The problem with the way the body works and the way medicine is set up is that our bodies do not respect these artificial barriers of specialties. That means that, when we treat ourselves badly, it is not just one organ (i.e the heart) that is affected. It is not just diabetes that occurs. It is not just weak bones that occur. It is not just cancer.
The sad fact is that the risks for all of these track together. If you have one, you’ve got them ALL, just not always to the point of getting a named disease or condition.
In this particular study (and it’s not the first one along the exact same lines), researchers looked at patients who were found to have colorectal masses on colonoscopy. As if this isn’t bad enough news, in those patients who had mass, they had a much higher risk of also having heart blockages. The reverse was also tru–those having cardiac procedures (in this case angioplasty) had a much, much greater risk of having colorectal masses.
Herein lies the problem with using medications designed to treat a single disease. They are designed to address only ONE condition (and usually do a pretty poor job of even that). Lifestyle changes, on the other hand, cut across every disease state we know of.
Woody Joyner says
Being a clinician is a lost art. Instead of looking at a patient as a single biological entity, we have been broken down into systems and parts and only looked at in those terms. Physicians don’t spend time listening to their patients and putting together an overall picture of their health. Each symptom is looked at separately. They tend to treat test results instead of the patient. Time and time again I have seen patients say that they feel horrible and the physician tell them, but all your tests are normal.