5-Point Friday October 23rd, 2015

Happy Friday, I hope you enjoyed last weeks 5-Point Friday post!

I hope your week finds you strong and moving towards better health, productivity, and fitness!

1)Positive Thought:

The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.

       ~Author Unknown

2)Poetry for the Soul:  

Go with the flow….Near Sligo, Ireland.

This lake is the same Irish Poet W.B. Yeats wrote about in his famous poem the Lake Isle of Innisfree. About 2 years ago my family and I lived about 4 weeks within walking distance of this photo.  I can clearly see what Yeats meant when he wrote:

The Lake Isle of Innisfree W. B. Yeats, 1865 – 1939

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings. I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

 

I too hear it deep in my heart’s core.

3)What I’m Reading:  Continuing medical education on coronary artery disease prevention (CAD). I’m amazed at what material I am expected to remember, regurgitate, and propagate that a consensus of my peers have voted on based on research derived from complicated statistical analysis.  A great example, one study reports taking Statin drug, immediately after bypass surgery, definitively decreases risk of additional future disease.  Ironically, if one reads the whole study, you learn the researchers decided to exclude patients that died or had a major complication in the first month after surgery?

I wonder how many people were given statins initially that had a complication?

Additionally, the studies were pulled from massive data bases and scrubbed for any clinical data like baseline cholesterol, comorbidities, etc.

The “Abstract” which is really the “Interpretation” given by the authors seems so “SLAM DUNK?!”

Reality feels more like a missed free throw.

4)Thoughts I’m Pondering:  

How and why many believe health care is a “Free” commodity?  

Seriously, somebody help me with this one! ?

5)Health Nugget:

Check out the following pair of labs from a recent 59 M chart!!!

(9/18/2015)   Original labs

Report	Result	Ref. Range	Units		Status	Lab
CHOLESTEROL, TOTAL	219	125-200	mg/dL	High	Final	IG
HDL CHOLESTEROL	36	> OR = 40	mg/dL	Low	Final	IG
TRIGLYCERIDES	255	<150	mg/dL	High	Final	IG
DIRECT LDL	66	<130

Patient instructed and complied to stop soda, grain, pasta, cereal…..The following are his follow up labs! NO MEDS!!!  He eats all the vegetables, meat, eggs, and fruit he wants……4 weeks later…massive lipid correction!

Report	Result	Ref. Range	Units		Status	Lab
CHOLESTEROL, TOTAL	148 (-71)	125-200	mg/dL	Normal	Final	IG
HDL CHOLESTEROL	36	> OR = 40	mg/dL	Low	Final	IG
TRIGLYCERIDES	90  (-165)	<150	mg/dL	Normal	Final	IG
DIRECT LDL	64	<130	mg/dL	Normal	Final	IG

Want similar results?  Check out my book!

As always, leave comments, ask questions, share ideas!

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Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend!

W. Curtis, MD