For the last 7 years, I’ve written articles re medical research on various blogs as Rachel Howell Stockton, and this one, as R Mandanah Stockton – I enjoy reviewing the newest research published in various medical and scientific journals and writing about it.  I respect organizations that fund much needed research.

Having said that, I take issue with the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute over their deity-like pronouncement that more than twice the number of people should be prescribed statins for high cholesterol than are prescribed at this point in time.

Something Way Wrong with this Picture

For one thing, I’m offended that these organizations think we (the American Public) are idiots.  These new “recommendations” don’t mention the obvious: we’re too fat, too inactive and we consume too much red meat. Instead, they think we natives need more pills because we’re too stupid to “get it.”

I think we DO get it; studies have shown that once baby boomers are confronted with the consequences of their excessive lifestyles, they turn things around and do what they should to reverse health risks. Health professionals apparently don’t give use enough credit.  They assume patients aren’t going to try and do things differently. That’s the most innocuous of motives by these organizations I can come up with, but we’ll get to that later.

“Lisa K,” a friend of mine was diagnosed with prediabetes — her physician prescribed some medication for her and gave her information on what lifestyle changes to make in order to prevent her condition from progressing into full-blown Type 2 diabetes.

Lisa practiced due diligence by making necessary diet changes and walking most days of the week for at least 30 minutes.  She also took her meds, and she was surprised to find that she felt worse than she had felt before her diagnosis.

She made a call to her brother, a nurse practitioner who not only manages his own Type 2 diabetes, but who specializes in the disease professionally.

He said, “STOP TAKING THE MEDICATION!” He then expressed frustration because her doctor didn’t expect her to  integrate necessary lifestyle changes, so he prescribed meds based on this erroneous assumption.  What’s worse? He didn’t explain to her that the meds should only be taken if she DID NOT implement healthy changes.

Re the above mention of nefarious motives for the new recommendations: clearly, there’s always possibility that the new guidelines could be motivated by two words — “Big Pharma” —