I have worked in US medical schools for over 20 years.The accreditation process for such schools has been completely hijacked by measures of “student satisfaction.” That is not the same as education. Further, the students aren’t supposed to have to do anything on their own. Everything is to be pushed out to them: research opportunities, externships, library resources, gym programs, and so forth. When, and how often, these resources are pushed out to the students must then be documented, or it didn’t happen for accreditors. There can be absolutely no reports of student mistreatment by the faculty, and there is a rubric to determine whether something is mistreatment. Any such reports are grounds for probationary accreditation. I have no idea what these graduates do when they are practicing medicine and a patient calls them a racial or ethnic slur – I guess they just crumple.They ask about gun ownership because they fear liability from discharging patients to a home where they have access to guns when they also have a history of agitation or psychiatric diagnoses.Yes, graduates rarely hang out their own shingles, so to speak. I have heard senior administrators say that they are preparing doctors now to be hospital employees, not independent practitioners.The best primary care doctors I had locally basically ended their practices to do something else more meaningful to them. Both had reached the limit with the system in which they’d been trained.

It’s only going to get better. For decades, American medical schools have admitted Black with lower grades and test scores than Asians and White. Now there is serious condideration in academic medicine about graduating Blacks with grades that would be failing for Asian or White medical students.

Z you should read Ernst Junger if you haven’t; “ Democracy teaches lessons to which one is not permitted to answer.” Interview 1982

Can’t get this to post under dittmar’s post as a reply. Maybe this will work, not that it will be noticed.Perhaps you were speaking of the Veterinary School of the University of Pennsylvania? We took our 12 year old rescue border collie in to our local vet for teeth cleaning, during which they noticed a growth that was too hard to get a sample for testing. We wound up taking her to Penn Veterinary upon their recommendation, and they were wonderful (as is often the case with teaching hospitals for us humans), ultimately pulling a few teeth, and after testing the growth, resolving our concerns about it. Can’t speak highly enough about the quality of care she received at their hands; full consult with the surgeon, attended by students for their edification, and then overnight vigilance by the staff after her scheduled surgery.

You should read pdmangan150 on Twitter for health advice.

It’s all so disheartening …. but like everything else, corporatism, the grift, and the desire for position and power have corrupted it all. I remember a different healthcare system that still worked, even into the 1980s. I recall a visit to a palsied, old, translucent-skinned surgeon in 1980. Had an odd mole on my arm and made the climb up the polished oak stairway of the magnificent “professional arts” building where he had his office. His nurse was a stately, older “looker” dressed in a starched, white nurses outfit, complete with cap. His shaky hands quickly handled the syringe and expertly filled the area under the mole with some version of xylocaine. Then, with two rapid slices, he removed the mole and some tissue. He held it up to the light, rolled it between his fingers, and said: “Nope, not cancer,” and threw it into the trash. Imagine one doing that now. I paid him a small amount for the visit, and left.I still have the scar.

Guess what? Corporations are taking over vet offices. My vet, a local guy, just sold out to a southern corporation that is buying up vet practices. In my rural and small town NY region, there is only one vet left who is the old fashioned sole practitioner. And,prices are going up. Also going up? Prices of pet medicines. They used to be cheap, in many cases, just rebranded smaller does of human stuff. Not any more.

If you are racing toward it decrepitude is still some way off.Get back to us when it’s a shuffle.

I’ve suspected most routine healthcare is a farce for a while now. I’m 42 and never get a checkup because I know they’ll ask 6 dozen stupid questions, look in my ears, ask if I smoke, and be horrified at my weight despite the fact that I’m stronger than I’ve ever been after having got serious about lifting.We are now beginning to realize that the whole cholesterol thing was a scam from the get go. The prostate exam is a is akin to trying to find a needle in a haystack, BMI is a ridiculous metric because they want us all skinny and weak and most of *their* drugs do nothing.I haven’t finished the whole podcast yet but I suspect Z doesn’t get into the birthing side of our healthcare system and what disaster it has turned out to be. My wife insisted on homebirths for our four babies and only the last one did we have in an actual hospital merely because he was very late and even then with the most minimal interventions possible. Most deliveries in hospitals result in cesarean-sections as if all of the sudden after a million years women are no longer able to give birth vaginally.After birth they insist on a million check ups for the baby despite there being no issues. I attended one of the appointments once and was startled to see the nurse take out a tape measure and measure baby’s length because being a machinist, who often works in ten thousandths of an inch, I couldn’t possibly determine the length of my baby on my own with a tape measure so we had “the professionals” do it. Then they look at the ears and the eyes, try to convince you the baby is deaf and needs a vaccine for STDs. What was actually accomplished during these checkups is unclear to me other than trying to not have some child welfare agency called on you. Maybe they want to put the baby on statins since every single other adult in the US above the age of 35 apparently needs them. (all of the sudden, one day, everyone’s blood is too thick?) The whole things is a joke and needs to come apart. I just hope there’s a lot of private practice or underground medicine available by people who are not retarded to keep us going when we actually need medical assistance.

here is a great take on the role of the pharma and hoe it is key to sooooo much abuse .https://tobyrogers.substack.com/p/how-then-shall-we-think-about-the?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Z – what’s going to collapse aren’t the Fascists, in this case Healthcare, but the geezers. You are making a Who/Whom category error; Whom always wins if Whom is a THEM. “ . A highly complex system operated by low-IQ people is doomed due to that mismatch, but throw in the tens of millions of old people demanding services and collapse is the only possible outcome.” Yea, the old people will collapse and die. Not the HC organizations.

The veterans affairs is different than the civilan hospitals, but the one thing they both have in common is their contempt for the patients. The VA has a multi-billion dollar budget, yet the care received is terrible. I have not any serious issues, but should I need serious care someday, I would be scared out of mind. The people who work at the VA tend to personify every negative stereotype of the government worker. I firmly believe the VA is just another bloated government agency whose primary goal is to pay more government workers. If all of us veterans died tomorrow, the employees would breathe a sigh of relief because they could just get paid for sitting around and doing nothjng.

Another point: OTC potassium supplement will do more for controlling HBP than their drugs (but their drugs will not work so great unless thyroid is fixed first, at which point you won’t need their drugs). Same thing they give you in the ER — IV potassium.Statins can induce what amounts to MS: destruction of the cholesterol-based neural sheathing. In old age, high cholesterol is actually protective against neural degeneration…. and happens because when thyroid declines, cholesterol isn’t utilized as efficiently. Arterial plaque has more to do with bad teeth and gum disease.There’s a researcher where I used to live in SoCal who is in that community because of a colon cancer cluster involving a single family group, and he gave a nifty presentation. He said flat out that all evidence is that it’s genetic (and that “consuming fiber” is looking to be counterproductive — uh, yeah, fiber is an irritant). From the information he presented, colon cancer appears to inherit as an incomplete dominant (probably a single gene). So if neither parent and no grandparent had it, chances that you will are just about zero.

You haven’t been somewhere that VCA or Banfield have taken over the veterinary industry, which instantly couples it with “pet insurance” (same ownership) and bean counters.At the time I had backroom privs at my vet and watched the changeover in realtime. Now all the beans that used to be bundled into overhead are individually counted, and as a direct result prices are now 10x what they were before. Meanwhile the massive influx of new income funds an army of techs and paperpushers, and now there are places where it’s impossible to actually see the vet; at most you may see the technician, with an appointment a month in advance.===High blood pressure and elevated cholesterol are nearly always secondary to declining thyroid function (which usually begins in your 50s). Fix thyroid, and the HBP and “high” cholesterol go away, along with a raft of other “problems of aging” (including heart disease). Obesity is not a cause, it’s a secondary symptom to this same complex. Low thyroid makes you hungry. so you overeat. Soy and flaxseed content makes you hypothyroid (even if you weren’t before), and there is evidence that aspartame destroys the thyroid gland (so is counterproductive).Incidentally, the black population is genetically more inclined to be hypothyroid, therefore have a higher incidence of the above. (You can pretty much chart this vs a demographic’s life expectancy.) The longer you’re nursed along through the various symptoms, the more hypothyroid you get, and the more symptoms need treatment….

Spot on Z! In the late 90’s I fired my quack doctor “the type whose prescription for all that ailes you is to hand out anti represents.” I went up to the ghestapo window and asked for my file so I could take it with me to another dr. The feminazi told me I couldn’t have my file and it would be sent to my new dr. I was done with the healthcare system right there.This was also around the time they started collecting “data” for the government with questionnaires you had to fill out before they would see you. I looked at it and was like wtf? This has nothing to do with why I’m here to see a dr. The healthcare system is nothing but a hassle and an invasion of your privacy. They treat you like they own your ass!I got into it with a doctor over an RX and he gave me some crap and I told him… “I’m the paying customer, you work for me, not the other way around.” Blew his mind. They are not used to dealing with ppl who will take them on, and not just nod and approve with everything they say.When the Covid crap hit. I kept telling ppl “it’s a scam” got into a lot of arguments with friends and family who gave me crap for refusing the clot shot… in the end I was vindicated.I won’t end up in a dr’s office or hospital unless I’m unconscious and someone calls an ambulance.I do not trust any of these bastards!When I was kid our family doctor was beloved. He had taken care of three generations of my family, the entire extended family. I had pneumonia when I was 5 years old, he made house calls to see me rather than put me in the hospital. He was the care in “healthcare.” Now all they care about is $$$.

The Dutch had a mellow fringe culture with their pot coffeehouses but of course America has to overdo and ruin absolutely everything. I have to laugh when I see all the dispensary billboards around Phoenix. It’s like a weird 1960s satirical dystopia.

The dude that supposedly discovered CTE was Nigerian. Enough said.

I feel if nurses had the same standards flight attendants did 50 years ago (i.e. you have to be hot) then some of the problems z talks about would go away

Re: Irrelevant questions on healthcare forms (waiting room activities).I had a relative who somehow found out he was put on some kind of list by the state, and he couldn’t figure out how to get off the list or how he was put on it. I discussed the matter with a friend who had had the same doc for decades and knew him well. He asked “why all the personal questions that had nothing to do with his visit?” Apparently, the state (deep south red state), collects this info from health providers for the purpose of vetting gun purchases. All the questions about “have you been depressed?” and “do you own any guns?” have nothing to do with your office visit. Same for the questions related to the drugs you take. Maybe everyone here already knew this, but it came as a shock to me. The notion that the doctor may actually look at those forms or use them to help you is ridiculous. I myself never go to the doctor, but people shouldn’t answer those questions. Zman is correct – it’s not their business. Of course, HIPAA is simply laughable.

Not too long ago my wife, a cancer patient, was bleeding into herself through a wound introduced by our hospital. We were at the emergency service when the female black doctor with those long, highly-detailed faux fingernails was nervously tapping them against her teeth and bulbous lips during diagnosis phase. This jogger then went to touch the affected area with the contaminated nails and fingerd. I batted her hand away violently and uttered what I would do to her — death — if she persisted. I demanded a new trauma doctor and was granted a good one without being arrested. We were lucky. This was N’western in Chicago, and eventually we migrated my sweetheart’s care to Sloan Kettering, which we love. My point is that even the most crucial care in the US is contaminated with garbage, even at top institutions. We live in a medical minefield today.

Back in the 1990’s when I was working in the SF Bay area tech industry, I was appalled by the high cost of the HMO system and the limitations of care it provided.Had I read this blog back then, I would have ranted on about how terrible the US medical system is compared to what we have here in Germany. How every German is insured and covered and we can practically walk into a local doctors and be seen without an appointment. Back in the day, Germany really was a model for how well socialized medicine works here in Europe.When I say “socialized”, I mean that in the same way we fund public schools, libraries, museums, roads, swimming pools, parks, etc. Everyone pays their fair share and everyone benefits equally.Public health care in Germany (medical and dental are combined) is compulsory by law at cost of 15% of your salary which is matched equally by your employer. There is a price cap where the most you can be charged is 800 Euro per month regardless of how much you earn (up to 58,000 Euros) meaning if you earn more than 58K per year, your health care premium will not exceed 800 Euros per month.One of the main benefits of the public health is that no one can lose it. For example, a couple will each pay 15% of their salary. If either loses their job, they are automatically covered under the other persons policy. If a single person looses their job, their unemployment picks up the cost of their health care. So no one can ever lose their health care. Period.Now if you want to pay for private health care, you can. Although much cheaper to start with, it becomes more expensive over the long term as rates increase with age and health status. But it doesn’t necessarily guarantee a higher level of health care. You might not have to share a room with three or four other patients and the food might be a bit better. But level of health care is the exactly same whether it’s private or public.The kicker between public and private is public looks more expensive at the start, but over time, private becomes much more expensive. Also, if you leave the public system and go into the private system, the public system is not obligated to take you back should you decide to switch over in say, 20-30 years, and contractually, you’re on the hook with the private system.Thankfully there are several provisions in our health care systems that still work starting with German law which limits restricts public hospitals from pocketing any profit. They can make a profit, which is still restricted, but by law, it has to go directly back in to the facility and not the pockets of the directors.Doctors are paid well, but not ridiculous salaries as in the US. The average German physician typically earns around 8,960 euros per month. Salaries start at around 3,300 Euros and reach 15,000 Euros.Malpractice lawsuits are almost unheard of unless the physician does something obviously incompetent or intentionally harmful. I think most Germans are intelligent enough to recognize physicians are not God and bad things do happen even under the care of the most skilled surgeons. So suing physicians and hospitals is not a “thing” here.All of these help keep prices down. Not necessarily low, but no German has ever had gone without health coverage or had to sell their house to pay for a tripple by-pass surgery.Having said all that, we are on a downward slope as well with the corporate take over of many private hospitals resulting in reduced staff, lower wages for care givers (generally nurses and staff) significantly shorter hospital stays for patient recovery and reduced long term care such as physical therapy.Since private hospitals do tend to pay a bit more than the public sector, it draws doctors and nurses away from the public hospitals so you can see how that will work out long term. However since Germans work to live, rather than living to work, enticing younger physicians with slightly higher salaries in exchange for longer hours probably won’t be the incentive HMOs think it will.But like in the US, here in Germany we are dealing with more “non-Germans” and a higher number of retirees requiring more interaction with a limited health care system, long term this will not end well here either.For anyone who’s interested, this publication in English explains how it works over here.https://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/fileadmin/Dateien/5_Publikationen/Gesundheit/Broschueren/200629_BMG_Das_deutsche_Gesundheitssystem_EN.pdfAnd this site too –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK298834/

If you think things are bad with marijuana now, wait until marijuana is de-scheduled and becomes legal at the federal level!Right now, big corporations are staying away from Marijuana and THC because it’s illegal and the banks are federal and they could lose all their money and go to federal prison.Right now marijuana is like 90s internet. Lots of small providers with good prices. It’s the wild wild West of marijuana. But when the DEA de-schedules Marijuana, all bets are off. Wait until it’s sitting on the shelves in Walmart, Target and Walgreens next to the aspirin and cold medicine.Of course, there has to be some aspect of clownworld here. A good example is the new drug driving laws. Cops are getting certified as “drug driving recognition experts,” where their word is basically law. If you get arrested for drug driving and you test positive for THC, you get a drug driving conviction. Of course, the metabolite for THC stays in your system for days for light users and up to a month for heavy users. You can be stone cold sober and get a drug driving conviction.

The cat cardiologist! I had to take my cat to the cardioligist several years ago after her check-up showed her having an unusually rapid heartbeat. They put her on some heart medicine and now she’s pushing 20 yrs! In all seriousness though, it’s astonishing how the quality of human care and veterinary care differ. I live in PA which has a cutting edge veterinary college. Several years ago, my doggo blew out her knee. A vet here completely reconstructed her knee for a couple of thousand bucks. A similar surgery on myself would have run to tens of thousands.

Off-topic…but I think I may have found a non-metal anthem for the disgruntled dissident patriot! 😂👍 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oDxynh7rG0 Have a great Friday frens.

I’m so old that my doc of nearly 3 decades retired and the HMO had to assign a new gatekeeper GP from the pool. The advantage of having a doc that knows you is that communication is easy. For example, when he asked if I taken the clot shot, I gave him the “look” and it was never discussed again.My new doc is a woman in her 30s with kids. So med school, now full-time employed, and raising a family to boot. She’s also a bike fanatic, so we get along quite well. My sense is that she is highly intelligent, with a serious work ethic, and down to Earth in terms of pushing healthy exercise/eating habits versus magic pills.Here is my dilemma. On top of all of the above, she is stunningly attractive in a girl-next-door kind of way. No makeup, just what God gave her. Why is that a problem you ask? I usually ride to my exams wearing tight bike shorts. And she is too polite to draw attention to my embarrassment.

I think what you’re going to find is that high end medical clinics with all the latest equipment and English speaking doctors will pop up in towns like Tijuana, Mexicali, Ciudad Juarez, etc. etc. No, I’m not talking about the plastic surgery mills that kill their patients from time to time. Well-to-do people in places like the wealthier suburbs of San Diego will decide that they’d rather be tended to by doctors and nurses who are not the product of American medical schools, what with test scores being thrown out as admittance criteria and racial quotas ensuring that qualified white applicants are kept out.

Wow, is this ever a timely subject.Like Z, I am in good health and only interact with the “health care system” for an annual physical.But my 82-year old dad got sick and died last year, and that was an eye-opener for all the wrong reasons. He was double-vaxxed but got COVID anyway. Due to other health Issues, I took him to the ER for his fever of 102.5. I was afraid he was going to die right there, the big, fat, lethargic black receptionists didn’t give a fuck and it was difficult to even understand their Ebonics. There were probably 30 people ahead of him with insignificant boo-boos finger-fucking cell phones.He finally got admitted and after a couple of hours a young white male nurse got his fever down. I was relieved, thinking this would be no big deal. Wrong. Then they quarantined him for ten days and we couldn’t see him. He didn’t have his hearing aid so they wrote him off as a dementia patient and basically didn’t feed him anything. At the end of the ten days he had recovered from COVID but he hadn’t eaten so they told us he had to go on a feeding tube in a nursing home or else we had to sign off that he was a terminal hospice patient. They assured us that once we did that he could eat steak every day if he wanted, for fuck’s sake. The doctor was a fat slob and he was pitching hospice like a used-car salesman.I tried to spoon-feed him for a few days but to no avail. I asked an obese lesbian nurse with a 1/2 inch buzz cut and a voice like a second-grader for a spoon for his applesauce.She offered me a fork. My wife wend down five floors to the cafeteria to get a spoon.With only a couple of exceptions the nurses were basically useless and stayed in the hallway all day finger-fucking cell phones and flirting with blacks.I’ve never seen a bigger clusterfuck in my life, and he was in a “private” hospital with good insurance.When it’s my time I think I’d rather just go out into the woods with a bottle of bourbon to die by myself.

the ironic thing is a person has far more control over their health than a doctor does (if that makes sense). if you do a few simple things, like avoid toxic pseudo-foods, limit caloric intake, exercise daily for at least 45 minutes, etc you will have good health and not need doctors and their dysfunctional treatments. but most people are unwilling to make any effort in this regard, and therefore they suffer the consequences. there is a wealth of information online about improving your health, and avoiding harmful behavior, that is far more effective than anything your GP is going to tell or give you.

Most excellent rant – because so so true.Last time I went to my doc he fired me because I don’t have insurance. Could not believe I was even in his office without insurance even though ready to pay cash. He was only my doc b/c he replaced my last one who quit after covid. I think most of the thinking ones split then.

Anyone manage to find a rheumatologist that works for cash? Asking for a friend…

Sounds like the best of all pills might be a .357 slug.

Excellent podcast on a topic that (unfortunately) I know far too much about, having worked in HC in various capacities for over 20 years, now as a lab tech. In that time I’ve learned two important things. First, while individual caregivers *may* care about you and your health, the overall system couldn’t care in the slightest. As you say, you are merely a source of revenue. Second, the modern healthcare system is a massive money-laundering operation. You learn this if you have to be admitted for any reason, because at no time in the process can you get an accurate figure on what you owe. Billing is shifted around through various departments and providers, through insurance companies, then back (eventually) to the patient. If any other private company ran their books this way, they’d be jumped on by all sorts of government agencies. In HC, it’s just a day that ends in Y.Is healthcare a lifestyle? Absolutely! How many other professions do you know of where its practitioners are told every day that they are FRIGGIN’ HEROES?! Sadly, a large percentage of them actually believe it, especially nurses (now, don’t get me started on nurses…). Doctors are even worse. Well, some doctors. Like most professions, we rarely notice the ones who just do their jobs well. It’s the bad ones we really remember. From where I sit, Oncologists and Anesthesiologists are the worst, as far as having god-complexes.I completely agree with you on how the healthcare professions were primarily responsible for the covid hysteria. These people were out of control, and it was especially bad inside the business, where the ego-boost really made them feel more important than ever. To describe it as “cult-ish” is an understatement. These people went crazy.Also, you are completely correct that most of healthcare could be done by computers. Considering that almost ALL of healthcare decisions are based on algorithms, that point seems obvious. When you get to emergency medicine, the ‘decision tree’ algorithms become a religion. Very few providers have the ability to make independent decisions, nor are the empowered to. Also, from a CYA standpoint (which is the absolute driving force for all providers), deviation from the algorithm can mean increased liability, and that’s the one thing that they care about more than profits.Regarding you visit to get labs drawn… The redundancy seems to be more intense with vibrancy. Honestly, I would be very nervous having your experience if she wasn’t being required to repeatedly check your info. It is amazingly easy to switch labels on the samples. Then, you get a call from your doctor telling you you need to get biopsies, more testing, etc, when you are healthy, but your test label got switched with the 300-lb African man your ‘highly-qualified’ phlebotomist was chatting with right after your visit.As for vet samples, most labs aren’t validated to run veterinary samples. Mine used to be validated for hematology only, but that went away when we got new analyzers. Believe it or not, many different types of critter blood can really foul up an analyzer. There’s also a matter of keeping the testing calibrated and QC’d for all the different critter types, which can be a real cost and maintenance issue.My last point is regarding your comparison of human to veterinary healthcare. I got a real eye-opener when I was deployed to the Role 3 hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It was like the veterinary clinic you described except for humans. No HR department, no billing/referals, nothing that wasn’t directly meant for patient care. It was amazing. The doctors loved it. As a patient, everything happened quickly and efficiently, and no one came to you about co-pays or deductibles. It really was refreshing to see how medicine is supposed to be practiced.

I will interject to appreciate some aspects of the health care system. My wife has had five c-sections, and the physiology of her body is such that if we were in the 1800’s I would have buried my wife after she died delivering our first child.For our most recent, my wife was in recovery for four days, and our child had to be in the NICU for 8 days. We haven’t gotten all the bills, but our insurance is looking at paying 150 grand for everything, our family about $1000. The nurses were also excellent and caring, our doctor professional and competent, and they surprisingly did not push back when we refused the Hep B vaccine.That being said, 150 grand for a routine surgery and for two people to stay in the hospital for a few days is ludicrous, and I would argue about 75% of it was administrative.As for the connection with the nurses, that’s something I noticed too. Lucky most of the nurses were wholesome and a good influence, I’ve had doctor friends who always tell me how insane their nurses are. Mind you, this is considered the best hospital in the state, so that clearly helps, can’t imagine how poorly a hospital operates in poorer areas.

Eat too much = get fat.

When the doctor asks me “how are you today” as part of exchanging basic pleasantries, he codes that exchange as a “depression screening” and gets a nice insurance payout. Medical billing, just like every other part of the system, is an enormous grift.

As I like to tell people, you could ask 10 people what was wrong with the American healthcare system and you’d get 10 different answers and they would all be correct.Also, this is a hobby horse of super-normie Karl Denninger and I recall an interview with him (that he posted on his site) where he said that a big part of Obamacare was to rescue the high-risk insurance pools which were going to fail. The interviewer asked that if the costs were backed back out and the pools subsequently failed what would then happen to those in the high risk pools and Denninger notably responded:“I don’t know”No there won’t be any of that, better that no one ever have any regular diagnostics ever again than there be one sob-story on the news about a baby born with an exotic heart condition who didn’t make it due to the “heartless healthcare system”.

This is one area where “Gaze,” (a favorite term of the old New Left) actually applies, and Michel Foucault is actually worth reading. “The Birth of the Clinic” examines how the inherently imbalanced power dynamic between patient and doctor leads to some corrupt and finally sadistic dynamics. We always talk about there being a certain percentage of cops and prison guards who get into it not because it’s a steady job, but because it feeds something sadistic or authoritarian in their personality. We rarely think about it as regards doctors, but we obviously need to.That’s another reason they might spring Saran Saran Wrap Man free from that California prison sooner rather than later; another Kennedy needs be “removed from the ballot.” Snakeman Newsom runs that state, and is in-line to replace the Mummy in the White House, so why not issue a pardon to Bobby’s killer?

You were trying to remember the name of that scan that your vet does: Cat scan.(BA DUM TSSS)

Gonna do a bit of an effort-post here, but before I get to that, a couple quick points: I think when you finally get away from Lagos (hopefully to a more rural area) you’ll find that in smaller, less vibrant towns that the system does actually work much better. As a rule, the farther away you get from diversity, the better the system works. Kinda true for life in general, eh?Second, for what you’re spending on premiums vs. your actual healthcare costs, you might want to consider a “concierge” medical plan. Basically, no insurance, cash only. It’s much, much cheaper and far more efficient. Also, the providers who run those plans seem much happier to be doing their jobs.

From what I have heard and read, the reason for the constant repetition of questions is for the benefit of the medical workers. These dunces need that done to help prevent grabbing the wrong information and treating you for the wrong thing. I think the number of deaths in the U.S. attributed to medical errors is likely exaggerated, but still significant.

These are truly bad times to be a hypochondriac

Like everything we can look to Britain and Canada for a glimpse into the next phase of decay. Ultimately, it will probably be South African levels of bad.Our task is to continue with a demographic separation. We have to give ourselves some chance of getting treatment by our own folk. That may be impossible given the race based Tammany Hall that they will turn medical services into. But, we have to try. I also think we have to get rid of the ideas of freedom and voluntary interaction. They control the system. We need to accept reality and get control of the system, and run it by us and for us. They chose the rules of a zero-sum race based spoils system. We have to play for keeps for our benefit.I think Canada’s first signs of throwing in the towel is mass assisted suicide – MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying I believe). They are starting with vets and elderly white people. In the meantime, a new medical center opened in New York where people can pay something like $300,000 for an annual membership. They will get aristocratic medical care.

My recent experience shows the stark changes in the American healthcare system over 30 years.Back in 1995, when I was 15, I broke my femur at the neck. The way it broke damaged the blood supply to my hip joint, which caused necrosis. This is the same exact issue Bo Jackson had when he dislocated his hip/femur and ended his football career, necessitating a hip replacement. As a teenager I was too young for a hip replacement, so they decided to do a flexion osteotomy, where they re-break the femur, rotate the head, and also put a bone graft from my pelvis into the femoral head to strengthen it. It was known then that the joint was far from perfect and would eventually wear out, but this solution would work well enough for a while.When all this took place, I was referred to the top orthopaedic surgeon in the area, and he spent time 1:1 with me and my parents going over everything, explaining how everything would work, showing us his drawings for what he planned to do. He was very hands on and customized. It was very personal.Fast-forward to last year, when I finally had my hip replaced. Everything was impersonal, run through a system. The “consultation” was done by a nurse in a classroom setting with a dozen or so others in line for hip replacements. Time spent with the actual surgeon was as minimal as possible.Even better, when first investigating the possibility of getting my hip replaced, I met with an orthopaedist (not surgeon) who referred me to the surgeon. This orthopaedist, not an American, made sure he also prescribed me a bunch of narcotic anti-inflammatories for my pain. I never had the prescription filled, as I certainly didn’t need that. I’d just take a couple Advil when I played golf.After the hip replacement operation, they prescribed me a 6-week supply of several narcotic pain killers and anti-inflammatories. I lasted on that regimen for about 4 days and then stopped, as I didn’t like how I felt, and would just take Tylenol if the pain was bothering me. The street value of all those pills was probably in the 5-figure range. They’d even send instructions on how to dispose of them, and call me as a follow up to make sure I was ok and not addicted. So you have unnecessary pain killer prescriptions and make-work for people to follow up to see if people are getting addicted. What a grift. I don’t recall being prescribed excessive amounts of narcotic pain killers after my surgery in the 1990s.To summarize, we’ve moved from personal, patient-focused medicine to a machine-like system which ensures it maximizes drugs prescribed.

“If you want to understand fascist economics, spend some time in the American healthcare system.”If you can, watch the 1971 film, “The Hospital”, directed by Arthur Hiller. That more or less describes the whole US “healthcare” system in its venality and indifference to patients. The system is “private” only in the sense that if you don’t have insurance (and often even if you do), you’re liable for payment for medical services. The system is a network of rackets. Medical expenses are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the USA. The “healthcare” system is the most important reason — though there are others — to quit the country. The grass really is greener on the other side.I spent four days in hospital in 2020. I was billed $32,000 essentially for just a bed. A suite in a five-star hotel in Manhattan would probably have been cheaper. All sorts of “services” and tests I had no interest in, and which had nothing to do with my illness, were provided, and each cost from several hundred to thousands. Even the Sicilian mafia is not so venal.

Thank you for sharing your check-up experience. You apparently have “high cholesterol” and were recommended a statin, which you refused (wisely, in my opinion.)Permit me to pontificate on this specific issue and some closely related, such as diet. In the past year I’ve deeply researched these and I feel I know a few things about it.The official dogma, of course, holds that “high cholesterol” is a primary driver of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and that it must be lowered. But here’s a question: What if this dogma is mostly, perhaps completely wrong? Here is not the place to recount the tale of how saturated fat came to be demonized, or Pharma’s half-century quest to find drugs that knock down lipid numbers. You can find that info elsewhere if you’re curious. There are many books on the topic. I’m a fan of Dr. Malcolm Kendrick. You can get a taste of him from his website:https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/Some personal experience: I was on a statin, a blood pressure medication, baby aspirin, for nearly three years. All as a recommended preventative. A year ago I began to ask myself “Just how much of a benefit do these have?” I’ll skip the details, but a fair summary is (my opinion of course): Yes, these drugs do have benefits, these reduce incidence of heart attack, stroke and the like. But the benefit is so slight, is it really worthwhile? And there are inevitable costs: at the patient level, it costs hundreds of dollars per year in doctor’s visits, tests, and the drugs themselves (even if generic, as most of them are.) And how about the risk of adverse effects? These always exist and are usually glossed over. Statistically, these preventions scarcely will extend your life expectancy. Estimates vary, but in the case of statins, I’ve seen estimates their benefits are measured in added weeks, or a few months at best.In my own case, I asked myself “Is it really worth taking these drugs for twenty or more years, at an annual cost of (I calculated) $1000 out-of-pocket, incurring the risk of possible side effects, all for the promise of living an extra several months or a year when I’m in my decrepit 80s?” As you might guess, the answer came back “Hell no!” I unilaterally dropped the drugs. Any future preventive treatment, or even potentially risky diagnostics (I’ve had a few colonoscopies myself. No incidents, but they do have potentially serious complications. Finally, am I really at high risk, in other words, what is the expected value of the diagnostic? I want to know, beforehand.)Now consider some implications of the above. Those advisory committees, government health agencies, and the medical system as a whole promotes such treatments indicate serious flaws and conflicts of interest in the system. Statins alone are one of the most common health interventions. They cost governments and patients billions of dollars a year. They are claimed to be miraculous yet they have a minuscule benefit. But they DO benefit the Medical Guild. Profit$$$.If you really want to improve your health, start with your diet. Don’t trust the official recommendations. Is high fat bad for you? I disagree. I’ve had great results by going low carb (currently on Atkins). I lost 20 Lb. In less than three months. My lipid panel improved dramatically compared to readings a couple years earlier when my diet had more sugar and junk carbs. My desire for sugary snacks has greatly declined.Even if I’m wrong (and sometimes I am), the principle still applies: Question everything. Do your own research. Don’t take anyone’s counsel, even your doctor’s, at face value.Now of course none of that proves that (say) Atkins is the answer or that low carb is without its risks. But it is first hand experience, a validation of the claims of an “alternative” health regimen that a person can see for himself, either on the bathroom scale or on a routine medical test.Here’s another tip I learnt. It’s an example of an (apparently) valid health metric, yet one that’s not yet become mainstream. It’s called the Atherogenic Index. Get your recent lipid panel. Divide triglycerides by HDL. (With the proviso that when the test was done, you were NOT taking a statin or other medications that influence your lipid levels)Is the number near 2 or even less? This indicates your cardiovascular health is likely excellent.Is the number closer to 5? That’s a red flag. It’s a marker that you are at higher risk for present or future CVD.Again, my personal experience: My junk-food era readings (5 years ago) were as high as 4.7. My most recent test, after two months of Atkins, is 1.8.I’d lay good money your doctor has never heard of this ratio, nor of newer tests that measure particle size (sub types of the various lipids.) It’s a truism that large institutions change only very slowly. Medical dogma, and the treatments dispensed, are often based upon decades-old research. That’s bad enough, but doubly so when it’s been calcified by profit interests. Of course not all new research turns out to be valid. But the problem remains that the new, valid wisdom is only adopted very slowly and grudgingly – and that’s if it ever even gets a fair hearing, which it often doesn’t.Sorry if I’ve run on too long. I’ll wrap it up: Especially in the case of prevention, do your own research. Your doctor and other experts operate under many limitations, many potentially detrimental to the quality of care they’re supposed to provide. You can learn a lot by selective reading of books and Internet resources, many available free of charge. For example, on PubMed, a search of “atherogenic index” yields 1770 results. Not all are open access, but many are.Don’t believe just anything you may read of course, but verify when possible.The lies we tell ourselves are probably the most harmful. But a close second are those we believe from trusted advisors, whether they do so by ignorance, good intention or malice.

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