Friday, December 07, 2007

Risk-o-meter -or- what are the odds?

Americans are bombarded daily with warnings of dire threats to their health. Favorite scares include ones about traces of various chemicals in the environment, and about both synthetic and natural food constituents. But in reality, most if not all of these warnings have little to do with the real threats to our health and lives. The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) has therefore constructed this website to give Americans a more accurate perspective on the exposures and diseases that have been proven to increase the risk of death for Americans.

If you're interested ... check out the Risk-0-meter.

My comment: For the last couple of years my cholesterol and triglycerides have been a little on the high side. I got the former back in line but seem to be unable to do much about the latter. I started with a new doctor recently ... a chap from India who seems to share my disdain for medications as a way to control all medical problems. We both seem to thin a little self discipline and a bunch of exercise can do the trick most of the time. (Disclosure: I seem to have been able to muster the former but the latter still seems to escape me.)

In any case, his comment that got me interested in "what are the odds" came from a brief conversation we had about my triglyceride count at our last meeting.

He: It's still a little high.

Me: How much should I be worried?

He: Something else will probably kill you first.


Now there's a man and a doctor that I can appreciate.

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