Three ways to die

[Benipete]

Originally Posted by jambutty

The latest research suggests that statins reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease by 50%.

I take Simvastatin as part of the heart medication regime.

Well you should be alright as long as you don't forget where you put them.

[West Ender]

It never fails to amaze me that people get all fired up about fillings, sweetners etc. but continue to smoke. Now, I've been there and done that. I've got 5 fillings in my teeth and I drink sugar-free drinks etc. but the thing that made me ill was cigarettes. Smoking was the reason I have to use an inhaler to help my lungs take in oxygen, without the inhaler my oxgen levels drop and my heart can't cope. It was smoking that caused it, there's no history of chest problems in my family until my father who smoked 50 a day and died from lung cancer aged 77.

I'll carry on with the Coke Zero, thanks, and continue to regret I ever thought smoking was "cool".

[MargaretR]

Everyone has the right to place themselves at risk.
Whose body is it after all!!
It is the risking without knowing that bothers me

[Bonnyboy]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

Everyone has the right to place themselves at risk.
Whose body is it after all!!
It is the risking without knowing that bothers me

I'll go along with that.

[West Ender]

I started smoking when I was 17, in 1960, and I didn't know the risks then either. They were known to the government in the 50s but the information wasn't made public for a long time.

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by West Ender

I started smoking when I was 17, in 1960, and I didn't know the risks then either. They were known to the government in the 50s but the information wasn't made public for a long time.

Now we have the web we can assess the risks - no more secrets

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

Now we have the web we can assess the risks - no more secrets

That sounds like a cue for the Stranglers Margaret

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

Statins reduce you bodily intake of Vitamin B12.
The effect of B12 defiency creeps on you slowly over many years and is often misdiagnosed as MS, CFS, Parkinsons and Altzheimers because many of its symptoms are the same

PS I am not suggesting that you go against your docs advice - just want you to think 'Is he always right?

Your statement flies in the face of the ‘experts’. They state that statins help to reduce the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

I bow to the superior knowledge of someone who has spent many years going through medical school and even many more years as a GP. Not forgetting Dr Myers the cardiologist who first prescribed them and subsequent specialists who concurred with his decision.

A little amateur knowledge can be more dangerous than no knowledge at all.

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Benipete

Well you should be alright as long as you don't forget where you put them.

There is no chance of me forgetting where I put my pills, they are in open view where I can’t miss them.

However remembering to take them is another matter, especially the Warfarin. I’m supposed to take them at about 6.00pm but at that time I have often dozed off watching TV and by the time that I wake up the last thing on my mind is taking the Warfarin. Then suddenly during the evening I think to myself, “have I take my pills?” And I can’t remember if I have or not. But I’ve got round that problem by marking each pill in the blister packs with the days of the week.

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by West Ender

I started smoking when I was 17, in 1960, and I didn't know the risks then either. They were known to the government in the 50s but the information wasn't made public for a long time.

Yes the government has a lot to answer for in the smoking debate.

Back in ’54 sailors were allowed to buy 300 specially made cigarettes by BAT and two other tobacco companies, for 7 shillings and sixpence each month. That is six pence for twenty. We called them “Blue Liners” because each fag had a blue line running down the length of it. Sailors on ships in home waters and abroad could buy 800 branded fags per month for £2. That is one shilling for twenty when the same fags were three shillings and sixpence for twenty in civvy street. We could even buy Woodbines that were the same size as Players or Senior Service, known throughout the land as “Ship’s Woodbines” and much sought after in civvy street.

This concession was to all intents and purposes was encouraging sailors to smoke and even got some non-smokers to start.

If you have ever seen the newsreel footage of the troops coming home from Dunkirk, you would have seen that they were given a mug of tea by the nurses and a fag as they disembarked, even those on stretchers.

At least in those days smoking tobacco was much purer than it is today.

[MargaretR]

I have been made ill by prescriptions in my past-
E coli/pseudomembranous colitis - from being injected with a (now banned) antibiotic
Addiction to prescribed painkillers containing codiene

I have some everlasting damage from these and my quality of life has been less than it should have been for 20+ years.

Perhaps you may understand from this why I do not have total and absolute confidence in the medical profession. They are only human after all and are under such workload pressure that it is human nature for them to sometimes take the easy way out and provide a standard of care which is less than perfect.

Since you you appear to have absolute faith in your doctor's competance, that must provide you with great peace of mind.

A very recent personal experience of mine has proved to me that to take responsibility for my own health has been an essential health preservation measure.

A year ago I began to have overwhelming urges to sleep - after 4 hours awake I needed 2 hours sleep totalling 11 hours a day - so I had lost the use of 4 hrs a day of living. Most people who work hard and find little time for sleep said 'Lucky you' but I considered that I was losing 1 day a week of living. The doc decided that it was probably narcolepsy - untreatable - learn to live with it and 'drink lots of coffee'.

During the winter I got bronchitis and battled through it and did not resort to asking for antibiotics until February - my past experience with antibiotics makes me extremely reluctant to use them.

The bronchitis cleared after 2 weeks but I was left easily breathless. So I concluded that I have some emphysema - 50 yrs of smoking - only myself to blame.

So at age 65 I appeared to be facing the prospect of sleeping and gasping for the rest of the time I had left - naturally got quite depressed.

I was at 'rock bottom' mentally and physically because the sleepiness had got worse so that I never felt properly awake. Then I was told by an aquaintance 'I was like that until I got vitamin B12 injections'

This set me on a path of websearching
Vitamin B12 deficiency

I asked for my B12 blood level to be tested and it came back 'normal'
(What our NHS consider normal is judged to be dangerously low in some other countries)
So my doc then began tests of heart and lungs. 'Heart fine' but I expect him to find some COPD

Due to my distrust of the medical profession I decided to self medicate with vit B 12.
After only one week the sleepiness had gone completely and the breathlessness reduced by 50%.

I had B12 deficiency which has not, and would not ever, have been diagnosed, and which if untreated would have caused irreversable damage to my nervous system with symptoms mimicking MS and dementia. My doc can see that my self medication is working and regrets that he cannot he cannot provide me with B12 free on prescription.(nhs guidlines wont allow him to)

If I had not taken responsibily for my own health my remaining years of life would have been not worth living.

So that is why I take the trouble to put on here news about anything which I think may be causing all of us health damage.

I don't mind at all being labelled a hypochondriacal harbinger of doom
.... perhaps you will appreciate now why I do it

[MargaretR]

I just wan't to further demonstrate that not all doctors are hidebound by the rules
GP funds patients' vitamin treatment with own money (From The Northern Echo)

[Benipete]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

I have been made ill by prescriptions in my past-
E coli/pseudomembranous colitis - from being injected with a (now banned) antibiotic
Addiction to prescribed painkillers containing codiene

I have some everlasting damage from these and my quality of life has been less than it should have been for 20+ years.

Perhaps you may understand from this why I do not have total and absolute confidence in the medical profession. They are only human after all and are under such workload pressure that it is human nature for them to sometimes take the easy way out and provide a standard of care which is less than perfect.

Since you you appear to have absolute faith in your doctor's competance, that must provide you with great peace of mind.

A very recent personal experience of mine has proved to me that to take responsibility for my own health has been an essential health preservation measure.

A year ago I began to have overwhelming urges to sleep - after 4 hours awake I needed 2 hours sleep totalling 11 hours a day - so I had lost the use of 4 hrs a day of living. Most people who work hard and find little time for sleep said 'Lucky you' but I considered that I was losing 1 day a week of living. The doc decided that it was probably narcolepsy - untreatable - learn to live with it and 'drink lots of coffee'.

During the winter I got bronchitis and battled through it and did not resort to asking for antibiotics until February - my past experience with antibiotics makes me extremely reluctant to use them.

The bronchitis cleared after 2 weeks but I was left easily breathless. So I concluded that I have some emphysema - 50 yrs of smoking - only myself to blame.

So at age 65 I appeared to be facing the prospect of sleeping and gasping for the rest of the time I had left - naturally got quite depressed.

I was at 'rock bottom' mentally and physically because the sleepiness had got worse so that I never felt properly awake. Then I was told by an aquaintance 'I was like that until I got vitamin B12 injections'

This set me on a path of websearching
Vitamin B12 deficiency

I asked for my B12 blood level to be tested and it came back 'normal'
(What our NHS consider normal is judged to be dangerously low in some other countries)
So my doc then began tests of heart and lungs. 'Heart fine' but I expect him to find some COPD

Due to my distrust of the medical profession I decided to self medicate with vit B 12.
After only one week the sleepiness had gone completely and the breathlessness reduced by 50%.

I had B12 deficiency which has not, and would not ever, have been diagnosed, and which if untreated would have caused irreversable damage to my nervous system with symptoms mimicking MS and dementia. My doc can see that my self medication is working and regrets that he cannot he cannot provide me with B12 free on prescription.(nhs guidlines wont allow him to)

If I had not taken responsibily for my own health my remaining years of life would have been not worth living.

So that is why I take the trouble to put on here news about anything which I think may be causing all of us health damage.

I don't mind at all being labelled a hypochondriacal harbinger of doom
.... perhaps you will appreciate now why I do it

Apart from that are you alright?

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by Benipete

Apart from that are you alright?

Come to the next meet an watch me shake a leg

[garinda]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

Come to the next meet an watch me shake a leg

When she unstraps it, and waves it in the air to Y.M.C.A., it's truly a sight to behold.