[PKop]

Always they say take pills. People should seriously look into criticism of massive overprescribing of statins. It's crazy this advice always comes in place of natural substitutes (low carb keto diet, prudent sun exposure. No.. just take pills that's surely healthier). Here's a reference for alternative viewpoint on statins & cholesterol if anyone is interested:

https://www.amazon.com/Cholesterol-Clarity-What-Wrong-Number...

[ip26]

Yeah the comments about pills in this bit were really perturbing.

"There’s a pharmacopoeia of drugs that are extremely effective at lowering blood pressure, so to draw the conclusion that people should expose themselves..."

Feels like we are one step away from, Don't risk your health by eating fruits and vegetables, take LIPITOR® instead!

[brbrodude]

Western health is fucking broken, I'd even go so far as to say it's actually sick.

It's not about any treehugger detached crap, it's just basic observation that the human animal and the natural world are tied, that we've buried under commercial and political interests most basic notions of what healthy human is, and how society pushes people through a funnel that makes them sick, hoping to later fix that with financially viable solutions(i.e.: having a pill for every malaise that emerges).

Health is just something hollistic in nature. In other words seems like we incentivize patching instead of refactoring.

[arkades]

The first line recommendation is always diet and exercise. Pills are second line.

Some docs burn out and just start giving pills first line because 99,999% of patients do not ever do the diet and exercise, even after repeated counseling rounds.

[ip26]

And the stipulation in this discussion is that maybe we're going to learn in the next decade that going outside should have been a first line recommendation, with pills second line.

There's melanoma risk with sun exposure- but there's e-coli with produce, and a bevy of sports-related injuries.

[pessimizer]

> The first line recommendation is always diet and exercise. Pills are second line.

It would be nice if this were true. We've started to get soft industry press-pushes suggesting putting statins in the drinking water supply about every three years for the last decade.

[darkerside]

That's so fucking irresponsible. I'm not mad at you, just at any doctor that would do that.

Would you stop teaching children because they didn't know math?!

[amitport]

Doctors, with their few minutes per patient, are not in the position to teach or really influence people's habits. Teachers should teach- about exercise among other things.

[ryall]

I often wonder why GP's don't refer patients to fitness/nutrition specialists like they do for everything else.

Medical training does not cover nutrition in any depth, I'd say your average doctor is under-qualified in addition to time poor.

[nradov]

In some countries they actually do give such referrals. But it's rare in the US because most insurance plans don't cover such treatments. That is starting to change to a limited extent; my retired father receives a discount on his medical insurance for going to the gym every week.

[darkerside]

Also, parents should parent. And people should take care of themselves. I'm not saying doctors should start teaching anything. I am definitely saying that they should NOT be prescribing statins flip-ly when getting someone to diet and exercise is the correct answer.

[NikolaeVarius]

Adults are not children.

[darkerside]

Analogies, by definition, are never exactly what they say they are

[drdrey]

And sleep