[lurkingforacure]

Just FYI: over the last decades, "medicine" has adjusted several baselines so that more and more people have a "problem" requiring a prescription.

Example: blood pressure. Used to be 140 was the top, then 130, and now, incredibly, 120. To me, this indicates greed at its darkest: as we age our blood pressure naturally goes up...try to find a senior who can easily maintain the blood pressure level of a 20-year old. Not to demean anyone's blood pressure issues, just sayin'.

Example: glucose levels. Used to be 160, then dropped to 150, now 140, even if you are pregnant. Again, lowering the baseline automatically includes millions more people who otherwise may not have any problem whatsoever. But now they are labeled, and given a script, and lectured if you don't comply.

Example, perhaps the worse of all, to me: blood tests. In the 1950s and
1960s, a complete blood count (CBC) included ALL MINERALS as well as vitamins and some other things. Get a CBC today, you will have to individually request almost every mineral the body needs, not to mention vitamins. Your doctor will not like you for this. The list of things included in a CBC has, like the baselines, slowly and stealthily been diminished to almost nothing. But by who, and why?

Do doctors not want to know whether someone has a mineral or vitamin deficiency? Do they not know what to do if someone does show up with one? Or, heaven forbid, does no one want to be charged with needing to know what lifestyle and dietary changes a patient might need to make in order to get his or her body back in balance?

Again, I don't mean to demean anyone who may be dealing with these issues. Just know what the baseline numbers USED to be, when pharma was not what it is today, and what that might mean for you.