They asked if they could start eating egg yolks again and…

Absolutely, agree with all of that. What I'm moaning about is the absence of desire to explore further. I don't know if I've had high cholesterol for a long time or not or whether it's lifestyle or not, or whether I do actually have a 1 in 500 genetic mutation that means that my liver doesn't process cholesterol correctly or not. I want to look into some of those possibilities a bit more before I take drugs for the rest of my life is all :-)

Re: Inflammation: Medicine's burning question

#80

Post by aberridge »

JeremyNT wrote: post #29
boothead wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for those links! I should have been clearer: what bugged me about my interaction with the GP was that he didn't ask about anything to do with lifestyle/diet. When I went looking on my own - everything I seemed to find from the NHS/Heart UK suggested that cutting saturated fat was essential, leading to my conclusion that this is what the mainstream medical establishment still believes.

As somebody in the same situation (same age, otherwise healthy, high cholesterol, regular exercise) my read is that trying to influence ldl in a meaningful way through diet alone is essentially pointless. You can knock off a few points, and you can raise HDL a bit, but the likelihood of a dramatic reduction is essentially nil. Going right for the statins kind of makes sense beyond a certain point. That said, I opted…

Could you define "dramatic reduction"?
Post reply on HN