Nutrition...do we know anything???

[RonDawg]

From what I hear, those things will do your knees in. I am no expert, but ask some sports medicine gurus about it. Not a natural movement for the knee, even though it is low impact.

My knees are such that they will let me know if it's "unnatural" for them. So far that hasn't happened.

 

[Bill51]

This whole cholesterol thing is a real hot button of mine. My grandfather was constantly being harassed about his high bad cholesterol, told by his doctor he should take drugs for it and change his diet. He ignored the doctors and died at the age of 103 from a cancer that was found 3 months earlier. The irony is he might have found the cancer earlier if he wasn’t so fed up with going to doctors that were always harping on him about his diet, and ignoring that he was still walking 4 miles roundtrip every day to his office for work and feeling fine. My mother put up with the same thing over her high bad cholesterol and she did finally die indirectly of heart problems at 90 after a botched hip replacement sidelined her from her golf and bowling so she kind of just gave up. At 55 I have no problem keeping my pulse above 170 for 13 minutes on a treadmill test and my BP is the same 102/60 with a pulse of 58 that it’s been for over 35 years, but I can’t buy health insurance outside of a group plan because my cholesterol is high.

One thing I learned about nutrition from my grandfather was to listen to what your body says it needs to eat and ignore what your mouth is telling you it wants to eat. It may not keep the actuaries and some of the doctors happy, but it sure keeps my abused old body doing what I ask of it.

 

[Warthaug]

This whole cholesterol thing is a real hot button of mine. <snip>

High cholesterol is most certainly a risk factor for heart attacks. All based on fairly simple observations - people with high cholesterol suffer more heart attacks and die more often of heart disease, then do people with low cholesterol. Problem is that these are population stats, which means they can tell us about groups of people, but not individual people. So we can look at your numbers and say "you have a 25% increased risk of heart disease due to your higher cholesterol", but we cannot say with 100% certainty that you will or will not have a heart attack.

It's all about mitigating risk factors. Reduce a risk factor, you reduce your risk of disease. Simple as that.

The irony is he might have found the cancer earlier if he wasn’t so fed up with going to doctors that were always harping on him about his diet, and ignoring that he was still walking 4 miles roundtrip every day to his office for work and feeling fine.

Ahh yes, the "blame the doctor" track. The doctor was simply giving the best advice he/she could, based on your fathers medical condition. High cholesterol = increased heart attack risk, regardless of your physical condition. As for "feeling well", in regards to heart disease that means nothing as many heart attacks occur without prior warning, especially in otherwise healthy individuals. As for being "fed up", well its your responsibility, not the doctors, to ensure that you monitor your health appropriately. Don't like the way your doctor handles things - talk to them about it, or find another doctor. But to blame the doctors personality for your failure to seek out medical attention is, well, stupid...

Bryan