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The Other Half

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Re: The Other Half

#161

Post by squeaky-clean »

revelation wrote: post #31
smacktoward wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even if you're not experiencing any pain -- if you haven't been to the doctor in a long time... go to the doctor. Get a routine checkup! It can save your life. I almost learned this the hard way a few years ago. I was in my late 30s, and handled going to the doctor the way I always had since reaching adulthood -- which is to say, I didn't bother with it unless I was feeling out of sorts. Routine doctor visits seem…

Sometimes a high BP is just a reaction to someone measuring your BP. One side effect of a high BP is that you hear the thumping sound of your blood pulsing. I personally have my heart rate and blood pressure explode whenever anyone tries to measure them. So I was referred to a cardiologist who did some basic checks like an echo, found nothing wrong and wired me up to a device that measures BP continuously for 24h. My…

I'm similar, every time I get my BP taken, I have to ask them to take it one more time, because the sounds and feeling of the machine make me very anxious. The results are usually worrying the first time, and then perfectly normal on the second take.

Re: The Other Half

#162

Post by DanBC »

ganley wrote: post #140
tombone12 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What’s the biggest single factor that puts you at risk for ignoring your health? Being a man. Sociologist Lisa Wade, interviewed in New York Magazine, says that 'some scholars argue that being male is the single strongest predictor of whether a person will take health risks.' Men like risk it turns out. Most of them also hate putting lotion on their skin (too girly) and being afraid of things (not manly). They are a…

About a decade ago, I got a physical after having not set foot in a doctor's office in about 12 years. The doctor asked what made me come to get a physical after so long, and when I said nothing in particular, he pretended to write on his clipboard "Wife made me come here." He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems pretty much only come to the doctor for one (or both) of two reasons: Their wife made th…

> He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems

Why would anyone see a doctor unless they had a health problem? (Or wanted health advice?)

Re: The Other Half

#163

Post by hubert123 »

tombone12 wrote: post #114
pmarreck wrote: post #4

I sat on a "weird pain" in my chest for a few days. Basically it was uncomfortable to sleep on my left side, and I felt a bit short of breath. Turns out I was suffering from a double pulmonary embolism , and that the only reason I wasn't doubled over in pain is because by an odd fluke of nature, the interior of the lungs do not have nerve endings (only the exterior) and had I waited any longer I could have died. At t…

"What’s the biggest single factor that puts you at risk for ignoring your health? Being a man. Sociologist Lisa Wade, interviewed in New York Magazine, says that 'some scholars argue that being male is the single strongest predictor of whether a person will take health risks.' Men like risk it turns out. Most of them also hate putting lotion on their skin (too girly) and being afraid of things (not manly). They are a…

It has nothing to do with risk taking, quite the opposite. This is all pop culture. Going to the doctor is a risk. You cannot and dont want to take that risk if you have to go to work. Most of the time if you dont have an issue that's stopping you from working, it's not an important issue worth risking work over. To call men who dont want to go to the doctor basically "emotional pansies" is a very.. i dont know, maybe a very uninformed way to look at it.

Re: The Other Half

#164

Post by ajtaylor »

Two Christmases ago I had a 100% blockage of the LAD for about 45 minutes - the time it took to get me from my house to the cardiac unit. It's called the Widow Maker for a reason. I was extremely lucky in that the pain was acute enough we called 911 immediately, and both the firehouse and hospital were very close by. I was 41 and in excellent health. No drinking, smoking, drugs, etc.

If you're feeling chest pain, please don't mess around. Get checked immediately. Better to feel silly than miss a heart attack and die!

Re: The Other Half

#165

Post by mwpmaybe »

cableshaft wrote: post #69
RandomInteger4 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I had my cholesterol checked about 6-7 years ago, it appeared normal, though my HDL was low. I'm 31 now and have been having a weird heart feeling. Not a pain though, but like beating issues. Depending on what I eat and which supplements I take, my heart starts beating weird and my blood pressure goes up. The weird beating seems like my heart is either beating normally or weakly and then there's a "hiccup"…

I used to get these skipped heart beats all the time (I even went to the emergency room thinking I had a heart attack over it several years ago), along with tightness in the chest. I also went to a cardiologist about it, and he pretty much just said "your EKG is normal and you're fat, work out 7 days a week, have a low fat diet, and lose weight". It stopped being anywhere near as frequent, along with a drop in restin…

I am not a doctor. Here are some thoughts (addressed to both you and the GP):

I have a hietal hernia[0] that causes reflux and dyspepsia (trouble swallowing) and mimics these heart symptoms: shortness of breath, arrhythmia, chest pain, and tachycardia. A ketogenic diet helps, as does an OTC PPI[1] (e.g. Prilosec, Nexium). You might consider getting scoped to see if you have one as well (or just take a PPI for two weeks and see if it helps).

I've had arrhythmia since I was a teenager. Some of it is sinus (i.e. pressure on my vascular system caused by breathing) and some of it is not[2]. I've found that taking a daily multivitamin helps considerably, as does a diet rich in magnesium and potassium (occasionally supplemented), so I must have some deficiencies. I can't take too much pseudoephedrine (and try to avoid it completely after a particularly scary episode). Regular exercise helps as well. If I start to freak out about a particularly bad spell of arrhythmia and/or palpitations, I tell myself to eat an apple or a banana and go for a walk.

Alcohol and caffeine wreak havoc on all of the above, so I can't drink like I did in my 20s, and I try to limit myself to one pot of coffee per day. ;-)

> "your EKG is normal and you're fat"

If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that...

If you have bacterial endocarditis[3], that could explain why a low-carb diet is helpful: lower blood sugar -> less fuel for bacteria -> reduced heart valve inflammation. Maybe.

I have something else going on right now that I don't understand: waking up at night with back pain under my right shoulder blade, anxiety, and arrhythmia. I went to the hospital after the third incident and the EKG, blood work, chest X-ray, CT scan, etc. didn't reveal anything. I suspect it's stress-related and either an ulcer or bacterial endocarditis, so I need to get those looked at by specialists. I also had a clot in my leg last year for which I needed six months of blood thinners, so I wonder if that's related...

Getting old sucks.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiatus_hernia

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton-pump_inhibitor

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premature_ventricular_contract...

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infective_endocarditis

Re: The Other Half

#166

Post by ganley »

DanBC wrote: post #162
ganley wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About a decade ago, I got a physical after having not set foot in a doctor's office in about 12 years. The doctor asked what made me come to get a physical after so long, and when I said nothing in particular, he pretended to write on his clipboard "Wife made me come here." He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems pretty much only come to the doctor for one (or both) of two reasons: Their wife made th…

> He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems Why would anyone see a doctor unless they had a health problem? (Or wanted health advice?)

A health problem that you are aware of. You're supposed to see a doctor periodically because they might catch health problems that haven't yet advanced to the point that you know they're happening.

Re: The Other Half

#167

Post by ganley »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #154
ganley wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About a decade ago, I got a physical after having not set foot in a doctor's office in about 12 years. The doctor asked what made me come to get a physical after so long, and when I said nothing in particular, he pretended to write on his clipboard "Wife made me come here." He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems pretty much only come to the doctor for one (or both) of two reasons: Their wife made th…

It's not just a macho thing. I pretty severely injured an ankle back in September, at MMA, and for the first time in my life (at 38) it doesn't seem to be healing up very well. I keep finding new little movements that cause it to feel pretty wrong ("popping", "pulling", cold sensation, mild short-term pain, weakness). One of these happened in front of my girlfriend, who ordered me to see a doctor, so I did. I filled…

No idea which of us is more typical, but my doctor is awesome. Preventative care is deductible-waived, so there's really no good reason other than laziness for me not to get a regular annual physical.

Re: The Other Half

#168

Post by Tepix »

DanBC wrote: post #162
ganley wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About a decade ago, I got a physical after having not set foot in a doctor's office in about 12 years. The doctor asked what made me come to get a physical after so long, and when I said nothing in particular, he pretended to write on his clipboard "Wife made me come here." He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems pretty much only come to the doctor for one (or both) of two reasons: Their wife made th…

> He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems Why would anyone see a doctor unless they had a health problem? (Or wanted health advice?)

If you are middle-aged (or older): to get a checkup

Re: The Other Half

#169

Post by nommm-nommm »

DanBC wrote: post #162
ganley wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About a decade ago, I got a physical after having not set foot in a doctor's office in about 12 years. The doctor asked what made me come to get a physical after so long, and when I said nothing in particular, he pretended to write on his clipboard "Wife made me come here." He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems pretty much only come to the doctor for one (or both) of two reasons: Their wife made th…

> He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems Why would anyone see a doctor unless they had a health problem? (Or wanted health advice?)

Annual physical exam (AKA annual wellness visit, annual preventive exam, periodic health exam, and routine checkup) - http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/annual-physical-examinati...

Last I knew though they weren't evidence based.

Re: The Other Half

#170

Post by PeterisP »

DanBC wrote: post #162
ganley wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About a decade ago, I got a physical after having not set foot in a doctor's office in about 12 years. The doctor asked what made me come to get a physical after so long, and when I said nothing in particular, he pretended to write on his clipboard "Wife made me come here." He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems pretty much only come to the doctor for one (or both) of two reasons: Their wife made th…

> He said middle-aged guys with no obvious health problems Why would anyone see a doctor unless they had a health problem? (Or wanted health advice?)

Regular preventive checkups are (or should be?) a thing.

Quite a few deadly things need to be caught before they become obvious problems. As a crude example, prostate cancer is one of diseases causing death for men; and has the "nice" property that if it's detected early in a screening then it's (usually) treatable with minor side effects, but by the time it causes symptoms serious enough to seek a fix for the symptoms, it generally has grown enough to be lethal.

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