Have you followed a health practice or idea you've later regretted?

[snagglepuss]

For years I doused whatever I could with cinnamon. I was easily ingesting over a tablespoon daily. It was only later that I discovered that cinnamon had health benefits though I didn't pay attention to the amount that was healthy - I assumed that if a bit was good tons would be harmless. I have recently discovered that too much is actually harmful.

"Some cinnamon (Chinese or cassia cinnamon) contains a compound, coumarin. In excess, this can harm the liver of sensitive people."

snip

"Two tablespoons of cinnamon daily is a very big dose. You should have your liver enzymes checked when you see your doctor."

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/04/health/he-pharmacy4



I've also followed diets I've regretted such as one diet that promoted the idea to eating what one craves and not fight cravings - better to eat a donut than obsess about it. Supposedly giving into craving would eliminate the craving. I gave into to my cravings and put on weight.

[Sanity Claws]

1. The Atkins Diet

All that meat -- I killed all those animals for that diet.

[snagglepuss]

5. I know people who swore up and down praising the Atkins diet, then

changed their opinion.

[Warpy]

17. I did the Stillman diet back in the early 70s

when I was young and stupid and didn't know much. I'm one of those people who doesn't feel particularly good eating meat. Even eating seafood, cheese and nuts was terrible. I was constipated, sweating, shaking and miserable after the first week. I don't want to know what my renal function and liver enzymes were like. Really.

I decided at that point that fad deficiency diets were not going to work. In any case, people told me I was too thin anyway and I figured it was time to start listening.

[Deja Q]

2. Agreeing with one shrink who prescribed me pills that had me gaining 25 pounds... oh, and the chiro

who fucked me up that I had to have surgery to have a disc removed that was firmly embedded in my spinal cord. (oh, the shrink kept blaming the involuntary tremors as anxiety, gave me a pill, still had tremors, he blamed the pill for it all. I should have sued him back to the stone age, the goddamn fuckin' worthless piece of shit quack... one day I'll say how I truly feel about these grossly overpaid jackasses...).

[snagglepuss]

9. My whole family has wierd reactions to drugs. I was prescribed Tagamet

once and the first night got Tachicardia which is a racing pulse. Doctor was stunned when the ECG came back said that it was a really rare side effect. I have since learned that doctors aren't required to report drug side effects so the extant of bad reactions go undocumented.

So I feel for you. Nothing worse than trusting a doctor only to get stuck with miserable side effects of a drug. As for chiros, I'm very leery of necks being cracked but I once opted to go to one but decided to go to a school that taught it. The teacher determined nothing wrong with spine so no ajustments but I was treated for soft muscle injury. Since that was okay and I then went to a private practice. The chiro said my back was okay but that I had fallen arches. That was priceless because I had once read that if chiros don't find anything wrong with your spine you'll get diagnosed with fallen arches. I never went back.

[Mrs. Overall]

3. I was vegan for awhile for health reasons--

and I ended up seriously and dangerously anemic.

[cmd]

4. Every diet I have ever been on

Every one has ended up with gaining the pounds back plus more pounds. I should have been happy to be a size 14 and curvy.

[snagglepuss]

31. yo-yo is my second name and I too definely wish I was happy when I was size 14.

[snagglepuss]

7. I got anemic on a vegetarian diet but only because I was going through

a difficult period and had no motivation to cook. Being vegetarian really requires effort and I imagine being a vegan needs even more.


This reminds me of another dumb thing I did. Once an acquittance who taught nursing mentioned in a conversation that people shouldn't take iron supplements due the possibility of hematomacrosis. She said the body will keep iron stores. For some reason I took that advice to heart and its bad advice especially if one is vegetarian female with heavy periods. Before my anemia was diagnosed I simply attributed my extreme fatigue due to the graveyard shift I was on, it never dawned on me that I might be low on iron because I assumed that the body kept iron stores intact and that companies that flogged iron supplements were simply con artists. My iron stores were so low that had I waited any longer my doctor said I would have need a transfusion.

[kestrel91316]

6. Years ago my doctor put me on sulfasalazine for a chronic GI problem.

I started getting really feverish and sick after a few days, to the point of missing work. I told my doctor, and he said to keep taking the medication.

Big mistake. I am apparently highly allergic to sulfa drugs, lol. Spent the weekend of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the hospital, having my own medical meltdown.

At least I lived to laugh about it.

[snagglepuss]

10. I had a very bad reaction to Tagamet once and since then I look at drugs in a

whole different way. In March for the first time in my life my cholestoral numbers shot through the roof, a new doctor insisted I go on Lipitor, she said there was no other option. I stupidly got the drug but then sense took over and I never took it, I opted for diet. Four months later all my numbers were halved by diet alone.

[kestrel91316]

14. I have never figured out why physicians are so incredibly CLUELESS

about the role of nutrition in health. It boggles the mind.

[snagglepuss]

15. The doctor I saw has since been let go by the clinic. According to Rate your MD

a number her clients were appalled with her cluelessness and her imperious attitude. As to why in this day and age diet/nutrition isn't given more weight by doctors is mind boggling. IMO drugs should be last resort not the first.

[timeforpeace]

26. Ask your pharmacist. They know more than the docs and it's free.

[snagglepuss]

29. Very true. When I was prescribed Lipitor my pharmasist asked me if the

doctor did a liver function test. She hadn't and it was that which got me hestitating about starting Lipitor. I did the research and opted for diet instead which worked wonderfully.

[timeforpeace]

32. Good lord, not ordering liver tests prior to Lipitor or any other statin therapy is malpractice IMO.

[snagglepuss]

33. Wow. I had no idea that not having the test is that bad. Amazing what one can learn.

Thanks for the info.

[busybl]

8. Atkins diet

ended up in the hospital

[snagglepuss]

12. I think alot of people have been negatively affected by Atkins diet.

It seems to work but it seems to take a real toll on health.

[TygrBright]

11. In the early 90s I went on an ultra-low-fat diet for a while.

And it involved eating all kinds of highly processed, fat-free, imitation "foods."

Fortunately, I wasn't on it for very long.

But now that I know how creepy all those "fat-free cookies" and "fat-free ice creams" and "fat-free cheeses(!!)" and suchlike are, I wonder if that period has anything to do with the hormonal problems I had for several years in the mid-90s.

regretfully,
Bright

[snagglepuss]

13. I too went on the low fat diet but it was the Ornish diet which meant avoiding

all processed food. It worked really well but I got terrible insomnia, days went by without sleep. After some research, I found out that I wasn't getting enough Essential Fatty Acid so I started taking Flax Oil and the insomnia ended. I now adhere to the Mediterranean diet which really has taken weight off and is easier to follow.

[tabatha]

16. Yep, after a tick bite when the tick was only attached for about 5 minutes

The doctor prescribed two sequential 6-week courses of antibiotics (12 weeks in all) for possible lyme disease.
I found out later that for a 5 minute tick attachment, no procedure is necessary.
I should have taken probiotics during the course but did not.

After that I became susceptible to fungus, and have slowly learned to eat only certain foods to get rid of that susceptibility. I am now trying to follow the paleo diet.

[snagglepuss]

18. I never heard about the 5 minute rule about ticks. Recently the CBC did an

indepth report about Lyme disease and that the problem they highlighted was that doctors aren't diagnosing and responding fast enough as there is only a certain time frame that it can be successfully treated. It seems that the consequences of Lyme are horrible. Being suspectible to fungus is no minor thing but perhaps this is a catch22 situation.

[tabatha]

22. It is not a 5 minute rule - it is a 24-hour rule.

[snagglepuss]

24. Are you saying a tick has to be attached 24 hours before treatment is required?

[tabatha]

27. Yep, by some stupidity

I got another tick which was on me from late evening to the next morning, and I went to a different doctor in the emergency room. He did nothing. He said only after 24 hours is it a problem. Nothing bad has occurred because of that lack of treatment. By the way, he said this after looking it up on his computer and other references, and he said that I was overdosed the first time.

The overdose doctor, at the time of my first visit, suggested an expensive procedure for something else that I took care of myself. There are some doctors that over-treat.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

38. Do you know what that time frame is?

It took them almost 4 months to diagnose my lyme disease. The disease itself is pretty horrible, the treatment was a breeze. Took me about 2 weeks to feel 100% and a couple of months to put the weight back on. I haven't had any long term consequences it's been almost 12 years.

[endless october]

19. Atkins.

went back and did it the right way and lost all of the weight from low cal / low fat.

now most days are maintenance days with the occasional slip day thrown in there. have kept the weight off for more than a year now (with exercise, as well.) and today's a slip day, so that means a nice burger for dinner.

other health practices i've regretted : the "i know smokers who are 80 plus years old, so it's probably not as bad as they say."

that was another delusion of my 20s. i wouldn't have been one of the 80 year old smokers. i would have been the one that they make the scary commercial about. glad to be off the cancer sticks, and hopefully i quit in time.

[snagglepuss]

20. Congrats on quitting smoking. As for whether you stopped in time, rest assured that the

benefits start immeditely. According to Cancer Org:


20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drops.


12 hours after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.


2 weeks to 3 months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.


1 to 9 months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce the risk of infection.


1 year after quitting: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.


5 years after quitting: Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker 5 to 15 years after quitting.


10 years after quitting: The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker's. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decrease, too.


15 years after quitting: The risk of coronary heart disease is the same as a non-smoker's.




http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ped/content/ped_10_13x_guide_for_quitting_smoking.asp

[endless october]

21. thanks.

i'm a year out of it and still fairly young.

starting in the first place was very dumb. i suppose i initially thought i'd just do it until it wasn't interesting any more. that isn't how nicotine works, however.

[snagglepuss]

23. Are you familiar with Vitamin D and its benefit for lung function among other things?

"Our research shows that vitamin D may also have a strong influence on lung health, with greater levels of vitamin D associated with greater and more positive effects on lung function."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4521060.stm

[endless october]

30. i hadn't read that before.

thanks for the link.

[PBass]

47. Atkins type diet works very, very well for me too.

Minimize starches... minimal or no bread, pasta, rice, crackers, starchy vegetables like potatoes etc.

I lost a bunch of weight and feel much much better. YMMV.

I referred to the website lowcarbdiets.about.com for guidance.

[CrispyQ]

25. I continue to refuse to get a mammogram.

Maybe I'll regret it someday, but I'm just not convinced that squeezing my breasts & dosing them with radiation is a good thing.

Interestingly, my doctor has been harping on me about the mammogram for the past 7 years but has never said a word about my expanding mid-section. :crazy: Last year, only when I inquired how much I weighed, did she noticed that I had lost 25 pounds. She made a brief comment, but then immediately proceeded to give me the mammogram lecture. :eyes:

My sister, who is obese, says her doctor never talks to her about her weight. Her doctor will check her for weight related health issues, but never addresses the base cause. :wtf:

[snagglepuss]

28. The dose of radiation is low. You get the same amount flying in a plane.

Given that I had a benign breast tumor in my twenties, I did some volunteer work educating women about self exams though now they're not recommended as they create so much anxiety and mammograms. Mammograms aren't dangerous but there is now alot of debate about their usefulness.

If you aren't going to go that route, I hope you' know your Vitamin D level as it has been shown that a high Vitamin D level is associated with lower breast cancer rates and that most people are sorely deficient in this vitamin.

[CountAllVotes]

34. thank you for this information

:thumbsup:

You said a lot in a few sentences there. I am on the vitamin D myself right now due to a very low reading.

As for mammograms, I really don't ever want to get another one after the last one I had. I was all bruised up and in pain for almost 2 weeks after wards.

I swore I'd get to the bottom of it. I postulated that it was a man that had invented the mammogram technology and I was correct. Sadly, the equipment they are using widely today was invented in the year 1913 and has changed very little since that time. :mad:

And these doctors dare wonder why women don't want mammograms and the possible frightening results which may or may not be accurate?

Thanks again.

[snagglepuss]

35. Well you'll love this boob exam poem by Anonymous

For years and years they told me,
Be careful of your breasts.
Don't ever squeeze or bruise them.
And give them monthly tests.

So I heeded all their warnings,
And protected them by law.
Guarded them very carefully,
And I always wore my bra.

After 30 years of astute care,
My doctor found a lump.
She ordered up a mammogram,
To look inside that bump.
"Stand up very close" she said.
As she got my boob in line,
"And tell me when it hurts" she said.
"Ah yes! There, that's fine.

She stepped upon a pedal.
I could not believe my eyes!
A plastic plate pressed down and down,
My boob was in a vise!

My skin was stretched and stretched,
From way up under my chin.
My poor boob was being squashed,
To Swedish pancake thin.

Excruciating pain I felt.
Within it's vice-like grip.
A prisoner in this viscous thing,
My poor defenseless tit!

"Take a deep breath" she said to me,
Who does she think she's kidding?
My chest is mashed in her machine,
And woozy I am getting.

"There, that was good," I heard her say
As the room was slowly swaying.
"Now, let's have a go at the other one."
Lord have mercy I was praying.

It squeezed me from up and down.
It squeezed me from both sides.
I'll bet she's never had this done,
Not to her tender little hide!

If I had no problem when I came in,
I surely have one now.
If there had been a cyst in there,
It would have popped, "ker-pow!"

This machine was created by a man,
Of this, I have no doubt.
I'd like to stick his balls in there,
And see how they come out!

[CountAllVotes]

36. believe me

a man invented it. I researched this THROUGHLY after that mammogram from HELL. I swear to God, the woman doing it was like something out of the 3rd Reich! :nuke:

That said I have since been advised that they now have "updated" equipment at another radiology place where I live.

I have to be screened I am told being I must use a very low-dose HRT. *sigh*

Can I go right on ahead an say how much I hate this fucking crap!?

Thanks for your post - gave me a laugh ... well sorta!

:evilgrin: (too familiar is the reality of it!!!)

[Why Syzygy]

44. My last

GYN (female) tried to black mail me into getting a mammogram by holding HRT as bait. What a sweet deal. It wasn't always that way.

I use some herbs. Pomegranate powder looks promising.
I'm lucky that I can just make do with other options.

[CountAllVotes]

45. you are lucky

I tried many other options. It got so bad that I had to start using HRT. Now I get blackmailed into these damned mammograms. If I could do without HRT I would glady be rid of it. Given my current medical status, it is not an option sadly. :( :( :(

[gkhouston]

52. The first time I had a mammogram, the height adjustment on the machine was stuck

and the last woman who'd had a mammogram was much shorter than I am. Imagine doing the screamin' screenin' while crouching! :o

[snagglepuss]

54. OMG

You have me groaning and laughing at the same time. I don't know how you managed to endure that.

[laughingliberal]

37. Mammograms, IMHO, are a double edged sword

On the one hand, they do catch some early stage breast cancers that can be treated. On the other hand about 1/3 of women diagnosed with breast cancer's last mammogram was negative. I think they are fine as one screening tool but not to be considered the last word.

[CrispyQ]

41. My concern is more about the squeezing of the breast than the radiation.

Like your poem below states, I was always told to be careful not to take a blow to the breast or to squeeze them. Now I'm to throw that advice aside & squeeze & radiate them.

Thanks for the vitamin D info. I supplement & walk daily for an hour, so I think I'm ok. But next annual exam, I will ask to have my D levels checked, while at the same time refusing to get a mammogram! ;)

[Orrex]

42. Well, there's squeezing and then there's squeezing

Generally speaking, you're not supposed to jab a fiber optic camera up your rectum, either, but the technique is quite helpful in diagnosing polyps in the colon.

[CountAllVotes]

46. make sure you get it checked

mine was the 2nd lowest reading my internist had ever seen. Not good. Now I am taking 50,000 IU a week of vitamin D. The levels have increased to borderline "sufficient" but still I must continue with this therapy.

And then there is that other word that comes with all of this - osteoporosis. :puke:

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

39. What is the cause of her obesity?

[CrispyQ]

40. Over eating & lack of activity are certainly contributing factors,

but if there is an underlying factor beyond that, her doctor doesn't seem interested in discovering what it is. And because her doctor isn't concerned, she also isn't. Too many people think doctors shouldn't be questioned, since they are the trained professionals & they know best. I've seen this attitude in other friends of mine who have had serious health problems.

Perhaps doctors don't want to bring up the patients weight for fear of offending them. I imagine that doctors that have taken that chance & told their patients, "Hey, you need to lose some weight!" have found that many of those patients aren't receptive to that message & are offended.

I don't know, but I found it interesting that my doctor continued to harp on me about a mammogram, while not saying a word about the fact that I gained 40 pounds in three years. Especially since I've read that carrying extra weight is a contributing factor to breast cancer! :crazy:

[mopinko]

43. i was afraid of birth control pills.

i have 5 kids. i wonder sometimes if cancer would not have been easier.

[eShirl]

48. Decades ago when I was a little kid my family switched from butter to hydrogenated vegetable oil

margerine.

After decades of that, it turns out that trans fats are even worse for you than butter.

[snagglepuss]

51. I can relate to that, I too ate it for years thinking it was better. Lucky for me

I stopped eating butter and margerine about 20 years ago simply to lower the amount of fat I was consuming.

Transfats have been in the news now for about 5 years but there have been people warning about processed foods since the sixties. Even though I have always tried to avoid the stuff, it never occured to me when I was eating margerine that its processed. Its odd how things can slip past consciousness.

[Chemisse]

49. Years ago, when I was pregnant

My mother convinced me to take iodine drops. She was convinced I needed a boost to my thyroid. She was (is) into health products and buys into all sorts of health ideas that are not backed up by studies.

Anyway, my daughter was born without a thyroid gland. Eventually I stumbled upon a paragraph in some medical text that said one cause of athyroidism could be excessive iodine in pregnancy.

I have never said anything to her about it and never will. But I no longer follow her health advice, and I have learned the value of solid scientific evidence.

As for my daughter, she is fine now but suffered a lot during childhood from developmental delays and the social consequences of them.

[snagglepuss]

50. What a sobering story about following someone's advice. I'm very glad that

your daughter is now fine. I too had blindly followed someone's advice which I've lived to regret.

A number of years ago a casual acquaintance who taught nursing mentioned rather forcefully that no one should take iron pills because the body tightly regulates iron levels and that excess iron poses dangers. This for some reason stuck in my mind and I followed that advice like gospel. It never dawned on me that her comments wouldn't apply to a vegetarian with very heavy periods.

For years I didn't have any iron issues until 2 years ago after following for almost a year a strict low calorie vegetarian diet and strenuously exercising 1-2 hours daily (all the while utterly clueless that strenuous exercise depletes iron). I then started a job that required overnight shifts, and quickly became really exhausted but rather than see a doctor (I was too tired) I assumed it was the lack of sleep due to the shift.

Then began a horrible downward spiral - I was too tired to cook so I started to eat sugary high fat snacks. All the weight I had lost piled back on plus more. I put on 45 pounds in 15 months.

It wasn't till I found a lump on my breast (it turned out to be a cyst) that I actually dragged myself into the doctor,and soon discovered I was anemic, so anemic that had I even waited a few more days I would have needed a transfusion. I also found out that for the first time in my life I had high cholesterol, levels way above normal as well as some other issues I blame on the anemia. Anyway I was stunned and its taken over a year to get back to normal iron levels and I have just started making headway losing all this weight.

So I too am vigilant about health advice because that well intentioned advice was really really bad.

[Chemisse]

53. What a terrible cascade of events

Lucky you found out in time!

People sure do love handing out advice. And it has a strong impact on others when that person has medical knowledge (my mother is an RN).