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Medical Renewal risks and Cardiovascular Health

Peter wrote:

The UK CAA is known for going berserk at any sign of cardiac trouble, and especially if an ECG showed an anomaly they tend to send you to a cardiologist working at one of the London hospitals – probably an old mate of somebody at the CAA – and they tend to do this even if you already have a satisfactory report from another cardiologist local to you. This is quite wrong but they can do what they like and you have no power to go against it because your medical is immediately suspended and they can take as long as they want.

I don’t think there is such a thing as a “CAA Approved” cardiologist

Darley Moor, Gamston (UK)

Did you take a look at the BHF piece I linked?

Yes. I also read this years ago. One problem with researching this is that a large % of people on statins are in an age group where they have various “mobility issues” and these mask any real statin effects, or lack of.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Neil wrote:

Did you take a look at the BHF piece I linked?

The BHF piece Neil linked to is about a really neat trial (the SAMSON trial, published just recently, using patients as their own controls in what is called an n-of-1 design) studying the placebo effect of statins. You should really have a look (disclaimer: I’m a cardiologist. I prescribe statins sometimes. Don’t yell at me. Also please don’t take medical advice from some random guy on the internet whatever he or she claims to be. And also please apply that same common sense to what you read about side effects :-)

If you’re interested you might want to read the “tweetorial” about the results posted by the lead author in his own very unique writing style on Twitter

EBGB EBKT, Belgium

The placebo effect can indeed be big but I wrote of my own experience, and I don’t think it was placebo related. It was quite clear.

Don’t yell at me

Nobody will do that

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Tango wrote:

If you’re interested you might want to read the “tweetorial” about the results posted by the lead author in his own very unique writing style on Twitter

Wonderful! But I’m surprised if some of his points are not taught in medical school…

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Neil wrote:

There seems to be an attitude on here of “avoid medication at all costs”

No. It’s more that some diseases aren’t really diseases, but a result of the lifestyle. If you eat only fast-food, and spend all days sitting still in front of the TV, chances are you will not live very long and your life will become increasingly miserable because you are drained of energy. Medicals will certainly prolong you life, but why not simply listen to what your body tells you, and act accordingly? Eat healthy, move your body. It doesn’t take much at all, and the improvement is not only physical, but also psychological.

I mean if you are healthy/young enough to be in charge of your life, then take charge. This is true until the opposite is proven, which will happen sooner or later nonetheless. Later rather than sooner, is always better, but this is your choice. I would never leave my life in the hands of a drug prescribing quack, not unless I have to. The day will eventually come, but as Maverick says, “Not today”

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

A postgrad course would include a module on research methods, but there are so many variables, not all of them obvious, hence “social research” is full of problems. Look at how much effort went into whether overhead power lines cause cancer…

I do not believe side offects of statins are all BS, though a fair % could well be placebo, or other effects.

Medicals will certainly prolong you life, but why not simply listen to what your body tells you, and act accordingly? Eat healthy, move your body. It doesn’t take much at all, and the improvement is not only physical, but also psychological.

Sure, but culturally this is hard. Most people like to see a doctor, get some pills, and are happy. Until next time. Or they have some tests. They don’t know what the tests are…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

You can still end up with high blood pressure, even if you get exercise and don’t eat like a pig.

At my last medical (December) the AME made it clear I was borderline (FAA medical) passing on blood pressure, yet

  • I do enough exercise, even this time of year when the weather’s crap (including vigourous exercise – my step brother, a former pro athlete, runs a run club and I can keep up with the middle pack which is mostly made up of mid 20s-mid 30s people, I’m probably 15 years older than the average age of that group)
  • We don’t eat like pigs, very seldom do we eat junk, although it turns out we could be doing better
  • My BMI is absolutely bang on the middle of the “healthy normal BMI” range

So he told me I should test at home, and contact my GP if my BP was still high (white coat hypertension is a real effect).

So I did that, and got the same numbers ad he did, so contacted my GP.

Unlike the cited example in the earlier video and earlier comments where the GP just prescribes tablets, my Manx NHS GP is attempting to find the root cause, so I had a blood test, an ECG, and there will be some other followups before we even get to discussing tablets. So far the blood test came back as entirely normal except for “elevated LDL cholesterol”, so I have phone appointment booked with my GP to find out what “elevated” means because the message they sent me is devoid of detail.

We have made some changes already, cutting out a lot of meat from food, and adding these cookies that my wife bakes (cookies are kind of the wrong word, they are really hemispheres of high fibre, potassium, and other stuff being made out of oats, bananas, apples and berries with nothing else in the ingredient list). So far since mid December the weekly average of my systolic BP has come down about 10mmHg and diastolic about 5mmHg, but this is still too high (going from “you’re going to lose your medical next time” to “better, but still far too high”). The GP thinks that there’s evidence of an enlarged heart but I think I’ve always had an enlarged heart due to getting lots of aerobic exercise (when the weather’s better I tend to do 7 hours intense cardio on my bicycle every week, when I used to work in Douglas I did more like 12-14 hours of this a week cycle commuting, and my resting heart rate since I was in my 20s has always been around 46-54 bpm or so, but apparently an enlarged heart from exercise isn’t a bad thing, but an enlarged heart from high BP is a bad thing).

Andreas IOM

This was done in the Health thread but you can usually knock 10/10 off your BP with a cup of hibiscus tea a day – search. Dropping meat and dairy (well, most of it, since a total avoidance is impossible if you travel) will reduce cholesterol considerably too, as well as reduce your cancer risk since these have lots of nice growth hormones

As I said, if you have high cholesterol (say 7 total, which is high risk) despite eating reasonably and doing lots of exercise then check your TSH and T4. This is cheap and easy – a 60 quid fingerprick blood test from one of the private companies like Medichecks. This is easy to fix but it takes a while to get convergence on TSH because the dose is very sensitive and while Joe Public can be stuffed by the GP with 1mcg/kg and will be “happy”, as a pilot you cannot fly if your TSH is outside the limits (about 0.5 to 4) once this has been disclosed. But then your AME doesn’t need to know you did that test…

An ECG machine’s analysis software sometimes reports “enlarged left ventricle” which the AME usually disregards if the ECG looks OK otherwise, but there can be real causes. Unfortunately none of them is AFAIK cheap and quick to check.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

alioth wrote:

borderline passing on blood pressure

Well, I’m in the same boat… been fighting prescription for 3 years now, usually high readings during the medical with tops around 90/140. I have been able to dodge the pills until now by taking the requested readings early morning, and late afternoon when I know I’m in lower BP.
I’m already vegetarian, do exercise, but will try to drastically cut on salt for 2 weeks before my next condition inspection ( ) due end of March…

Never heard about the hibiscus benefits, but will sure give it a go as well, thanks for the tip @Peter

Dan
ain't the Destination, but the Journey
LSZF, Switzerland
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