Friday, October 10, 2014

Medical Advice

Medical Advise or Advice

Recently my email has been full of medical advice.  The good news apparently is that you can cure diabetes by eating sugar.  There is a cure for Alzheimer’s. There is also a cure for Dementia.  Unfortunately email has no double-blind peer review. I remain skeptical. 

I have received warnings about water, salads and vegetables.  One message claimed drinking water could be worse for you than smoking a cigarette. Another message urged me to eliminate salad from my diet entirely.  According to various email senders all three substances noted above could kill me.  I was released from the hospital recently.  My problem at admission was severe diarrhea.  I was kept off water and food for about 2 ½ days. I had little to eat or drink the day before I was admitted. I can attest that not drinking water not only could kill you, but definitely will kill you.  And if my experience is any indication, it’s a painful way to die.  The internet medical fact machine reported death would take between several days to a few weeks.  Before you ask, substituting beer or wine for water drinking has consequences of its own. 

One new post started, “A glass of water at lunch can kill you.” I wonder H2O is deadly at lunch.  Do the anti-water cells take a break then?  With proper positioning it is possible to drown in a small amount of water.  And how big a glass are we talking about anyway? 

Another new post reported, “If you avoid water for one month you can lose fifty pounds.  I imagine the scavengers will have reduced your dead body to little more than bones at that point.

I’m lucky my religion does not require fasting.  When I refrain from food I get hungry. When I refrain from water I get thirsty.


I didn’t read the messages, just the tag lines.  The senders might have been flogging water filters or a food preparation machines.   Well I have drunk water and eaten salads plus vegetables and I am perfectly fine.


(Note: this blog was found it the author’s file of blogs.  After discussion, the executors decided to publish it without changes.)

6 comments:

  1. Warren,I have to shake my head when I read all these nutritional do's and don'ts that keep changing. Now we need a little fat in our diet after hearing for years and years that it's a definite no no. Butter is now considered better than margarine which is taboo now. Today I just read in TIME that salt can be okay as long as you're using it at home and not getting it in a restaurant where food is more heavily salted. And wasn't it great news that dark chocolate is good for you? Like you I eat vegetables and other foods in moderation and drink water when I'm thirsty - water from my tap and not bottled water.

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  2. Medical advise, even genuine medical advise, changes all the time. I can remember choking down calve's liver because "It's good for you." And spreading oleo on my toast because "It's better for you than butter."

    My husband is waiting for the powers that be to decide the benefits of smoking actually outweigh the harmful effects. I have my doubts, but he maintains it will happen one day. And he will go back to his two pack a day Lucky Strike habit. If they still make Lucky Strikes.

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  3. Well, you may SAY you're perfectly fine, but ...

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  4. Medical advice is very confusing. I'm not sure who said "everything in moderation" but I think that's wise advice. Also, I choose to believe dark chocolate is good for me.

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  5. Well of course eating sugar can cure diabetes. Eat a bunch and it sends you into a diabetic coma and you die. No more diabetes.
    Death seems to cure most bodily ills.

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  6. I'll never forget Jim Fixx, who wrote a book about the positive benefits of jogging on longevity, and then died of a heart attack in his early 50s. People also forget that 65% of lung cancer and emphysema cases are nonsmokers. We read such garbage on the Internet, Email, and even in studies that are supposed to be academically valid, there is no way to determine the truth. At one time, I didn't realize how much "scientific" data was swayed by what PC public opinion.

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