We're willing to spend god knows what shooting rounds that cost entire mortgages to save miltary lives and project a presence of power to deter acts of terror/war, but then are also totally fine having people way as much as 4 or 5 people, eating several days worth of sugar for breakfast, smoking tobacco, putting 3 cups of coffee in a can we drink 4 or five of in a day, do next to nothing to adress recidivism of all classes of criminal, drag our feet kicking and screaming in to a semblance of modernity in worker protections...
When the underlying economic model of CONSUMPTION = GOOD is viewed as a religion or universal law of nature, it's actually not surprising that people are irrational about this.
This may be partially due to the many all-or-nothing crusaders who would prefer to use force in their quest for full protection of the citizen. Many people overcorrect because they fear that even voluntary programs are steps in this direction. Trust is low.
We have a long and sordid history with extreme and failed prevention (prohibition, the Mann Act, war on drugs).
A soldier and an obese person are examples at polar opposites of that moral spectrum. The policiest just follow that.
They'll use flawed research to claim diet and exercise don't work for obesity, then the general public uses that research and claims, "Diet doesn't work for fat people."
Soon, everyone is convinced every guy with a trivial amount of weight to lose needs to be on GLP-1s.
uh? That's literally what causes terror and wars lmao
brandonb•44m ago
- ApoB - about 20% of people with normal cholesterol results will have abnormal ApoB, and be at risk of heart disease.
- Lp(a) - the strongest hereditary risk factor for heart disease.
- hs-CRP - inflammation roughly doubles your risk of heart disease
- HbA1c - insulin resistance is a risk factor for just about everything.
- eGFR - estimates the volume of liquid your kidneys can filter, and is an input to the latest heart disease risk models (PREVENT).
These are simple blood tests. You can get them for <$200 through my company or others: https://empirical.health/product/comprehensive-health-panel
Imaging is great for detecting calcified plaque in your coronary arteries. But before you have calcified plaque, the above risk factors tell you about the buildup of soft plaque. And 4 out of 5 of them are modifiable through lifestyle, exercise, and medication.
someguydave•43m ago
brandonb•38m ago
- If you made a dietary change (e.g., more fiber and less saturated fat), the tests tell you whether it actually worked.
- Statins are dosed based on the LDL or ApoB reduction you need. The most powerful statins cut cholesterol by 50%, but at higher doses the risk of side effects does go up.
- Other medications like PCSK9 inhibitors and ezetimibe exist, and whether to use them depends on the other numbers. For example, PCSK9 inhibitors have a secondary benefit of lowering Lipoprotein(a), and statins and GLP-1s have a secondary benefit of lowering inflammation.
- If blood pressure, HbA1c, etc is high, then there's a slightly different set of diet advice and a very different set of medications. For example, lowering blood pressure through diet is mostly about reducing sodium and increasing potassium.