Ready to Rumble with my General Practitioner

by gareth
5 replies
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I want to smack my GP's face in.

This ******* will not listen.

How often do you get that with a GP - a good one is harder to find than a hot hooker in Auckland on a saturday night.

Actually there are no hot hookers in Auckland coz they all moved to ozzie but thats another story.

I'm a weightlifter OK. Have been for 25 years. Bodybuilders & weightlifters tend to study their fair share of physiology, medicine and some on roids study pharmacology.

So I don't get sick often and usually only go to the doctor for a check up.

Weightlifters sometimes get elevated liver enzymes ALT/AST from the breakdown of muscle tissue - it is not in this case pathological.

Unfortunately this is also a common indicator of pathological inflammation or infection.

Now I explained clearly 5 MONTHS AGO that I lift weights - that that was probably the cause for my enzyme elevation.

The doc acknowledged this but decided to run an iron study to check for any symptoms there.

Keep in mind I am very fit and have no symptoms of any infection, inflammation or illness apart from having minor hemorrhoids for about a month in the last year & slightly elevated cholesterol.

So now this PARROT has seen that my iron is elevated.

Thats it man he seems to feel vindicated and now will not budge.

I am certainly greatful the dude ran the iron test but the ****wit will not listen to fricken reason.

Meanwhile my cholesterol and liver results are all now fairly normal with minor dietary change. I simply added decaf green tea and omega 3 to my diet.

The AST/ALT can easily be elevated again if they take a test after a workout.

So :

iron 23 umol/l (10-30) normal
iron binding capacity 31 umol/l (45-75) low The ratio of sTfR/sFt,
iron saturation 0.74 (0.15-0.50) high (%TS)
ferritin 363 ug/l (25-250) high

haemochromatosis gene - negative

OK now read this government medical report...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Detection of Iron Loading

Screening of large populations for iron loading can be accomplished with inexpensive, noninvasive methods. A useful indicator of iron loading is marked elevation of serum ferritin (sFt). However, sole reliance on this measurement can be misleading because sFt increases moderately during inflammatory episodes. Accordingly, concurrent determination of the percentage of iron saturation of serum transferrin (%TS) provides useful information (29)


In iron loaded persons, hyperferritinemia generally is accompanied by an elevation in %TS. In contrast, in patients with an inflammatory process, hyperferritinemia generally is accompanied by a reduction in %TS.


Iron loading is associated also with moderate depression of a third variable, serum transferrin receptor (sTfR). The ratio of sTfR/sFt, apparently independent of inflammation, is significantly reduced in persons with high levels of iron


Iron Loading and Disease Surveillance

Tuomainen T-P, Punnonen K, Nyyssonen K, Salonen JT. Association between body iron stores and the risk of acute myocardial infarction in men. Circulation 1998;97:1461-6.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~


Even a moderately retarded person can thus see that my blood profile fits that of iron loading not inflammation.

This is obviously the ****ing case DOC - I am a weightlifter who eats like a gorilla and am in good health.

Why would a doctor make a pompous ass of himself in this way ?

Maybe the drug companies that sell anti-inflammatories are offering trips to hawaii this yaer.
  • Profile picture of the author Wakunahum
    Well Gareth from your avatar I can see why the doctor thinks you have too much iron.

    In all seriousness, if you feel you have done proper research and have a good diet, then just do what you feel you need to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    You kind of have to expect that if you are a bodybuilder! The US has the same sort of things, of course, and have a number of things, such as BMI and weight charts. I heard one person call up some idiot talk show host that started talking about BMI having to do with water, etc.... A BMI is just THAT! Body Mass Index! Like weight charts, it measures height and weight and SOMETIMES age.(The BMI basically IS a kind of weightchart built into a number. You want to keep that below 30. I am 6'1", so my HIGH weight should be 227(according to BMI if I wanted to stay below obese)! How many body builders are that light?) WHO CARES what you weigh!?!? CLOTHING can add weight. MUSCLE can add weight. But they ASSUME that any weight over average is FAT and, thus, BAD!

    That affects diagnosis, insurability, employment, etc....

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Justin DSP
    Get another GP before this one starts putting things in your file that only other doctors can see.

    Hit up some people on some bodybuilding boards that are local to you and get a new name. Because if a doctor does not know much about bodybuilding then they will look at you like WTF.

    I have a friend who is 280 but around 10% BF, the doctor says he is obese, because the doctor only goes by the numbers. Scary stuff IMO.
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  • Profile picture of the author gareth
    Yeah I'm sure if I gave him the go ahead he would stick me on anti-inflammatories - but there is no inflammation.

    Medicine and drug companies go through trends of popular diagnosis - like everybody that wheezed once has asphma. Same - ADD, Dyslexia, inflammation etc

    Much of the time its misdiagnosis.

    Anyway he referred me to the blood specialist who I expect will have more knowlege.

    Treatment for this is really very simple - give blood every 6-8 weeks, increase endurance training and lower iron in diet for a couple of months.

    After that I should be able to go back to my regular diet & just keep giving blood.
    Signature

    Gareth M Thomas
    Serial Entrepreneur
    Auckland, New Zealand

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  • Profile picture of the author haikuangel
    I think that the best bet in this case is go to a doctor that has a better understanding of your lifestyle. Have you tried consulting with a Physiatrist instead of a GP, they will probably give you better diagnosis seeing that you are a body builder and can even help you by giving you weight training advice.
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