When the first reports came in that it wasn't a respiratory virus so much as it was a generalised cardiopulmonary and cardiovascular virus, I went from "this is a more serious flu I should avoid" to "we are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine and the machine is bleeding to death". So many systems are fed by smaller blood vessels, so many ministrokes can go undetected, most western lifestyles already damage the cardiovascular system and there was no telling what would be deprived of blood and oxygen if I got it. When I did get a mild case and realised how profound the sensory loss was, it being a neurological virus became just as terrifying. Neurological damage is just as chaotic as a bloodstream filling with clots.
:joker-troll: wot if i told you the pandemic is simultaneously stressing primary/preventative care while driving rural GPs to cities and causing a mass healthcare workforce exodus? wot if i did?
The big spooks for me are secondary and tertiary impacts. We only have decent meds to prevent clotting when it's clinically addressed for acute issues or stuff like aspirin for chronic risk. We can break them up certainly, but whenever I've pushed TPA it's within a strict four hour window with a full ER team and a helicopter on standby to get them to a neurosurgeon if needed. When we bust clots that can be a generalised drug which suddenly busts all clots, causing really serious issues that need a lot of resources. They're going into ORs with a massive backlog even for serious trauma patients. They're competing for ICU beds with COVID patients that are there longer than other patients needing more interventions from fewer nurses.
They can be lifesavers if you know the precise onset of the stroke but after that window the side effect risk outweighs the benefit since it's already done most of its damage. The brain drain in rural areas is a mix of longterm systemic cuts to budgets, better opportunities in urban hospitals and things to do in cities, and now their antivaxxer patients. There used to be a lot of romanticism to the idea of the country doctor, someone who truly had to do it all, but even before the pandemic I was reading stories about rural psychiatrists covering multiple counties and several hundred patients. That infrastructure was hollowed out years ago along with the prestige of the position.
It will probably only give you visible issues from abuse, but it's still a toxic drug in terms of how it impacts your body immediately. It's when you add lifestyle factors together that you have an idea of your risk group. It's stressing your heart, liver, pancreas, GI tract, immune system, and blood vessels.
The neurodegeneration is big nope. I had a few nursing home patients in their 40s and 50s who may as well have been 105 cognitively. Profound dementia while they were bedbound and alternating between shitting themselves/vividly hallucinating until either their liver gave out or their GI tract ruptured.
If you lack vitamin B1, which alcohol flushes out of your body, your brain becomes so starved that it develops a specific kind of dementia that's otherwise seen with chronic malnutrition, eating disorders, and things like that. Meanwhile the "beer gut" eventually becomes fluid pooling in your abdomen to the point that it has to be regularly drained or you look 9 months pregnant with as much physical debilitation. Death by alcoholism is one of the more brutal ones.
My dad claimed that alcohol causes cancer via interfering with ones immune system and gut bacteria. This was just a hunch based on watching a friend get colorectal cancer. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be the truth.
Probably some mix of that and ulceration. Any time cells replicate there's the chance for them to turn cancerous and when you've got wounds like that- a burn for example- there's so much destruction and recombination going on that it becomes a big cancer risk.
When the first reports came in that it wasn't a respiratory virus so much as it was a generalised cardiopulmonary and cardiovascular virus, I went from "this is a more serious flu I should avoid" to "we are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine and the machine is bleeding to death". So many systems are fed by smaller blood vessels, so many ministrokes can go undetected, most western lifestyles already damage the cardiovascular system and there was no telling what would be deprived of blood and oxygen if I got it. When I did get a mild case and realised how profound the sensory loss was, it being a neurological virus became just as terrifying. Neurological damage is just as chaotic as a bloodstream filling with clots.
It's even worse. We have pretty decent meds to prevent clotting or break them up.
:joker-troll: wot if i told you the pandemic is simultaneously stressing primary/preventative care while driving rural GPs to cities and causing a mass healthcare workforce exodus? wot if i did?
The big spooks for me are secondary and tertiary impacts. We only have decent meds to prevent clotting when it's clinically addressed for acute issues or stuff like aspirin for chronic risk. We can break them up certainly, but whenever I've pushed TPA it's within a strict four hour window with a full ER team and a helicopter on standby to get them to a neurosurgeon if needed. When we bust clots that can be a generalised drug which suddenly busts all clots, causing really serious issues that need a lot of resources. They're going into ORs with a massive backlog even for serious trauma patients. They're competing for ICU beds with COVID patients that are there longer than other patients needing more interventions from fewer nurses.
Thanks, this was really informative. Had no idea anti clotting interventions were that dangerous.
I haven't heard about this, is it GPs just giving up on their patients after they refuse treatment or something else?
They can be lifesavers if you know the precise onset of the stroke but after that window the side effect risk outweighs the benefit since it's already done most of its damage. The brain drain in rural areas is a mix of longterm systemic cuts to budgets, better opportunities in urban hospitals and things to do in cities, and now their antivaxxer patients. There used to be a lot of romanticism to the idea of the country doctor, someone who truly had to do it all, but even before the pandemic I was reading stories about rural psychiatrists covering multiple counties and several hundred patients. That infrastructure was hollowed out years ago along with the prestige of the position.
What other ways do we damage it?
Diet, sedentary lifestyle, substance abuse and especially inflammatory drugs like alcohol/tobacco, and air pollution are the big ones I can think of.
Wait how bad is alcohol in mild to moderate amounts? I thought it only fucked you up if you binge drank regularly?
It will probably only give you visible issues from abuse, but it's still a toxic drug in terms of how it impacts your body immediately. It's when you add lifestyle factors together that you have an idea of your risk group. It's stressing your heart, liver, pancreas, GI tract, immune system, and blood vessels.
It can also contribute to nerve damage and cognitive problems
The neurodegeneration is big nope. I had a few nursing home patients in their 40s and 50s who may as well have been 105 cognitively. Profound dementia while they were bedbound and alternating between shitting themselves/vividly hallucinating until either their liver gave out or their GI tract ruptured.
how did they end up there so young?
https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-dementia/types-of-dementia/korsakoff-syndrome
If you lack vitamin B1, which alcohol flushes out of your body, your brain becomes so starved that it develops a specific kind of dementia that's otherwise seen with chronic malnutrition, eating disorders, and things like that. Meanwhile the "beer gut" eventually becomes fluid pooling in your abdomen to the point that it has to be regularly drained or you look 9 months pregnant with as much physical debilitation. Death by alcoholism is one of the more brutal ones.
My dad claimed that alcohol causes cancer via interfering with ones immune system and gut bacteria. This was just a hunch based on watching a friend get colorectal cancer. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be the truth.
Probably some mix of that and ulceration. Any time cells replicate there's the chance for them to turn cancerous and when you've got wounds like that- a burn for example- there's so much destruction and recombination going on that it becomes a big cancer risk.
what part of western diet damages the cardiovascular system? is it the trans fats and salt -> high blood pressure?
Salt, fats, carbs, and a lack of vegetables. Diabetes also increases your chances of cardiovascular accidents.
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