I protest

I recently started taking a statin. I am not happy about this.

I would not object if I had bad cholesterol, but I don't. I never have. The philosophy behind it is that diabetes increases my risk for heart disease and a statin will lower that risk. My doctor has been trying to get me on one for two years now, and I finally gave in.

I was already aware of the heart risks that are considered to accompany diabetes, because the Jardiance commercials make such a big deal of it. I am on Jardiance. I was previously on Farxiga, which worked great for me, but my insurance plan wanted the switch. That is not the first time that plans have mandated a change from a medication on which I was doing well. Nonetheless, still doing well on Jardiance. Fine. Shouldn't that be enough protection for my heart?

I am also on a blood pressure medication, even though my blood pressure is good. In this case it is because it serves to protect organs that are put at higher risk with diabetes.

Am I just a complainer? Maybe, but there are a few frustrations going on here.

One is that I am kind of proud of all of the other health factors that are good. Yes, I am diabetic, but I have good blood pressure and cholesterol and I still have full sensitivity in my feet after having diabetes for twenty years, and I am sensitive to when my blood sugar drops or when I my immune system is getting low. You may remember a few years ago that one of my goals was to get in touch with my body, and I think it worked.

That could easily go a wrong way, with me trying to feel that I am not like other diabetics and I am somehow superior to them -- that is a surprisingly common pitfall, with other conditions too. That is not my intention.

Instead it feels more like that for the medical industry, any other efforts and accomplishments don't matter; I am still diabetic and these things happen to diabetic people no matter what you do.


Frankly, that is not the best way to encourage good health practices.

(And there is probably a lot of it where you can use "fat" and "diabetic" interchangeably, at least for perceptions.) 

I like my doctor. I have liked other doctors I have had in the past. I think they have been smart and caring and wanted the best for me.

I also know that what they can do is constrained by my insurance coverage, and I believe those insurance plans are influenced by the pharmaceutical companies, and the studies they promote. I don't know that they have my best interests at heart.

Screw that; I know they don't. Pfizer knew Enbrel could help prevent Alzheimer's and they didn't explore it or invest in it.

https://www.beingpatient.com/pfizer-coverup-enbrel-etanercept-alzheimers/

I take that personally.

And I'm fascinated by it, and the apparent link with inflammation that seems to be at the root of so much, but also, I care about people. Even if I am not personally affected by a condition or in any position to profit from it, I still want that research to happen.

Coming from a perspective of corporatism and capitalism, well, it just makes more sense to try and get more people to take the drugs you've already got.

Funny how that works.