Comments by "Stephen Villano" (@spvillano) on "More Perfect Union"
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That's the tip of the iceberg from hell. One venture capitalist bought the rights to the most effective anti-TB drug on the market, boosted the price to the point that mere mortals couldn't afford it and live.
As for Ozempic, doctor would have to make one hell of a case with me to consider taking it. For one, despite a massive family history of diabetes, I'm only currently running at diabetic numbers due to taking a steroid for an immune issue and that's temporary. If I needed a drug to control the glucose, I'd want other more conservative drugs first, leave that for those who actually have a medical need for the more extreme and expensive drug. My mantra being, minimal intervention for the greatest benefit. I keep my sugar under control, albeit slightly in the pre-diabetic region by diet, exercise and body mass control.
Which also saves me on clothing, I've literally got pants that are over 20 years old and in good condition and fit well. Did have a bit of a moment last winter when the scale complained about maximum occupancy, dropped the extra 25 pounds I'd let accumulate. Just self-control and moderation helps a lot. And a spring chicken, I ain't.
I also don't hop into the car to go to the store, it's only two miles, just a stretch of the legs and keeps the arthritis in check. Pisses off a disc, but it needs exercise too or it'll get even worse.
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@agme8045 not quite correct. Obesity usually isn't a disease, it's a symptom of underlying disease or dietary/activity imbalance. Metabolic syndrome is fairly common, can be due to sedentary lifestyle and carb heavy diet over the period of years, can be from Cushing Syndrome or PCOS as well. Addressing the root cause frequently will address the symptoms, including excess body fat and glycemic imbalance - well, until everything starts to break down due to overload.
But, UrbanShamanDK points out one major addiction that the US also faces, an addiction to the quick fix. Not an actual repair or adjustment, just a quick fix. Stick a bandaid on a bullet hole. Yeah, covers that unsightly hole, doesn't stop that leaking red stuff until you run out of it and do that dying thing.
My ship has a hole in the side, I stuff a mattress into the hole staunching the worst of the leak, it ain't fixed, it still needs to be fixed, it's just controlled for now. We've been wandering off calling the mattress in the hole fixed, ignoring the increasing leaks until we're flooded. No, you then weld in a patch over the hole, remove the mattress remains, repaint and check frequently to see that the actual fix is permanent.
Or learn to doggy paddle across an ocean, which usually doesn't end up well.
Lose weight by first seeing doctor, if doctor's first move is to go with this drug or one related, find a competent doctor that hasn't given up on you and actually follow doctor's advice. Lose the weight gradually, not quickly, as quick fix fast loss is short term loss and regained with a vengeance. Get back in shape, yeah, round is a shape, just not an optimal one, just don't go to the other extreme and go to skin and bones, for moderation is the key to a healthier life. Get imbalances like PCOS addressed, it's long term, frustrating, takes a lot of effort, but is controllable.
It's not gonna be simple, it's a complex problem and complex problems don't get effective simple quick fixes, they get complex solutions to each sub-problem that's part of the big problem and gradually controlled.
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@vinvinvichii do you really want us to name every industrialized nation on this planet, save the US? Seriously? You can ask any service member that's deployed to a friendly nation, they'll all give that same response!
Of course, then the moron brigade will go on about how "they're all communists", never comprehending that monarchies in their list by definition cannot be communist, as communists don't have royalty and especially kings and queens.
And two idiots above can't tell what fascism is or a religion is, one not realizing that he's insulted Christianity by definition, as Jesus was a Jew - he sure didn't worship himself. Fascism being hypernationalistic, state control in a way much akin to communism, but with an industrial elite running business. I know fascism well enough, as we've a strong family tradition of ending fascists.
Probably out of shame, as the capitalists didn't get a chance to end Mussolini, the communists got to him before we could...
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Totally, Martin Shkreli raised that foreign drug from the United States from $13.50 a pill to $750 per pill to fight TB in that foreign bacteria and hand wave more bullshit.
If your sarcasm meter burned out, dud is a US born SOB, running a US SOB company and bought one of the only effective drugs against modern TB from a US company and gouged away. He's about as popular now as Ma Barker at J. Edgar Hoover's dinner table. He also did hard time for financial crimes, because greed knows no bounds.
Last time we had similar, it was France and it didn't end well for the king and queen - or a lot of the middle class, for that matter.
The difference between most of the industrialized nations and us, they'll refuse to do business with a greedy SOB entirely, we put on the kneepads and open wide, then call monarchies communist or fascist, without being able to define any of the three systems of capitalism, fascism or communism, let alone socialism that's been extinct in the wild since its inception.
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I'm decidedly poor. Don't get or want that crap, as I don't need it - I'm only pre-diabetic due to familial traits and currently the eldest in the entire family to not be diabetic by well over 20 years. I just skip a meal, walk two miles each way to and from the stupidmarket with my folding shopping cart and that's my exercise, as osteoarthritis has restricted a lot of exercises for me as I've aged since retiring from the Army.
Was a lot overweight last winter, pants that literally fit for 20+ years suddenly were tight, hopped onto the scale to hear it groan for mercy, realized I was 25 pounds overweight. Dropped either breakfast or lunch, walked twice a month to the distant store, dropped the spare train wheel over the course of a couple of months due to that increase in getting off of my fat as-erm, laurels.
That, after consulting with doctor. Everyone can't manage that, so they first need to see doctor, if doctor's first step is Ozempic, find a doctor that hasn't surrendered and treasure him or her and follow their advice, give feedback on what's working and not working, as doctor/patient isn't boss and worker, it's a partnership in your own health.
Which reminds me, gotta arrange transportation to a specialist, then call and give doctor feedback on her latest treatment effort while I'm awaiting that specialist appointment.
There's a reason I refer to internal medicine as infernal medicine. Don't get me started on complicated things like endocrinology... ;)
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