Okay, I usually keep it pretty well together for the most part, but the surest thing to set me off usually involves interactions with medical (so-called) professionals. My mother-in-law was recently admitted to the hospital after a minor stroke. She has high blood pressure. As part of the diagnosis process, a nurse asked her if she took her medicine regularly. She answered that she only took it when her blood pressure spiked. The nurse told her that was not right, she had to take it all the time. My mother-in-law responded that the doctor had told her to take it that way (BP spikes in the 220-240 range). This got me listening carefully to the good doc when he finally came in 3 hours later.
(rough translation)
Statement: She had a blood pressure spike over 240 before the minor stroke.
Doc: Blood pressure has no relation to strokes.
Statement: She eats a lot of salt, salty food, and fatty foods.
Doc: Diet has no bearing on blood pressure.
Doc: How do you know her blood pressure spiked at over 240?
Family Member: We took a blood pressure reading on a guage that tops out at 240, the error message was that the reading was over that.
Doc: Oh, then I don’t think she had a blood pressure spike because her pressure is 150 now.
Me: Didn’t you give her meds to lower it?
Doc: That has no bearing on her spike earlier today.
Me: The spike was before you gave her the meds.
Doc: It isn’t important.
Me: Were you born an idiot, or did you have to go to med school to become one?
Doc leaves the room in a huff. Half the family members are chuckling, the other half are aghast that I didn’t accept this pinheads statements as holy gospel. Mother-in-law has promised me a jar of homemade pickles (she was one of the ones chuckling).
Nonsense! Any local doctor worth his salt will tell you to first cast the sticks at the temple. The gods will tell you best course of treatment.[/quote]
Lol, but salt INCREASES blood pressure everywhere in the world except Taiwan .
Salt only helps retain water afterall. I have NO idea why that should increase blood pressure at all.
And fatty diets have NO relation to blood pressure. They just add cholesterol to your arteries and veins… making your “pipes” smaller. Same volume of fluid but smaller pipes. That shouldn’t increase your blood pressure at all!
I’m astounded at your lack of faith in that doc. Didn’t he just demonstrate his knowledge of basic physiology?!
What really got me was the lack of comprehension that a reading taken BEFORE the meds was invalid because she had taken meds AFTER the reading.
I just hauled the old dear off to another doc when her cholesterol was measured at 380…time for some Lipitor…half the inlaws are pissed because I’m interfering, but I like my mother-in-law…she speaks only Hakkanese and Japanese, and I speak neither, so we’ve always gotten along really well . This time the doc said “The high cholesterol is hereditary, so we don’t usually prescribe meds.” To which I replied “So you just watch people with hereditary diseases die with no treatment?” He thought about it for a moment, then prescribed the Lipitor (my wife got the same explanation from a different doc about why he didn’t wanna prescribe Lipitor for her).
All this reafirms my general view that if dying, I’d rather just go to bed…my odds are better than going to the doctor .
Well she’s gotta change her diet too. Lipitor isn’t the magic bullet. It just helps. It’s actually do-able. Just gotta spend more for better oil for cooking like safflower oil.
Also cut down on the salt. Cook with less salt and do remind her that soy sauce (dao u - taiwanese) has a lot of salt. So if she cooks with less salt and pours a bunch of soy sauce on top, it defeats the purpose. Oh and the same for low salt soy sauce. I know someone who stopped using low salt cuz all she did was pour twice the amount she normally uses… basically same salt content. Doh. She cuts down on the regular soy sauce now.
Try saying this to her… (ok friggin up pinyin coming)
Beh sai yong jin je dao u
Can’t use a lot of soy sauce. Tell me (us) what her reaction is.
.
. This time the doc said “The high cholesterol is hereditary, so we don’t usually prescribe meds.” To which I replied “So you just watch people with hereditary diseases die with no treatment?” He thought about it for a moment, then prescribed the Lipitor (my wife got the same explanation from a different doc about why he didn’t wanna prescribe Lipitor for her).