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.
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
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