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Ticker: Don't die of heart disease

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Re: Ticker: Don't die of heart disease

#211

Post by captainkrtek »

AaronAPU wrote: post #176
captainkrtek wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A relevant anecdote. I’m very athletic and skinny, eat well, have a resting heart rate in the 40s, but was recently prescribed a statin at 30, due to my very high LDL cholesterol and lipoprotein A. My family has a history of cardiovascular disease despite us doing what we can w.r.t eating and exercise. I’d encourage you to get some tests at least. My mother similarly was put on statins and is getting a cardiovascular…

They have me on blood pressure meds and do the usual blood tests, the tests I considered have been elective and I requested them explicitly. Just haven’t followed through due to aforementioned hesitations. I’m very much aware heart issues run in the family and that I have symptoms. But I would be very happy to do any elective non invasive tests. On the fence about going beyond that until/unless the Dr. flags it as ne…

That makes sense! Its easy I think to also go overboard and analyze too much, causing stress as you suggest.

Re: Ticker: Don't die of heart disease

#212

Post by Buttons840 »

jimmydddd wrote: post #196
Buttons840 wrote: post #58

I am not a statin skeptic--or rather, I don't want to be a statin skeptic. I've done the research and it makes sense to me, but I still feel some social and psychological pressures to reject statins. When I see that it is widely accepted that ApoB is better to measure than LDL-C, but the industry continues to measure LDL-C, but not ApoB, I wonder why. It makes me skeptical. When I see that the purpose of statins is t…

My wife had high cholesterol numbers, so her doctor wanted to give her statins. She asked about a scan, he begrudgingly said well, I guess you could do that. Her scan showed 0 plaque.

Plaque won't show as calcium until it has been in your arteries for decades and has calcified. It is a delayed indicator.

For anyone under 40, it's expected to have zero calcium. Even a measure of 1 or 2 when you're below 40 would be a bad sign.

Re: Ticker: Don't die of heart disease

#213

Post by joquarky »

Unfortunately, the time in our lives when we need to most pay attention to these things is when ageism kicks in and yeets us completely off of health insurance.

I'm coming up on two years unemployed and feel like an idiot for not better preparing for ageism in our industry. I foolishly assumed that experience would make up for age.

Don't make the same mistake! Plan to have most of your income shrink drastically in your mid-40s.

Re: Ticker: Don't die of heart disease

#215

Post by liveoneggs »

Buttons840 wrote: post #58

I am not a statin skeptic--or rather, I don't want to be a statin skeptic. I've done the research and it makes sense to me, but I still feel some social and psychological pressures to reject statins. When I see that it is widely accepted that ApoB is better to measure than LDL-C, but the industry continues to measure LDL-C, but not ApoB, I wonder why. It makes me skeptical. When I see that the purpose of statins is t…

Statins also raise your blood sugar and lower your GLP-1, increasing your risk of diabetes?

They also tend to be continued well into old age (off label) despite increasing fall risk, which is way more dangerous to an 80 year old.

Re: Ticker: Don't die of heart disease

#216

Post by kingofmen »

kqr wrote: post #158
kingofmen wrote: post #99

There's something I deeply don't understand about this. > I shared these results with a leading lipidologist who proclaimed: “Not sure if the lab or the primary care doc said an LDL-C of 116 mg/dL was fine but that concentration is the 50th percentile population cut point in the MESA study and should never ever be considered as normal. > It’s also important to note that, according to a lipidologist friend, an ApoB of…

I had assumed "the MESA study population" was a particularly unhealthy bunch in terms of this measurement, meaning the 50th percentile puts one in the worst half of an already bad off group.

That would make sense, but again, should be mentioned as context for why the number is bad. It's not as though we're skimping on wordcount here.

Re: Ticker: Don't die of heart disease

#217

Post by intrasight »

Aurornis wrote: post #97

Going deep on biomarkers, blood tests, and debates about optimal levels is okay for some people who derive motivation from obsessing over topics, but I’m starting to notice a trend where people obsess about these things for a couple years before burning out and moving on to the next topic. The best thing you can do for yourself is to establish healthy diet and lifestyle habits that are sustainable. A lot of people wh…

> starting to notice a trend where people obsess about these things for a couple years before burning out and moving on to the next topic.

Really spot on with one of my besties. He does all the tests. He has a concierge doctor. He reads extensively on the topics of fitness and nutrition. And yet he doesn't do any of it. It's just an intellectual exercise for him. And he has had two heart attacks in the last several years. It's so frustrating. I just wanna shake him.

Re: Ticker: Don't die of heart disease

#218

Post by iaaan »

netfortius wrote: post #204
Buttons840 wrote: post #58

I am not a statin skeptic--or rather, I don't want to be a statin skeptic. I've done the research and it makes sense to me, but I still feel some social and psychological pressures to reject statins. When I see that it is widely accepted that ApoB is better to measure than LDL-C, but the industry continues to measure LDL-C, but not ApoB, I wonder why. It makes me skeptical. When I see that the purpose of statins is t…

I was found to have high cholesterol in my late 20s. At the time the doctors (my cardiologist, then a second one brought in for advice) determined that the source was hereditary, but the effects would be the same. So they put me on statins. It's been 40 years now. I changed the statins three times since, when the actual one, at a specific time was no longer able to keep the values within acceptable limits. Approximat…

No heart attacks or strokes? I'm in the same boat (hereditary issue), and altering my diet has never had any substantial effect on my numbers. I'm not overweight and rarely eat red meat, but have had trouble keeping onto a primary care physician long term (the people I keep picking seem to move between clinics constantly) in order to retain consistent access to a statin prescription, but as I continue to age I've been getting increasingly anxious that my time is coming.

Re: Ticker: Don't die of heart disease

#219

Post by embedding-shape »

The author says this about smoking:

> If you smoke, don’t. It’s going to kill you.

And then this about alcohol:

> I think it’s unreasonable to tell people not to drink alcohol if they like it.

Why is it unreasonable to tell people not to drink alcohol, but reasonable to tell people to stop smoking? Shouldn't the smoking section also get a "at least make sure it’s really good tobacco that you enjoy and don’t smoke too much of it"?

It seems like the personal preferences (don't like smoking, but does like alcohol) is getting in the way of their medical-but-not-medical advice, instead of being able to apply their recommendations equally regardless of what they personally like.

Re: Ticker: Don't die of heart disease

#220

Post by gehsty »

Eat healthier (less processed foods, more fruit and veg, healthy carbs, low sugar and alcohol), exercise regularly and get enough sleep. Take a blood pressure measurement every week / month or so. Track your weight. React if either start going up. Don’t go start getting uneasy ct scans.
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