[LouAvul]

Today’s conventional wisdom is tomorrow’s old wive’s tale.

Years ago I had a tolerable cholesterol level. Then the "experts" dictated the numbers were still too high and suddenly I had a problem.

Two months ago I was merely "prehypertension" concerning blood pressure. Then the "experts" dictated that the numbers were still too high and suddenly I was stage 1 hypertensive.

Do the accountants and lobbyists for big pharma have anything to do with these studies? (Rhetorical question)

[Madam Theophilus]

Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School has some very interesting comments about why the blood pressure standards were changed. From the NY Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/opinion/blood-pressure-guidelines.html

His books are also worthwhile: Overdiagnosed and Less Medicine More Health.

[gattaca]

Cholesterol has gotten a bad rap over the years. It’s necessary to manufacture steroids and lipid rich myelin. Remember how we told not to eat eggs?

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Medicine isn't quite as precise as some of its practitioners would like you to believe. Just as a small "for instance," my aorta dissected, and a decision was made to leave it alone and "medically manage" it. Part of that management is the strict avoidance of heavy lifting. But no one could tell me just how little or how much I ought to lift. I had as many different opinions as I had doctors.

As another example, my wife recently came down with pneumonia as a consequence of her cancer treatments. While in the hospital she was treated by her GP, her oncologist, and a pulmonologist. There was a question whether the pneumonia was infectious or non-infectious. A good treatment of prednisone made her better almost instantly. Soon thereafter she was visited by the GP and the oncologist, who told her that it must have been infectious, based on the speed with which the treatment worked. Later that day, the pulmonologist came in and told her with great confidence that it was must have been non-infectious, based on the speed with which the treatment worked!

[bgill]

Same with body weight. Marilyn Monroe would be considered obese today.