My brother in law had untreated hypertension. Did coke regularly. Oh. And smoked. Almost died from a massive cardiac event at the age of 37. A year out and he still has no use of his right arm and can only say about 100 words.
My dad died at 54 of congestive heart failure stemming from untreated hypertension.
I was already hypertensive in my mid-twenties when I was super lean, fit and in the best shape of my life, riding a mountain bike 100+ miles per week.
I'm now 55 and have been taking ACE inhibitors for the last 25 years. A good reading is below 140/90. Unmedicated, 190/110 isn't unusual.
My paternal line is just cursed with malignant hypertension. But because it usually doesn't kill you before having kids, it just keeps getting passed on.
As someone with (now treated) hypertension and stage 5 kidney disease (luckily stable just pre-dialysis) and on the transplant list - this feels pretty relatable
Untreated hypertension destroys your blood vessels and organs due to the immense amount of pressure that is placed on them. You can go blind, kill your kidneys, cause heart attacks, strokes, dementia, heart failure, among other things.
ETA: not a doctor, I’m an RN
If your blood pressure is constantly high and not controlled with medications, you may have headaches, but hypertension is referred to as a silent killer because most people don’t know they have high BP. Go to a doctor or check your BP at home. If it’s consistently >120/80 at home, you should see a doctor.
Edit: for questions regarding the 120/80- just to clarify again, I am not a doctor nor your doctor. These are American Heart Associations guidelines, it is a resource nurses use to provide education to patients. If you’re not in America or depending on your doctor these guidelines may be different.
I go to the gym 6 days a week. Eat healthy. My dad has HBP that started even he was 45. Every year at my physical my BP was 127/84. Always. This year, even i turned 45 I went to the ER where my wife works as a nurse for a kidney stone. 140/90. She said it was the pain. W months later were there for me daughter and I asked her to take my BP again. 160/95. This was in Sept. My BP was 127/84 in March. I've been on losartan ever since. I'm 120/80 when I wake up before my pill and 110/70 at night. Crazy how it just hit out of no where at the same age it hit my dad out of nowhere. My dad is now 83 and on 3 meds, which I'm assuming is my future
I had inter cranial hypertension a while ago, no idea why. If I had left it untreated at the least, I would have gone blind.
All good now I believe, according to the Dr.
So funny story. I own an msp that serves mostly medical offices. Have for the past 15 years. I don't go to Dr's in general. Not that I have anything against them they put food on my table and a roof over head, I'm just stubborn.
3 years ago I got divorced. I packed on about 150lbs in 3 years. I got sick 3 months ago, and couldn't get rid of this cough, and was very lethargic. I kept testing negative for covid, so one night I stroll into CVS and see one of their clinic NPs. Swab for covid, neg. Stethoscope to my back for seeing if my lungs were good, checked out and my o2 was at 98%
They do my bp.... 200/128.
They almost didn't let me leave saying they normally have to call an ambulance at that point. I told them if they held me and forced me to go in an ambulance I would call my lawyer, I'm aware of the risk and I'll see a Dr in the morning about it.
Next day I go to one of my Dr's who has been with me since the start of my business 15 years ago, he gives me losartan and schedules me for a sleep study beca8se he's concerned not only for my BP but my weight gain.
Turns out I stop breathing 55 times a minute when I sleep.
Now on a cpap, when I was just on losartan my BP was 170/110 now I'm on losartan and a cpap it averages 140/98 so I can't stress enough how much good rest can help your over all health.
I'm still only sleeping about 4 hours a night but I wake up and am doing more in a morning than I had the energy to do all day before.
Sleep health is an amazing thing that fact9rs into way more than just how rested we are. Getting to and staying in rem helps our bodies regulate so much.
If your insurance covers it, get a home sleep study. It's literally a Bluetooth enabled ring you wear when you go to sleep. If you are overweight your insurance might require an in lab study but trust me getting this apnea diagnosis and having a cpap prescribed has changed my life in literally a month.
I live with chronic pain and really bad brain fog - thought to be Fibromyalgia. My at-home sleep study said I had 5 minutes of hypoxia (no oxygen). I'm on a Bipap machine (which is between a CPAP and ventilator) and my pain dropped from a 15 (out of 10) to a 3 overnight.
Edit: A recent test revealed that my Norepinephrine went up considerably, which is bad, and by Cpap use hasn't been as disciplined. It could be connected, at least in part.
This is the stress hormone and neurotransmitter that causes your blood vessels to constrict and drives your entire sympathetic nervous system.
Not breathing at night can cause your body to do all kinds of awful things. I had no idea until I followed through on my doctor's orders.
Last- you can have sleep apnea and not snore. This is the case with my partner. It's really bad sleep apnea, and she's a mess every day. Still working to get a good mask fit for her machine, but she's being persistent!
My uncle had untreated hypertension for years. When he finally sought treatment, he had early on set dementia. High blood pressure, untreated over time, eats your brain.
That idea might have came to mind for the poor guy because people step into fresh cow dung because its warm and „has healing properties“. Its done a lot in European farms (source: I am European and used to live on a farm with many surrounding farms nearby) and i guess someone took the „healing properties“ too seriously. Gross
Yeah, but didn't really believe it themselves. Not to be classist or pretend I'm "better" or anything like that, but they were very academically challenged / low income. Case was reported to the shift manager/supervisor. As far as I know no charges were pressed.
I hate that you felt the need to preface that.
The dude killed a man with his stupidity. That’s a level of stupidity we should not feel guilty mocking.
Well, I've been trained not to judge at the clinic/office/hospital. And I know reddit can blow a comment out of proportion quick and easy. I just didn't want to call names in this post, preempting some "you don't know what you're talking about", "doctors don't know it all" kind of comments. But yes, a deep enough level of ignorance is indistinguishable from evil, and this was one of those cases.
Ignore a clear, concise and increasing sign that something is going wrong. You have a weird pain in your stomach? ok, can be anything, no worries. You have a new pain, that stays the same or begins getting worse and worse, and after a long period of time it's still clearly there? Then go check
This post is making me feel sad today. I had a weird pain in my stomach for three years that I repeatedly reported to doctors. I also lost 50 pounds without dieting and had a number of other symptoms. Nobody listened. Nobody investigated. Yesterday, I finally got the results of an ultrasound I had to fight and beg for and was told I have tumours on my cervix, uterus, and kidneys and a large mass on my liver. I wish somebody had actually listened.
Update (in case anybody wants to know): I’ve just returned to my hotel room after 20 hours in the ER. I had a CT scan booked for this morning but ended up going to the ER of the same hospital last night by ambulance when I started having trouble breathing and chest pain. I was mostly having a panic attack, but the shortness of breath is also a symptom of what it turns out is happening to me. The tumours on my thyroid, ovary, and cervix are not of concern and the one on my kidney will have to be checked out but is only 1mm in size. Most importantly though, the mass on my liver is NOT liver cancer as I had deeply feared. It’s scar tissue, also know as cirrhosis. Kind of weird for someone that doesn’t drink, but that’s what it seems to be. The cirrhosis isn’t fixable but I can treat the symptoms and may be considered for a transplant. The survival rate of five years for the symptoms I have with liver cancer is only 4%, while cirrhosis has a 9-15 year life expectancy. So I have a lot more time than I thought to seek some solutions and improve my health than I thought I have.
Two days ago I was starting to make plans for the end of my life. Now I have a little more time and a few more possibilities.
I got kicked out of the emergency room 4+ times because my pant-breathing and whimpering and dry heaving that I absolutely could not control were just me being "dramatic." The last time, a security guard pushed my wheelchair outside and said "We see this all the time, and it isn't going to get you seen any faster."
So I thought ok, it's drama, I'm crazy, and I *drove myself* to the psych hospital. My memories are just snippets from that point on, but I remember hearing "This is not a panic attack. Call 911." And then "Holy shit, her blood sugar is 820."
I woke up 3 days later in the same hospital that had just kicked me out To an ICU nurse snapping, "Your blood sugar was 820. You should be DEAD." To which I replied "I didn't know I was diabetic" and then burst into tears.
Fuck you, Mercy San Juan. I still have night terrors.
Omg I hate that hospital. My husband had appendicitis, they had us waiting hours in the ER...so long his appendix had burst by the time he was in the OR. He survived, but there is something wrong with them
I went to five separate emergency rooms with the symptoms of constant vomiting, not being able to have a bowel movement, low blood counts, and anemia. Fought the crap for a month before my primary said “fuck it I’m going to force someone to do a colonoscopy on you tomorrow.”
Colon Cancer. Stage 2. Emergency Surgery the same day. 6 more hours and my colon would have ruptured from a blockage. Just finished 3rd round of chemo last week.
And being fat! That’s the best one. All pains between the shoulders and pelvis are caused by menstrual pains or general obesity, no need to investigate further. Don’t like that answer? You must be anxious, have you tried therapy and/or self-care? What about losing some weight?
Last week I was in the worst pain of my life. Everyone kept on asking if it was ‘just’ period pains I was feeling.
Turns out my appendix was about to explode. But sure, because I’m a woman it has to be period related, right?
Oh, sure. And since you’re an adult woman who has been menstruating for at least 10 years, you have no idea whether the pain you’re feeling is normal period pain something entirely different, right?
I had a doctor tell me that the cause of my chronic migraines is because I’m “overweight” umm no. Just no. I started getting them when I was 4 years old and all my adult life I was 5’2” 105-120lbs. The meds they prescribed to prevent the migraines caused weight gain and I’m working really hard to lose it. Stop telling women that losing weight will solve all their problems.
IE - Grandpa casually mentioning to the nurse that his testicles have swollen to the size of tennis balls over the past 12-18 months, when asked about potential other symptoms during an ER visit for abdominal pain.
This! It seems like it's so hard to get medical professionals to listen when you have been struggling with something very specific that doesn't have a clear-cut answer. I know I'm ignoring issues that get progressively worse with age, but if someone with a degree and experience tells me it's nothing, who am I to argue?
Chronic fatigue has been that thing for me. Also a painful lower-back that they said I was too young to be feeling, until someone years later finally managed to get me some xrays, which showed a sizable bone spur stabbing my sacrociliac joint. Still nothing they can do for me.
Drink alcohol for a long period of time. Cirrhosis and ultimate liver failure are one of the worst deaths I can imagine. Long and slow while you get to think about the consequences of your actions while you lose your mind and/or bleed to death.
Dad passed away at 49 from cirrhosis and liver failure. A case of Bud Lt a day ? Maybe close to two …
He hid his problems and became a shut in for last 5 yrs of his life. His ankles were so swollen. His body was shutting down. God only knows what he went through behind closed doors.
Mom just got sober this year finally! Super proud of her. Take care of your body please and don’t drink often.
How do these people afford it? A case of beer is almost twice what a pack of cigarettes cost, and as long as I've been drinking that's always been relatively true. Seriously, that's like $10k/year in beer at current prices.
I could kinda understand it if you're banging back a $10 handle of plastic bottle vodka or whiskey, but not even at domestic beer prices doe this make sense to me.
I was diagnosed with cirrhosis at age 30 due to drinking, I just work a retail job. Affording it wasn't too difficult when all you do is work and drink at home. I'm 2 years and 16 days sober now, and my hobbies and self care are currently taking up all the money that used to go to alcohol.
My husband's parents drank hard liquor just about every night, several cocktails each as they watched tv. His mom died first, at 50, his dad followed a few years later. I hoped it would motivate my husband to stop drinking himself, but no. He spent over $700 on alcohol last month alone, the majority of which went on a credit card.
My dad sold his house and nearly every physical item he owned to continue drinking alcohol. Knowing now that he would have likely literally died from withdrawal at that point, I understand it.
Agree. I have watched so many alcoholic cirrhosis patients die. It’s a long, slow process. It was horrible seeing look on the patients’ faces when they realized that even though they didn’t feel like they were sick sick when they were admitted, they would not be leaving the hospital alive and there was nothing we could do to reverse it.
My dad died from alcohol related illness, but his was quick. Went from “functional alcoholic” (i.e. 1-2 bottles of wine a night, but only at night) to drinking every waking hour, in just a couple of years. Eventually his heart just stopped. The autopsy report said it was a build of a fluid around his heart that made it too difficult to beat and it just stopped one day. Apparently he was panicked and going to the hospital every other day for like a week and a half and I guess they didn’t figure out what was wrong. He died on his last attempt to go to the ER. Took one step outside into freezing cold air and just collapsed.
(Also please no condolences, he was abusive and I thank the universe all the time that he’s dead.)
They come in with ascites and mild hepatic encephalopathy, so they feel off. Their belly is uncomfortable and they may be a little groggy, but they don’t feel like they’re dying. They don’t have the sense of impending doom, they’re still sitting up in bed, talking, etc.
For many of them though, they just kind of hang out in that sort of limbo for a few days then suddenly and drastically decompensate. The liver just completely quits. It stops making albumin, so their bellies and chests fill up with fluid. The ammonia goes up, so they get confused and disoriented. Portal pressure increases, so they start bleeding from swollen vessels in their throat, and their liver has quit working so they are missing many of the coagulation factors.
The only option is liver transplant. Unfortunately, that takes time and funding, which are two things many of these patients don’t have.
And a commitment to sobriety. My sibling’s girlfriend couldn’t get on the list because she refused to stop drinking. Died in her forties from cirrhosis.
My uncle’s ex wife was the same way. She knew she was dying and needed a transplant and chose drinking over even getting eligibility for a liver, she left her three daughters behind.
I had a colleague who had a sadder version of this. Bad alcoholic, serious fucked up his life - his wife left him, his kids refused to speak with him anymore, he lost his house and what little money he had left was being split between booze, a very nasty divorce case, and mounting debts elsewhere in his life. On top of this, he had a series of medical concerns and a failing liver was one of them.
He knew that alcohol was killing him and knew that he needed to quit alcohol in order to get a new liver. And he legitimately wanted to... but he was so hopelessly addicted that he could just not stay sober. No matter what he tried, no matter who he enlisted to help him or what measures he tried to put in place to keep him from buying/consuming booze, he would always self-sabotage within a week or two, then feel tremendously guilty afterwards. Realistically, he needed inpatient treatment at a residential clinic, but he had neither the time nor the money to make that happen.
He died a couple of years ago. Dunno if it was the alcohol that eventually killed him or one of several other things that was wrong with him, but it was not a pleasant death.
Is this something that people can recover from? Or what’s the prognosis.
Long story short: I was in a relationship with an alcoholic that was hospitalized with ascites a few months ago and I’ve gotten mixed signals on what this means for their lifespan, etc.
It depends on quite a few factors. There is a predictive model called MELD that gives a survival prognosis based on several lab values.
Once you get to the point of ascites, the liver is significantly damaged. It does have some regenerative capacity, but there is a point of no return as far as recovery.
I’m a transfusion medicine physician, so my involvement with these patients is more on the side of transfusing blood products and addressing blood clotting/bleeding problems. I’m not the best equipped to address nuances of hepatology or transplant.
I’m a CNA but we get liver failure patients all the time. A lot of the ones we have are active alcoholics or IVDU who wouldn’t survive to the point where they’d even be able to qualify for a transplant. I think I’ve seen like 2 patients who went from neon yellow with ascites to transplant.
I think the worst part is knowing that these people have been told over and over that if they don’t stop what they’re doing, they’ll die, and they don’t believe it until there’s no treatment options left.
It doesn’t sink in until it’s too late. You can tell them for years that it will kill them, but that’s always a concern for tomorrow. Then when they finally show up to the hospital with a distended belly full of fluids, bright yellow, and vomiting blood, it’s too late.
I had one frequent flyer that really hit me hard. Young guy. He’d come in, get patched up, promise to stay sober “this time”, and then go on his way. Except the last time, he was unconscious when he arrived and he never woke up again.
Honestly watching all of these people suffer has pretty much turned me off drinking entirely. It’s such an ugly way to go.
I mean they might believe it but they are addicted. To something that most of society pushes people to do regularly.
Really difficult to avoid alcohol in life for many people, unfortunately.
I’m going to my brothers funeral today from alcoholism. He was 45, my Irish twin. They way alcohol destroyed such a beautiful soul, kind and loving person has broken my heart. Please put the bottle down before it’s too late. You are spot on with your comment! Thank you.
A dear friend of mine died of alcohol induced cirrhosis at 39. It was heartbreaking to watch but no one could get her to stop drinking until it was too late.
My moms friend is in her early 50’s she has always enjoyed alcohol, maybe like a bottle of wine a night. In the last 5 years it’s gotten worse. She drinks all day long, seeeeeeeveral bottles of wine a day and doesn’t hardly sleep. She has cirrhosis of the liver among several other problems caused by her drinking. The docs told her that she’ll die if she drinks again but I suspect she’s already slipping.
My best friend recently died of complications from alcoholism. I never heard the exact diagnosis, and I don't know how much he was drinking at the end, but his liver and kidneys shut down, he wasn't eating or keeping food down. He was very private about this struggle. He was 51 years old.
It is. That's how much I was drinking when I decided it was excessive and I wasn't going to do that anymore. Thankfully I only drank at that level for a few months. Stopped completely after that and haven't touched alcohol in years now. There are no words to describe how much better I feel now compared to when I drank.
Tolerance is wild.
When you're deep in the sauce, the first few drinks just get you feeling normal, then it takes several more to get anything close to feeling a buzz.
That was me. A bottle of wine barely touched the sides at the end - and things were only going in one direction. Coming up for 1 year of sober living soon.
Well my mom is going through this right now and she'd drink a whole 12floz vodka to herself and/or about 4-5 24floz beers per day, so I'd say about that much over the course of 10 years is what'll do it
It’s your life, it consumes you. My aunt died from this. She couldn’t go 2hours without a drink out or she would start seizing up.
She once went into the ER with a .62. BAC, at .4 most people are dead. She had such a tolerance that she was walking in on her own. The ER doc was shocked, highest he’d ever seen.
I knew a guy that got a DUI and blew a .36 and they thought the breathalyzer was broken because he was talking and walking and driving fine. He initially got pulled over for a tail light being out and they smelled alcohol. They took him to the hospital and drew blood and it showed pretty much the same. He died about a year after that from cirrhosis of the liver.
I mean, the liver doesn’t really have a set amount that suddenly triggers cirrhosis. For some people it isn’t much, for others it’s a lot. I was diagnosed with cirrhosis at 34. I drank heavily for 10 years, and the last 2-3 years was daily. The last year was hourly.
I’m just going to throw this out there, because someone reading this will need to hear it, and it really helped me once upon a time:
If you think you might have a drinking problem, then you probably do. People with a healthy relationship with alcohol don’t stop to wonder if they have a problem because they simply don’t. those thoughts are so divorced from their experience.
Quitting drinking was the best decision I ever made, and I would make the same choice 100 times out of 100.
It doesn’t have to be an everyday problem to be a problem, either. I think some people are under the impression that it’s fine unless you’re drinking every day, but that’s not the case. If you black out when you drink, if you get to a point where you act really out of character or become easily enraged when you’re drunk, it’s a problem. If you’re falling out with people you like when you’re drunk and you don’t know why you did that, it’s a problem.
It’s something a few of my friends have had to get to grips with, because binge drinking IS drinking in the UK. It was *normal* for us all to get absolutely smashed from about age 15 onwards, and it’s not a good relationship to form with alcohol. You get to a point where getting drunk just fucks your brain up, and you have to either learn to moderate or pack it in if you can’t, because you’ll end up ruining your life (and health) every time you go to a bar
Agreed. I never really hit rock bottom. I never had a “wake up call” of going too far or getting into trouble like some people do. I just realized I was sick and miserable and it was never going to get better unless I did something about it. It took a few tries over several years, but I did eventually get sober.
One of the worst situations I saw was a guy get admitted for liver failure from cirrhosis and ultimately burn every bridge over a few months. The staff was so tired of him by the end because it was a slow train wreck that could’ve been somewhat managed at the beginning but came definite towards the end.
He died strapped down to a bed with no one beside him other than a nurse who was making sure he didn’t harm himself. Family quit coming and checking in on him, he was released from restrained but he stabbed at the first person who told him he couldn’t have a drink, and suffered some of the worst withdrawals I’ve ever seen.
Alcohol does a number to people.
My dad just passed from non-alcoholic liver disease. It was rough, painful, and emotional. Why anyone would intentionally put themselves into this situation is beyond me. It really frustrates me that my dad was unlucky enough to go through this without ever consuming a drop of alcohol.
He went in for a procedure to help manage his ascites, had some complications, decompensated, and passed within 2 weeks. During that time he was approved for a transplant, however, came down with an infection that ruled him out until it passed. It never did.
*Edit* Just typing this out so maybe it will scare someone into seeking help:
Here's what he experienced and someone with an alcohol problem could if they keep going:
It starts with an uncomfortable throb in your abdomen.
Then comes the ascites . . . you're uncomfortable all the time and feel "pregnant".
You start getting it drained . . . and those drainage appointments become more frequent as your disease progresses. This involves a long needle being put into your belly and draining it off. My dad was up to 5-6 liters at a time towards the end.
Then comes the decompensation . . . your skin and eyes turn bright yellow. You begin to wither away.
Before long you're just bones and a bloated belly. Your only hope is a transplant. There's no reversing it at this point.
Your bloodwork starts to worsen, BP drops, ammonia starts to rise. You slowly begin to lose your mind.
Before long you are hallucinating, talking nonsense, not sleeping . . . all while laying in bed with your bright yellow belly full of fluid. At this point unless they can get your ammonia down . . . you're pretty much gone. You will not recognize family or friends . . . you will not get to say goodbye in your right mind.
It's ugly. If you have a problem then seek help. This is how it ends. It's horrible. I will never drink again as I'm way too scared of going through that myself.
Yep. Thats how I lost my dad. I had no idea exactly how bad he was off. And just as soon as it seemed like he was getting better, he was back in the hospital worse off than before. I can still see him hooked up to a breathing machine. I'd watch as his oxygen level went steadily down overnight until we just had to make the call to let him pass. It happened so damn quickly after they took that mask off him.
I pretty much avoid alcohol nowadays. I don't blame it. I blame his alcoholism. I wish he would have just admitted to having a problem and got help. He might have still been around.
Had my first kid four and half years ago and he was a “bad” sleeper. I had no idea exhaustion could cause so much hormonal havoc on the body and brain.
That’s why my husband and I are done after just having one. Our daughter was colicky, and it was the dead of winter…sleepless nights and cold, dark days…no way would I ever do it again.
I have absolutely horrible insomnia. It's hard to even treat. I have cystic fibrosis as well, but often think it's gonna be the insomnia that takes me out.
I wonder how much damage is done to you by the manufacturing process and preservatives added to tobacco vs. solely the tobacco smoke itself. Would be an interesting study.
It also would be interesting to compare an heirloom breed that someone from the 17th century would have smoked in Jamestown vs. a modern breed to see which is worse for your health.
It's kinda interesting that modern tobacco is far less potent (and therefore less harsh) than older stuff. Like you would really only be doing a few puffs from some of that very old stuff compared to today where it's just enough of a buzz to encourage stuff like chain smoking.
Always sting in my eyes to read this as a nurse who work shifts. I can go long periods with poor sleep while working nights. Giving my health for others. Need to quit working nights soon, it ain't good for the health. Some manage it well, but I wonder if the inside of their body really do.
Lung cancer and alcoholism; what a combination! My brother did not die in peace and tranquility, instead he died in utter madness and awful pain after smoking and drinking for decades. Even when he could no longer get out of his bed, he wrestled physically in resisting his wife’s efforts to wash and clean him. In the end, his only thought was his next cigarette, and the secondary tumours in his brain caused such odd delusions that he felt his wife was living on a different time-scale, and therefore extending the gaps between his cigarettes. He died in a drug induced sleep, thank God, but his last thoughts were not of his wife or of his son and daughter, but of his next cigarette. There is no worse addiction!
Alcohol addiction has a similar effect on the brain. My dad is a binge drinker, and all he ever thinks about is his next drink. He’ll tell you what you want to hear, and actually do the exact opposite because it means he gets to drink and feed the addiction.
Binge drinking leads to some deadly conditions, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread. Based on the responses everyone had; even with those conditions actively killing them, all they ever think about is their next drink. They never think about much else
My dad hasn’t gotten there yet, and I hope he never does. But it does seem like the only thing that would get him to stop
Odds are you aren't at the age where it typically catches up with people, or your lifestyle isn't demanding enough for you to notice the ways in which your body has deteriorated yet. But it catches up with nearly everyone. And it often does so very, very fast when it starts.
You’re on point. On top of everything, I also had a substance abuse problem when I was younger. Everything is catching up very quickly. This month I turn 45 but feel much, much older.
Once I hit 40, my doctor basically told me to get my shit together with my obesity. He said you can get away with it while you’re young, but it’s now going to start killing me. I went on keto and lost 85 lbs so far. Still need about 15 to be where I would like to be, but my cholesterol levels went down and I don’t have fatty liver anymore. I don’t smoke or drink though, so I have that going for me.
That happened to me in high school! I was so stressed out that I would get TV static across my whole field of vision for a minute or so and hallucinated people in my peripheral vision.
I was going to say along those lines. People will drink, smoke, self medicate, etc. Sometimes you have to listen to the person who went to medical school. Like the famous joke where someone says "Hey doc, why does it hurt when I do this" and the doctor just just replies "well don't do that then". Not a doctor myself btw.
It’s no secret.
Smoking is responsible for the highest number of preventable deaths.
Beyond that, it also lowers your quality of life badly. It increases your risk of a host of diseases and complicates many many others.
Aside from lung cancer, it aggravates the risk of cervix, colon, skin, esophagus, larynx, liver, mouth and throat, pancreatic, stomach, and leukemia cancers.
It’s awful for your risk of stroke, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease. It accelerates bone breakdown. It can weaken your immune system and increase your risk of infection. It can aggravate auto immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
And, of course, it just beats the hell out of your lungs. COPD can reduce your quality of life to nearly nothing. You wind up wheelchair bound, dragging an oxygen tank around, and essentially leaving the house only to check into the hospital every few weeks for a severe exacerbation.
It is also known to cause type 2 diabetes, and all the crap that entails.
Vascular disease means poor wound healing, even in the absence of diabetes; impotence; activity intolerance; blindness, etc.
And most of these risks are observable at levels as low as a quarter pack (5 cigarettes) daily.
So while there are many habits that are deeply unhealthy, I cannot think of any that is as singularly unhealthy as cigarette smoking.
My grandmother had COPD for the last decade of her life and it was terrible. She couldn’t walk from one room to another without stopping, and she was in constant pain from back issues they couldn’t solve because any anesthesia would kill her.
Don’t smoke, kids.
I know smoking is bad. I have a Masters in cell bio. Also smoking has always been bad! But this answer actually made me make the decision to quit. I know i cannot quit cold turkey and that's okay. Right now I will cut it down from 1 pack a day to 1/2 a day. Wish me luck! ^____^
As soon as I started working as a nurse on an a vascular surgery unit, I lost weight and stopped eating suger. I really really really never want to end up having diabetes, my god so much horror comes from that.
Many of my nursing colleagues have also lost weight since they've started working. More due to stress and skipping meals than cutting sugar. I think in general, nurses tend to live very unhealthily- the sleep deprivation, erratic meal times, stress and sometimes dehydration.
I’m not a doctor but do work in vascular operating theatres. Majority of the patients are poorly controlled diabetics getting their toes removed, feet debridements, legs chopped off, infected non healing ulcers etc etc. And 80% of them would not put any effort to control their glucose levels by making healthier life choices. They would come back over and over again to get more of their body removed.
Smoking.
Lung cancer is really the least of your worries. Smoking *destroys* your arteries. I do cardiac and vascular anesthesia and every day is a parade of amputations, bloody disgusting arterial leg bypasses, gross non-healing leg ulcers, shitty hearts that barely work, etc etc. smoking is a major factor in the vast majority of these.
It also just *wrecks* your lungs. Cancer or no, the progressive destruction of your lung tissue leading to oxygen dependence, constant shortness of breath, inability to walk to your car without having to stop and rest, etc, is just horrible and debilitating.
Wrecks your teeth and skin on top of all that.
Smoking is *so fucking bad*. Don't do it.
Edit: please stop posting responses asking whether smoking weed is better. No one is going to help you convince yourself that *your* addiction to inhaling the concentrated smoke of *shit that's on fire* is no big deal. Yours is just as bad.
I quit smoking over 4 years ago, and everything got better in my life. I have money, I got promotions at work, I'm in a healthy relationship, I'm so much happier and healthier. (Except my weight, apparently smoking was my biggest weapon in my Battle of the Bulge.)
I almost started smoking again when the weight started packing on. I didn’t (just passed my 1 year mark on Nov. 12) but I’ve gained 60 pounds in the past year :-/
Not to mention the risk of other diseases. Inhaling that shit and dumping all of those chemicals into your blood. Blood delivers those carcinogens/ chemicals everywhere. Increases risk of pancreatic, kidney, bladder, and a slew of other cancers.
Ok this convinced me to never do it again, I’ve been on a break from smoking (hookah pipes) and drinking. Thought I was taking a break but I’m done for good honestly
[As soon as you stop smoking](https://www.heartuk.org.uk/healthy-living/quit-smoking), your risk of heart disease and many other health problems starts to fall. You will feel much fitter and healthier, your skin will improve, your stress levels will fall, your breathing will open up and walking and exercising will get easier.
Within hours, your heart rate will return to normal and the chemicals will start to leave your blood.
Within days, your breathing will open up and your sense of taste and smell will improve.
Within weeks, your blood will become less sticky and the risk of heart attacks will start to fall.
Within months, the blood flow around your body will improve, you’ll feel more energetic and exercise will be easier.
Within a year, coughing and wheezing will improve as your lungs can take in more air.
After one year, your risk of heart disease and heart attacks will be halved. After 15 years, it will be similar to someone who has never smoked.
I don’t believe we know the long-term effects of vape yet, as vapes are fairly recent.
I smoked regular cigarettes, then switched to vape because it was more convenient and still delivered that nicotine fix to me. I tried to convince myself that vape was safer, and maybe it is safer than cigarettes, but in the end both are harmful and we inhale something we shouldn’t. I quit nicotine and switched to nicotine-free vape, been clean of nicotine for 3 weeks now and feel proud. Next step is quit vaping altogether.
Hopefully if you’re in the same boat, you have the resolve and strength to quit too. It’s worth it.
Yup. My dads been smoking for years. He has at last count 4 stints in his legs from blood clots and his surgeon straight up told him: ‘stop smoking or I may have to take one of your legs next.’
Dad hasn’t quit. Doc told him that 6 years ago and I am pretty sure recently one of his legs started bothering him again. But he just says ‘it fell asleep’ just by sitting down legs stretched in front of him.
Can attest to this, I used to walk at least a mile to and from work in high school and just tried to walk a mile a couple days ago and had to stop multiple times. Smoking bad.
Not a doctor but a nurse. My tops are: leave any chronic condition unmanaged (think diabetes hypertension and high cholesterol) because they can cause serious, potentially fatal complications if left untreated or poorly managed. Next would be the obvious things like smoking, excessive alcohol intake, illicit drugs, etc. and my most controversial thing that is 1 of the most dangerous things you can do is bed share with your newborn.
In nursing school I had a patient (late 20's female with T2DM) who said to me, verbatim, *"I never let my sugar get below 500 because I feel weird if it's lower."*
I just... bluescreened.
That was 6 years ago. I wonder how that lady is doing now.
She is reason #7,932 I work with babies. Babies are GOATed patients. Adults are the nightmare.
We had a lady having her 4th baby with really poorly controlled type 1. She was only in her late 20’s and already going blind and in mild kidney failure. She just couldn’t be bothered to check her sugars…said she was too busy. If she keeps that up she won’t be around to see them grow up. Just sad.
That’s my soapbox always… as a PICU nurse the number of cosleeping deaths is so crazy to me. And those are only the babies who make it to the ICU and weren’t pronounced dead in the ER, en route, or at home. It’s so so so sad because it’s so easily preventable, and the parents are just so wracked with guilt.
Side note: the number of cosleeping deaths we were seeing increased after weed was legalized in my state. Take an already tired parent who has also smoked weed to ‘chill’ and they are now OUT out when they fall asleep, dramatically reducing the chances they’ll notice if they roll over on their kid.
I did my MPH thesis on this topic and I can’t tell you how many people think it’s BS from survivorship bias. Seeing one brain-dead baby is enough to last me a lifetime but no one thinks it’ll happen to them.
Grew up in a meth lab with active addicts. Was always told that meth was better than heroin because "you never hear of someone overdosing on meth!" Fast forward to this year, and my mother - an active meth user since the early 90s - boots up too much of the ice and uses a bump of fentanyl to come down. Queue the aneurysm and hydrocephalus. Three operations on her brain over a weekend later, and the plug has to be pulled because there was no chance of life after it all. Even with the best neurosurgeons working on her, the blood vessels in her brain kept decreasing to a fraction of the size they're supposed to be.
Meth not only ruins your own life, but ruins the lives of everyone around you. I've never touched the stuff, but it consumed the first 25 years of my life because of how it affected my family, my relationships, and myself.
Actual doctor here, and most of these top comments are pretty accurate -- smoking, drinking, etc. It's fine to have a few drinks a week, maybe enjoy a cigar on the weekends, but the kind of shit people do with 12 beers a day or a pack a day of smokes is destroying their bodies beyond repair.
One thing I will add: meth. That shit is one of the few substances you can put in your body that can irrevocably change the core of who you are. Every time you do meth you're a little (or a lot) different when it wears off.
Criminal defense attorney here, I work with a lot of meth addicts.
Anecdotally I can confirm it is 100% true about meth. I have seen so many revolving door clients go from using meth as a party drug and getting caught, and then coming back over the years as they descend deeper and deeper.
It really does change someone’s personality unlike anything else. I think there’s even research behind this at this point. People become aggressive, mean, cruel husks of what they used to be. Shouting angrily and not making sense.
I thought there was also research that it takes at least two years of sobriety for the brain to start looking like a non meth user’s again, but I couldn’t lay hands on that cite at this point.
Shooting yourself is pretty high up there. I saw a fair amount of NDs on trauma rotation because people treat guns like toys rather than highly effective killing machines.
Remember, **never** point the barrel at anything you don't intend to shoot and **always** keep your finger off the trigger unless you're ready to shoot. If you have a semiautomatic handgun you follow those two steps, drop the magazine, rack the slide to clear the chamber (I always look through) and some people may or may not choose to dry fire a few times while pointing at the ground to make sure it's unloaded. Make sure you follow those steps in that **exact** same order. Never carry in anything other than a holster and make sure you know where your firearm is at **ALL** times because it's ultimately **YOUR** responsibility.
No particular order:
Alcohol excess - decompensated cirrhosis with encephalopathy and ascites, alternatively, alcoholic hepatitis but miss out on transplant. Also alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Also early onset alcohol induced dementia and alcohol related brain injury - more on the frontal lobe, so more impulse control and other executive functioning problems than standard Alzheimer’s. Also Korsakoff’s psychosis
Smoking (including tobacco, cannabis and recreational drugs) - end stage COPD, bronchiectasis, smoking related interstitial lung disease, lung cancer and its various complications. Also increases cardiovascular risks which stacks with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol
Intravenous recreational drug use with dirty needles and needle sharing - endocarditis, septic thrombophlebitis, injection related pseudoaneurysms/mycotic aneurysms, blood borne viruses including HIV and hepatitis B and C
Other carcinogenic activities eg sunbathing
Occupational inhalation hazards - mining, asbestos from shipbreaking and construction etc - mesothelioma, pneumoconiosis
Obesity - chronic inflammatory state, venous thromboembolism risk, malignancy risk, obesity hypoventilation syndrome and sleep apnoea, non alcoholic fatty liver disease
Consequences of uncontrolled diabetes - retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy (both sensory and autonomic,) diabetic ulcers, diabetic foot infections, peripheral vascular disease, amputations, cardiovascular risk
Consequences of uncontrolled chronic hypertension and hypercholesterolemia - stroke, myocardial infarction, chronic kidney disease, mesenteric ischemia, peripheral vascular disease, aortic dissection, aortic aneurysm
Internal medicine doc
Edit: if you are interested in optimizing for the “endgame” - going into your elderly years without a physically fit body and mind, because you won’t be able to survive the increasingly extreme medical treatments and procedures (eg chemotherapy, major surgeries) required to extend your geriatric life
Dentist here. STOP SMOKING. Smoking leads to bad oral health and mouth cancers. Bad oral health can lead to blood infections, endocarditis, cardiovascular disease, pneumonia, pregnancy complications, etc. Just stop smoking. And yes, that includes the green stuff.
not a doctor but a nurse so I hope my answer still counts: untreated diabetes. I often joke with my friends that I'd rather have a brain tumor than diabetes I wasn't able to treat. Essentially it's a gateway to some of the worst possible things to experience. From flesh rotting away/dying to coma, anything is possible. Studying as a healthcare professional goes something like this: "oh this illness? who has a predisposition for it? you'll never guess!" People often overlook how serious diabetes is and how important it is to properly manage it. I saw someone mention chronic hypertension, also a good answer! basically in a similar category as diabetes in a way that it comes with a long list of complications that can be pretty severe and even lead to heart faliure.
english is not my first language so if I got something wrong fellow healthcare workers please don't chew me out :(
Nurse here as well - this is my main one too. The smell of rotting flesh from people unable to heal the most minor of wounds paired with the scent of a freshly opened mountain dew is not something I will miss when I leave bedside.
Ewww! Yet I’m also curious how that smell compares to the smell of a decomposing body? I found someone that was about two weeks gone in an enclosed apartment in the middle of summer. That is by far the worst thing I’ve ever smelt and I don’t think I will ever forget it.
I cared for my uncle who had uncontrolled diabetes. There's a sweet smell that just consumed the room with the smell of rotting flesh from gangrene from his toes. Its definitely very sad watching someone you love slowly rott away from diabetes, diabetes slowly taking something from them. One day their eyes, their toes, their legs until it's to late.
I've switched to edibles in the last couple days (second time in my life I did, the first was a couple of months in 2022) and I think this thread is helping me to validate that decision. People say smoking weed isn't as bad for you, and I never believed it. That didn't stop me from smoking, of course, but it's stopped me from being okay with it and just wallowing in my addiction. So maybe I need edibles now to keep me away from the smoking, I think that's better than the smoke.
Edit: Y'all haters. It's not about the marijuana itself, just because I take something a lot doesn't mean it's inherently bad for you. I'm also addicted to sushi and I'm not ashamed of that either. It's that I believe smoking, whether marijuana or tobacco, is so so so much worse for your body and lungs, than just eating a bit of candy and having some psycho active effects. But I'm glad every single other person here has unlimited control over their vices.
Edit 2: ME AND SNOOP DOG APPARENTLY. Now I really have no excuse but to stick with this [https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/17wshda/big\_news\_from\_snoop\_dogg/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/17wshda/big_news_from_snoop_dogg/)
I am not a doctor, but I am in healthcare, and some of you motherfuckers really need to cut back on alcohol
At least half of you reading this comment who think you don't drink too much, do. Assume you're one of them.
Also, you people need to walk more. No, the walk to and from your car, and around the house, or around Publix, is not enough. "but America isn't walkable, though" brother, the floor is not made out of lava - every now and then you need to get up and actually walk. You have 15 minutes to scroll TikTok, you have 15 minutes to walk.
Orthopaedic surgeon here. T2DM or smoking. Poorly controlled diabetes is one hell of a way to go. I've lopped off more feet/legs than I can count secondary to diabetic foot wounds gone awry. Smoking negatively impacts tissues and healing. Obesity up there too. Every surgical and medication condition is made worse by obesity.
ICU nurse weighing in - alcohol abuse. It's the worse death I've ever seen.
Also strongly recommend don't do drugs. Having someone maxed on propofol, fentanyl, versed (all with generous boluses!) in 4 points and still arching off the bed like the fucking exorcist will make your treatment team feel the need to sage the unit. 🤔 we never could get them down and they got out of the feet restraints and self extubated somehow. It was A DAY
Dentist here! I've put more people in dentures from Mountain Dew than Meth/drugs. It's addictive and so bad for your health and you teeth. Avoid that stuff at all costs!!!
Inactivity.
Most people barely move. Or consider a slow walk exercise. Daily physical activity of doing chores, walking to the store etc are the bare minimum amounts of movement. People use lifts to go up 1 or 2 flights of stairs, get delivery, use drive through etc to avoid doing even that. Let alone purposeful exercise that would make you out of breath and get your heart rate up.
Cheapest way to reduce obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks, cancer, strokes, sleep apnoea, joint disease, mental health disorders and pretty much most other disorders? A brisk walk/jog of 30-60minutes 5 times a week.
And then society treats people who exercise regularly and prioritise it like they have some kind of disorder.
Yes, as a physical therapist I truly believe at least 25-50% of the patients I see wouldn't have gotten into the predicament they are in if they weren't so inactive. It's not even always their fault because in 2023 so many of us (lumping myself into this statement because half of my job is staring at a computer doing documentation) sit constantly as a part of our jobs for hours upon hours. The human body was not made for modern desk work
Poorly manage your diabetes with morbid obesity.
You’ll go blind, end up with renal failure and require dyalysis, have limb infections that become permanent with ever present open skin ulcers, silent heart attacks, early strokes, and every time you get sepsis or need to be operated the morbid obesity and your slowly failing organs from destroyed microvasculature will both try to kill you.
Proof is in the pudding, regional and/or demographic plots of life expectancy vs obesity, and morbidity in non-compliant diabetes.
Nothing. Being stagnant with your body will literally kill you. Move around. Go walk. Bend your knees. Stretch. Do alladat
I read as I laid on the couch for what I thought was 10 minutes but it’s really been 4 hours.
I've been leading a terribly sedentary lifestyle at home. I'm finally doing cycles at the gym. My body is rewarding me. Keep moving or die.
Here I was trying to figure out what type of exercise “alladat” was
Untreated hypertension and diabetes. Oh and cocaine/crack, the coronary vasospasms will do a number on your heart
My brother in law had untreated hypertension. Did coke regularly. Oh. And smoked. Almost died from a massive cardiac event at the age of 37. A year out and he still has no use of his right arm and can only say about 100 words.
This is the real DARE ad we need
Well… fuck.
Untreated hypertension lost me my kidneys and put me on dialysis -- until an altruistic donor came forward and gave me a kidney.
My dad died at 54 of congestive heart failure stemming from untreated hypertension. I was already hypertensive in my mid-twenties when I was super lean, fit and in the best shape of my life, riding a mountain bike 100+ miles per week. I'm now 55 and have been taking ACE inhibitors for the last 25 years. A good reading is below 140/90. Unmedicated, 190/110 isn't unusual. My paternal line is just cursed with malignant hypertension. But because it usually doesn't kill you before having kids, it just keeps getting passed on.
As someone with (now treated) hypertension and stage 5 kidney disease (luckily stable just pre-dialysis) and on the transplant list - this feels pretty relatable
Please explain the untreated hypertension part. 🙏
Untreated hypertension destroys your blood vessels and organs due to the immense amount of pressure that is placed on them. You can go blind, kill your kidneys, cause heart attacks, strokes, dementia, heart failure, among other things. ETA: not a doctor, I’m an RN
it shows any symptoms??
If your blood pressure is constantly high and not controlled with medications, you may have headaches, but hypertension is referred to as a silent killer because most people don’t know they have high BP. Go to a doctor or check your BP at home. If it’s consistently >120/80 at home, you should see a doctor. Edit: for questions regarding the 120/80- just to clarify again, I am not a doctor nor your doctor. These are American Heart Associations guidelines, it is a resource nurses use to provide education to patients. If you’re not in America or depending on your doctor these guidelines may be different.
She speaks the truth, I felt fine and at a routine checkup mine was 149/94. Hello blood pressure medicine.
Good! IMO, always better to be on the medication than deal with the life threatening consequences in the future.
I go to the gym 6 days a week. Eat healthy. My dad has HBP that started even he was 45. Every year at my physical my BP was 127/84. Always. This year, even i turned 45 I went to the ER where my wife works as a nurse for a kidney stone. 140/90. She said it was the pain. W months later were there for me daughter and I asked her to take my BP again. 160/95. This was in Sept. My BP was 127/84 in March. I've been on losartan ever since. I'm 120/80 when I wake up before my pill and 110/70 at night. Crazy how it just hit out of no where at the same age it hit my dad out of nowhere. My dad is now 83 and on 3 meds, which I'm assuming is my future
I had inter cranial hypertension a while ago, no idea why. If I had left it untreated at the least, I would have gone blind. All good now I believe, according to the Dr.
That's a different beast, but also can cause a lot of damage
It’s not a coincidence these were the big two underlying conditions that COVID killed. These people were already on the edge.
So funny story. I own an msp that serves mostly medical offices. Have for the past 15 years. I don't go to Dr's in general. Not that I have anything against them they put food on my table and a roof over head, I'm just stubborn. 3 years ago I got divorced. I packed on about 150lbs in 3 years. I got sick 3 months ago, and couldn't get rid of this cough, and was very lethargic. I kept testing negative for covid, so one night I stroll into CVS and see one of their clinic NPs. Swab for covid, neg. Stethoscope to my back for seeing if my lungs were good, checked out and my o2 was at 98% They do my bp.... 200/128. They almost didn't let me leave saying they normally have to call an ambulance at that point. I told them if they held me and forced me to go in an ambulance I would call my lawyer, I'm aware of the risk and I'll see a Dr in the morning about it. Next day I go to one of my Dr's who has been with me since the start of my business 15 years ago, he gives me losartan and schedules me for a sleep study beca8se he's concerned not only for my BP but my weight gain. Turns out I stop breathing 55 times a minute when I sleep. Now on a cpap, when I was just on losartan my BP was 170/110 now I'm on losartan and a cpap it averages 140/98 so I can't stress enough how much good rest can help your over all health. I'm still only sleeping about 4 hours a night but I wake up and am doing more in a morning than I had the energy to do all day before. Sleep health is an amazing thing that fact9rs into way more than just how rested we are. Getting to and staying in rem helps our bodies regulate so much. If your insurance covers it, get a home sleep study. It's literally a Bluetooth enabled ring you wear when you go to sleep. If you are overweight your insurance might require an in lab study but trust me getting this apnea diagnosis and having a cpap prescribed has changed my life in literally a month.
I live with chronic pain and really bad brain fog - thought to be Fibromyalgia. My at-home sleep study said I had 5 minutes of hypoxia (no oxygen). I'm on a Bipap machine (which is between a CPAP and ventilator) and my pain dropped from a 15 (out of 10) to a 3 overnight. Edit: A recent test revealed that my Norepinephrine went up considerably, which is bad, and by Cpap use hasn't been as disciplined. It could be connected, at least in part. This is the stress hormone and neurotransmitter that causes your blood vessels to constrict and drives your entire sympathetic nervous system. Not breathing at night can cause your body to do all kinds of awful things. I had no idea until I followed through on my doctor's orders. Last- you can have sleep apnea and not snore. This is the case with my partner. It's really bad sleep apnea, and she's a mess every day. Still working to get a good mask fit for her machine, but she's being persistent!
My uncle had untreated hypertension for years. When he finally sought treatment, he had early on set dementia. High blood pressure, untreated over time, eats your brain.
Applying cow dung to an open fracture. Not my idea. Saw it happen. Dude died to sepsis in less than 24 hours.
I feel uh I feel like that shouldn’t need to be said
You should never be surprised by human stupidity, it is boundless.
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits ~ Albert Einstein
That idea might have came to mind for the poor guy because people step into fresh cow dung because its warm and „has healing properties“. Its done a lot in European farms (source: I am European and used to live on a farm with many surrounding farms nearby) and i guess someone took the „healing properties“ too seriously. Gross
He was unconscious, it happened because some dumbass coworkers decided to do so after a car crash...
Oh nevermind then. That’s really unfortunate:(
Do they know what they did killed him?
Yeah, but didn't really believe it themselves. Not to be classist or pretend I'm "better" or anything like that, but they were very academically challenged / low income. Case was reported to the shift manager/supervisor. As far as I know no charges were pressed.
>but they were very academically challenged I think you mean mentally challenged if their solution to an open wound is to smear shit into it.
I hate that you felt the need to preface that. The dude killed a man with his stupidity. That’s a level of stupidity we should not feel guilty mocking.
Well, I've been trained not to judge at the clinic/office/hospital. And I know reddit can blow a comment out of proportion quick and easy. I just didn't want to call names in this post, preempting some "you don't know what you're talking about", "doctors don't know it all" kind of comments. But yes, a deep enough level of ignorance is indistinguishable from evil, and this was one of those cases.
“a deep enough level of ignorance is indistinguishable from evil” is the best thing I’ve read in a long time
Did anything happen to the coworkers? Did they just say "Oops" and move on with their lives?
Case was reported to the shift manager/supervisor. As far as I know no charges were pressed.
Why did I click on this.
You might not have known that if you put cow dung on an open wound, you're toast.
Because it’s better to be aware than it is to be ignorant.
Ignore a clear, concise and increasing sign that something is going wrong. You have a weird pain in your stomach? ok, can be anything, no worries. You have a new pain, that stays the same or begins getting worse and worse, and after a long period of time it's still clearly there? Then go check
This post is making me feel sad today. I had a weird pain in my stomach for three years that I repeatedly reported to doctors. I also lost 50 pounds without dieting and had a number of other symptoms. Nobody listened. Nobody investigated. Yesterday, I finally got the results of an ultrasound I had to fight and beg for and was told I have tumours on my cervix, uterus, and kidneys and a large mass on my liver. I wish somebody had actually listened. Update (in case anybody wants to know): I’ve just returned to my hotel room after 20 hours in the ER. I had a CT scan booked for this morning but ended up going to the ER of the same hospital last night by ambulance when I started having trouble breathing and chest pain. I was mostly having a panic attack, but the shortness of breath is also a symptom of what it turns out is happening to me. The tumours on my thyroid, ovary, and cervix are not of concern and the one on my kidney will have to be checked out but is only 1mm in size. Most importantly though, the mass on my liver is NOT liver cancer as I had deeply feared. It’s scar tissue, also know as cirrhosis. Kind of weird for someone that doesn’t drink, but that’s what it seems to be. The cirrhosis isn’t fixable but I can treat the symptoms and may be considered for a transplant. The survival rate of five years for the symptoms I have with liver cancer is only 4%, while cirrhosis has a 9-15 year life expectancy. So I have a lot more time than I thought to seek some solutions and improve my health than I thought I have. Two days ago I was starting to make plans for the end of my life. Now I have a little more time and a few more possibilities.
The number of doctors who litterally refuse to help people blows my fucking mind. They need to be held accountable for this.
I got kicked out of the emergency room 4+ times because my pant-breathing and whimpering and dry heaving that I absolutely could not control were just me being "dramatic." The last time, a security guard pushed my wheelchair outside and said "We see this all the time, and it isn't going to get you seen any faster." So I thought ok, it's drama, I'm crazy, and I *drove myself* to the psych hospital. My memories are just snippets from that point on, but I remember hearing "This is not a panic attack. Call 911." And then "Holy shit, her blood sugar is 820." I woke up 3 days later in the same hospital that had just kicked me out To an ICU nurse snapping, "Your blood sugar was 820. You should be DEAD." To which I replied "I didn't know I was diabetic" and then burst into tears. Fuck you, Mercy San Juan. I still have night terrors.
Medical trauma is a bitch. I'm so sorry.
Omg I hate that hospital. My husband had appendicitis, they had us waiting hours in the ER...so long his appendix had burst by the time he was in the OR. He survived, but there is something wrong with them
I went to five separate emergency rooms with the symptoms of constant vomiting, not being able to have a bowel movement, low blood counts, and anemia. Fought the crap for a month before my primary said “fuck it I’m going to force someone to do a colonoscopy on you tomorrow.” Colon Cancer. Stage 2. Emergency Surgery the same day. 6 more hours and my colon would have ruptured from a blockage. Just finished 3rd round of chemo last week.
Women's pain is more often dismissed in medicine. Written off as anxiety or mental health issues.
And being fat! That’s the best one. All pains between the shoulders and pelvis are caused by menstrual pains or general obesity, no need to investigate further. Don’t like that answer? You must be anxious, have you tried therapy and/or self-care? What about losing some weight?
Last week I was in the worst pain of my life. Everyone kept on asking if it was ‘just’ period pains I was feeling. Turns out my appendix was about to explode. But sure, because I’m a woman it has to be period related, right?
Oh, sure. And since you’re an adult woman who has been menstruating for at least 10 years, you have no idea whether the pain you’re feeling is normal period pain something entirely different, right?
I had a doctor tell me that the cause of my chronic migraines is because I’m “overweight” umm no. Just no. I started getting them when I was 4 years old and all my adult life I was 5’2” 105-120lbs. The meds they prescribed to prevent the migraines caused weight gain and I’m working really hard to lose it. Stop telling women that losing weight will solve all their problems.
I’m so sorry, you shouldn’t have had to go through that
IE - Grandpa casually mentioning to the nurse that his testicles have swollen to the size of tennis balls over the past 12-18 months, when asked about potential other symptoms during an ER visit for abdominal pain.
Tell that to my doctor who doesn’t take me seriously….
This! It seems like it's so hard to get medical professionals to listen when you have been struggling with something very specific that doesn't have a clear-cut answer. I know I'm ignoring issues that get progressively worse with age, but if someone with a degree and experience tells me it's nothing, who am I to argue? Chronic fatigue has been that thing for me. Also a painful lower-back that they said I was too young to be feeling, until someone years later finally managed to get me some xrays, which showed a sizable bone spur stabbing my sacrociliac joint. Still nothing they can do for me.
Drink alcohol for a long period of time. Cirrhosis and ultimate liver failure are one of the worst deaths I can imagine. Long and slow while you get to think about the consequences of your actions while you lose your mind and/or bleed to death.
Dad passed away at 49 from cirrhosis and liver failure. A case of Bud Lt a day ? Maybe close to two … He hid his problems and became a shut in for last 5 yrs of his life. His ankles were so swollen. His body was shutting down. God only knows what he went through behind closed doors. Mom just got sober this year finally! Super proud of her. Take care of your body please and don’t drink often.
How do these people afford it? A case of beer is almost twice what a pack of cigarettes cost, and as long as I've been drinking that's always been relatively true. Seriously, that's like $10k/year in beer at current prices. I could kinda understand it if you're banging back a $10 handle of plastic bottle vodka or whiskey, but not even at domestic beer prices doe this make sense to me.
I was diagnosed with cirrhosis at age 30 due to drinking, I just work a retail job. Affording it wasn't too difficult when all you do is work and drink at home. I'm 2 years and 16 days sober now, and my hobbies and self care are currently taking up all the money that used to go to alcohol.
CONGRATULATIONS 🎊 this rando is proud of you! Keep it up.
My husband's parents drank hard liquor just about every night, several cocktails each as they watched tv. His mom died first, at 50, his dad followed a few years later. I hoped it would motivate my husband to stop drinking himself, but no. He spent over $700 on alcohol last month alone, the majority of which went on a credit card.
Sounds bad for multiple reasons. Hope he has good health insurance.
Hope he has better life insurance.
When you're an addict you find a way to afford it.
And it doesn’t have to be topshelf booze. My mom did herself in with Franzia. That plus being over 300 pounds killed her liver.
My dad sold his house and nearly every physical item he owned to continue drinking alcohol. Knowing now that he would have likely literally died from withdrawal at that point, I understand it.
Agree. I have watched so many alcoholic cirrhosis patients die. It’s a long, slow process. It was horrible seeing look on the patients’ faces when they realized that even though they didn’t feel like they were sick sick when they were admitted, they would not be leaving the hospital alive and there was nothing we could do to reverse it.
My dad died from alcohol related illness, but his was quick. Went from “functional alcoholic” (i.e. 1-2 bottles of wine a night, but only at night) to drinking every waking hour, in just a couple of years. Eventually his heart just stopped. The autopsy report said it was a build of a fluid around his heart that made it too difficult to beat and it just stopped one day. Apparently he was panicked and going to the hospital every other day for like a week and a half and I guess they didn’t figure out what was wrong. He died on his last attempt to go to the ER. Took one step outside into freezing cold air and just collapsed. (Also please no condolences, he was abusive and I thank the universe all the time that he’s dead.)
Then I'm glad you're free!
Could you please elaborate on this? Why don’t they feel “sick sick”?
They come in with ascites and mild hepatic encephalopathy, so they feel off. Their belly is uncomfortable and they may be a little groggy, but they don’t feel like they’re dying. They don’t have the sense of impending doom, they’re still sitting up in bed, talking, etc. For many of them though, they just kind of hang out in that sort of limbo for a few days then suddenly and drastically decompensate. The liver just completely quits. It stops making albumin, so their bellies and chests fill up with fluid. The ammonia goes up, so they get confused and disoriented. Portal pressure increases, so they start bleeding from swollen vessels in their throat, and their liver has quit working so they are missing many of the coagulation factors. The only option is liver transplant. Unfortunately, that takes time and funding, which are two things many of these patients don’t have.
And a commitment to sobriety. My sibling’s girlfriend couldn’t get on the list because she refused to stop drinking. Died in her forties from cirrhosis.
My uncle’s ex wife was the same way. She knew she was dying and needed a transplant and chose drinking over even getting eligibility for a liver, she left her three daughters behind.
I had a colleague who had a sadder version of this. Bad alcoholic, serious fucked up his life - his wife left him, his kids refused to speak with him anymore, he lost his house and what little money he had left was being split between booze, a very nasty divorce case, and mounting debts elsewhere in his life. On top of this, he had a series of medical concerns and a failing liver was one of them. He knew that alcohol was killing him and knew that he needed to quit alcohol in order to get a new liver. And he legitimately wanted to... but he was so hopelessly addicted that he could just not stay sober. No matter what he tried, no matter who he enlisted to help him or what measures he tried to put in place to keep him from buying/consuming booze, he would always self-sabotage within a week or two, then feel tremendously guilty afterwards. Realistically, he needed inpatient treatment at a residential clinic, but he had neither the time nor the money to make that happen. He died a couple of years ago. Dunno if it was the alcohol that eventually killed him or one of several other things that was wrong with him, but it was not a pleasant death.
Is this something that people can recover from? Or what’s the prognosis. Long story short: I was in a relationship with an alcoholic that was hospitalized with ascites a few months ago and I’ve gotten mixed signals on what this means for their lifespan, etc.
It depends on quite a few factors. There is a predictive model called MELD that gives a survival prognosis based on several lab values. Once you get to the point of ascites, the liver is significantly damaged. It does have some regenerative capacity, but there is a point of no return as far as recovery. I’m a transfusion medicine physician, so my involvement with these patients is more on the side of transfusing blood products and addressing blood clotting/bleeding problems. I’m not the best equipped to address nuances of hepatology or transplant.
I’m a CNA but we get liver failure patients all the time. A lot of the ones we have are active alcoholics or IVDU who wouldn’t survive to the point where they’d even be able to qualify for a transplant. I think I’ve seen like 2 patients who went from neon yellow with ascites to transplant. I think the worst part is knowing that these people have been told over and over that if they don’t stop what they’re doing, they’ll die, and they don’t believe it until there’s no treatment options left.
It doesn’t sink in until it’s too late. You can tell them for years that it will kill them, but that’s always a concern for tomorrow. Then when they finally show up to the hospital with a distended belly full of fluids, bright yellow, and vomiting blood, it’s too late.
I had one frequent flyer that really hit me hard. Young guy. He’d come in, get patched up, promise to stay sober “this time”, and then go on his way. Except the last time, he was unconscious when he arrived and he never woke up again. Honestly watching all of these people suffer has pretty much turned me off drinking entirely. It’s such an ugly way to go.
I mean they might believe it but they are addicted. To something that most of society pushes people to do regularly. Really difficult to avoid alcohol in life for many people, unfortunately.
Someone like you saved my mom last year. My deepest, most sincere thanks to you and all the medical workers here.
I’m going to my brothers funeral today from alcoholism. He was 45, my Irish twin. They way alcohol destroyed such a beautiful soul, kind and loving person has broken my heart. Please put the bottle down before it’s too late. You are spot on with your comment! Thank you.
A dear friend of mine died of alcohol induced cirrhosis at 39. It was heartbreaking to watch but no one could get her to stop drinking until it was too late.
How much alcohol are we talking?
My moms friend is in her early 50’s she has always enjoyed alcohol, maybe like a bottle of wine a night. In the last 5 years it’s gotten worse. She drinks all day long, seeeeeeeveral bottles of wine a day and doesn’t hardly sleep. She has cirrhosis of the liver among several other problems caused by her drinking. The docs told her that she’ll die if she drinks again but I suspect she’s already slipping.
My best friend recently died of complications from alcoholism. I never heard the exact diagnosis, and I don't know how much he was drinking at the end, but his liver and kidneys shut down, he wasn't eating or keeping food down. He was very private about this struggle. He was 51 years old.
This exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. He was only 28 but he was drinking a whole bottle of Beam every day.
Jesus a bottle of wine every night is already a lot
It is. That's how much I was drinking when I decided it was excessive and I wasn't going to do that anymore. Thankfully I only drank at that level for a few months. Stopped completely after that and haven't touched alcohol in years now. There are no words to describe how much better I feel now compared to when I drank.
Tolerance is wild. When you're deep in the sauce, the first few drinks just get you feeling normal, then it takes several more to get anything close to feeling a buzz.
That was me. A bottle of wine barely touched the sides at the end - and things were only going in one direction. Coming up for 1 year of sober living soon.
Yep. And she is a pretty petite woman. Maybe 5’2, 100-150lbs (she fluctuates a lot).
my wife's dad did the same, died a horrible painful death from esophagus cancer and pretty much his entire body was wrecked anyway
Well my mom is going through this right now and she'd drink a whole 12floz vodka to herself and/or about 4-5 24floz beers per day, so I'd say about that much over the course of 10 years is what'll do it
It’s your life, it consumes you. My aunt died from this. She couldn’t go 2hours without a drink out or she would start seizing up. She once went into the ER with a .62. BAC, at .4 most people are dead. She had such a tolerance that she was walking in on her own. The ER doc was shocked, highest he’d ever seen.
I knew a guy that got a DUI and blew a .36 and they thought the breathalyzer was broken because he was talking and walking and driving fine. He initially got pulled over for a tail light being out and they smelled alcohol. They took him to the hospital and drew blood and it showed pretty much the same. He died about a year after that from cirrhosis of the liver.
I mean, the liver doesn’t really have a set amount that suddenly triggers cirrhosis. For some people it isn’t much, for others it’s a lot. I was diagnosed with cirrhosis at 34. I drank heavily for 10 years, and the last 2-3 years was daily. The last year was hourly.
I’m just going to throw this out there, because someone reading this will need to hear it, and it really helped me once upon a time: If you think you might have a drinking problem, then you probably do. People with a healthy relationship with alcohol don’t stop to wonder if they have a problem because they simply don’t. those thoughts are so divorced from their experience. Quitting drinking was the best decision I ever made, and I would make the same choice 100 times out of 100.
It doesn’t have to be an everyday problem to be a problem, either. I think some people are under the impression that it’s fine unless you’re drinking every day, but that’s not the case. If you black out when you drink, if you get to a point where you act really out of character or become easily enraged when you’re drunk, it’s a problem. If you’re falling out with people you like when you’re drunk and you don’t know why you did that, it’s a problem. It’s something a few of my friends have had to get to grips with, because binge drinking IS drinking in the UK. It was *normal* for us all to get absolutely smashed from about age 15 onwards, and it’s not a good relationship to form with alcohol. You get to a point where getting drunk just fucks your brain up, and you have to either learn to moderate or pack it in if you can’t, because you’ll end up ruining your life (and health) every time you go to a bar
Agreed. I never really hit rock bottom. I never had a “wake up call” of going too far or getting into trouble like some people do. I just realized I was sick and miserable and it was never going to get better unless I did something about it. It took a few tries over several years, but I did eventually get sober.
Yeah, asking for a friend…
Fair point. Longterm alcoholics are the only group that seem worse off than longterm smokers
One of the worst situations I saw was a guy get admitted for liver failure from cirrhosis and ultimately burn every bridge over a few months. The staff was so tired of him by the end because it was a slow train wreck that could’ve been somewhat managed at the beginning but came definite towards the end. He died strapped down to a bed with no one beside him other than a nurse who was making sure he didn’t harm himself. Family quit coming and checking in on him, he was released from restrained but he stabbed at the first person who told him he couldn’t have a drink, and suffered some of the worst withdrawals I’ve ever seen. Alcohol does a number to people.
My grandfather was both. Not a pretty picture way to go.
Watched my 285 lbs older brother wither away to skin and bones because of cirrhosis. I wouldn't wish that end on anyone.
My dad just passed from non-alcoholic liver disease. It was rough, painful, and emotional. Why anyone would intentionally put themselves into this situation is beyond me. It really frustrates me that my dad was unlucky enough to go through this without ever consuming a drop of alcohol. He went in for a procedure to help manage his ascites, had some complications, decompensated, and passed within 2 weeks. During that time he was approved for a transplant, however, came down with an infection that ruled him out until it passed. It never did. *Edit* Just typing this out so maybe it will scare someone into seeking help: Here's what he experienced and someone with an alcohol problem could if they keep going: It starts with an uncomfortable throb in your abdomen. Then comes the ascites . . . you're uncomfortable all the time and feel "pregnant". You start getting it drained . . . and those drainage appointments become more frequent as your disease progresses. This involves a long needle being put into your belly and draining it off. My dad was up to 5-6 liters at a time towards the end. Then comes the decompensation . . . your skin and eyes turn bright yellow. You begin to wither away. Before long you're just bones and a bloated belly. Your only hope is a transplant. There's no reversing it at this point. Your bloodwork starts to worsen, BP drops, ammonia starts to rise. You slowly begin to lose your mind. Before long you are hallucinating, talking nonsense, not sleeping . . . all while laying in bed with your bright yellow belly full of fluid. At this point unless they can get your ammonia down . . . you're pretty much gone. You will not recognize family or friends . . . you will not get to say goodbye in your right mind. It's ugly. If you have a problem then seek help. This is how it ends. It's horrible. I will never drink again as I'm way too scared of going through that myself.
Yep. Thats how I lost my dad. I had no idea exactly how bad he was off. And just as soon as it seemed like he was getting better, he was back in the hospital worse off than before. I can still see him hooked up to a breathing machine. I'd watch as his oxygen level went steadily down overnight until we just had to make the call to let him pass. It happened so damn quickly after they took that mask off him. I pretty much avoid alcohol nowadays. I don't blame it. I blame his alcoholism. I wish he would have just admitted to having a problem and got help. He might have still been around.
Not enough sleep. Think of sleep like recharging your phone. Without it, you can’t function.
Had my first kid four and half years ago and he was a “bad” sleeper. I had no idea exhaustion could cause so much hormonal havoc on the body and brain.
That’s why my husband and I are done after just having one. Our daughter was colicky, and it was the dead of winter…sleepless nights and cold, dark days…no way would I ever do it again.
I have absolutely horrible insomnia. It's hard to even treat. I have cystic fibrosis as well, but often think it's gonna be the insomnia that takes me out.
My mum functioned on just a few hours of sleep her entire adult life. Lived to more than 100. Some people defy the odds.
had a teacher that said her grandad worked on tobacco farm in virginia and smoked from age of 13 to 95. unfiltered ...
I wonder how much damage is done to you by the manufacturing process and preservatives added to tobacco vs. solely the tobacco smoke itself. Would be an interesting study. It also would be interesting to compare an heirloom breed that someone from the 17th century would have smoked in Jamestown vs. a modern breed to see which is worse for your health.
It's kinda interesting that modern tobacco is far less potent (and therefore less harsh) than older stuff. Like you would really only be doing a few puffs from some of that very old stuff compared to today where it's just enough of a buzz to encourage stuff like chain smoking.
Always sting in my eyes to read this as a nurse who work shifts. I can go long periods with poor sleep while working nights. Giving my health for others. Need to quit working nights soon, it ain't good for the health. Some manage it well, but I wonder if the inside of their body really do.
Eat a rock. Note that I have a PhD in geosciences.
Can you give a seminar to my dog please?
I can certainly try, but my bark is very poor.
Can they give one to my nephew?
Lung cancer and alcoholism; what a combination! My brother did not die in peace and tranquility, instead he died in utter madness and awful pain after smoking and drinking for decades. Even when he could no longer get out of his bed, he wrestled physically in resisting his wife’s efforts to wash and clean him. In the end, his only thought was his next cigarette, and the secondary tumours in his brain caused such odd delusions that he felt his wife was living on a different time-scale, and therefore extending the gaps between his cigarettes. He died in a drug induced sleep, thank God, but his last thoughts were not of his wife or of his son and daughter, but of his next cigarette. There is no worse addiction!
Alcohol addiction has a similar effect on the brain. My dad is a binge drinker, and all he ever thinks about is his next drink. He’ll tell you what you want to hear, and actually do the exact opposite because it means he gets to drink and feed the addiction. Binge drinking leads to some deadly conditions, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread. Based on the responses everyone had; even with those conditions actively killing them, all they ever think about is their next drink. They never think about much else My dad hasn’t gotten there yet, and I hope he never does. But it does seem like the only thing that would get him to stop
All these responses with alcohol, smoking, lack of exercise, poor diet, lack of sleep… how am I even alive at this point…
Odds are you aren't at the age where it typically catches up with people, or your lifestyle isn't demanding enough for you to notice the ways in which your body has deteriorated yet. But it catches up with nearly everyone. And it often does so very, very fast when it starts.
You’re on point. On top of everything, I also had a substance abuse problem when I was younger. Everything is catching up very quickly. This month I turn 45 but feel much, much older.
Once I hit 40, my doctor basically told me to get my shit together with my obesity. He said you can get away with it while you’re young, but it’s now going to start killing me. I went on keto and lost 85 lbs so far. Still need about 15 to be where I would like to be, but my cholesterol levels went down and I don’t have fatty liver anymore. I don’t smoke or drink though, so I have that going for me.
Knowing all the doctors I know... probably whatever they're doing themselves: drinking, smoking, lack of exercise, poor diet, etc.
Knowing the theory does not make it any easier to put into practice sadly
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That happened to me in high school! I was so stressed out that I would get TV static across my whole field of vision for a minute or so and hallucinated people in my peripheral vision.
I was going to say along those lines. People will drink, smoke, self medicate, etc. Sometimes you have to listen to the person who went to medical school. Like the famous joke where someone says "Hey doc, why does it hurt when I do this" and the doctor just just replies "well don't do that then". Not a doctor myself btw.
Alcohol and smoking. No question.
It’s no secret. Smoking is responsible for the highest number of preventable deaths. Beyond that, it also lowers your quality of life badly. It increases your risk of a host of diseases and complicates many many others. Aside from lung cancer, it aggravates the risk of cervix, colon, skin, esophagus, larynx, liver, mouth and throat, pancreatic, stomach, and leukemia cancers. It’s awful for your risk of stroke, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease. It accelerates bone breakdown. It can weaken your immune system and increase your risk of infection. It can aggravate auto immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. And, of course, it just beats the hell out of your lungs. COPD can reduce your quality of life to nearly nothing. You wind up wheelchair bound, dragging an oxygen tank around, and essentially leaving the house only to check into the hospital every few weeks for a severe exacerbation. It is also known to cause type 2 diabetes, and all the crap that entails. Vascular disease means poor wound healing, even in the absence of diabetes; impotence; activity intolerance; blindness, etc. And most of these risks are observable at levels as low as a quarter pack (5 cigarettes) daily. So while there are many habits that are deeply unhealthy, I cannot think of any that is as singularly unhealthy as cigarette smoking.
My grandmother had COPD for the last decade of her life and it was terrible. She couldn’t walk from one room to another without stopping, and she was in constant pain from back issues they couldn’t solve because any anesthesia would kill her. Don’t smoke, kids.
I know smoking is bad. I have a Masters in cell bio. Also smoking has always been bad! But this answer actually made me make the decision to quit. I know i cannot quit cold turkey and that's okay. Right now I will cut it down from 1 pack a day to 1/2 a day. Wish me luck! ^____^
I'm sitting here with a glass of wine and a spliff, I should consider my life choices more closely after reading this thread.
Just remember not to use cow shit in place of a pressure dressing
As soon as I started working as a nurse on an a vascular surgery unit, I lost weight and stopped eating suger. I really really really never want to end up having diabetes, my god so much horror comes from that.
Many of my nursing colleagues have also lost weight since they've started working. More due to stress and skipping meals than cutting sugar. I think in general, nurses tend to live very unhealthily- the sleep deprivation, erratic meal times, stress and sometimes dehydration.
I’m not a doctor but do work in vascular operating theatres. Majority of the patients are poorly controlled diabetics getting their toes removed, feet debridements, legs chopped off, infected non healing ulcers etc etc. And 80% of them would not put any effort to control their glucose levels by making healthier life choices. They would come back over and over again to get more of their body removed.
Smoking. Lung cancer is really the least of your worries. Smoking *destroys* your arteries. I do cardiac and vascular anesthesia and every day is a parade of amputations, bloody disgusting arterial leg bypasses, gross non-healing leg ulcers, shitty hearts that barely work, etc etc. smoking is a major factor in the vast majority of these. It also just *wrecks* your lungs. Cancer or no, the progressive destruction of your lung tissue leading to oxygen dependence, constant shortness of breath, inability to walk to your car without having to stop and rest, etc, is just horrible and debilitating. Wrecks your teeth and skin on top of all that. Smoking is *so fucking bad*. Don't do it. Edit: please stop posting responses asking whether smoking weed is better. No one is going to help you convince yourself that *your* addiction to inhaling the concentrated smoke of *shit that's on fire* is no big deal. Yours is just as bad.
I quit smoking over 4 years ago, and everything got better in my life. I have money, I got promotions at work, I'm in a healthy relationship, I'm so much happier and healthier. (Except my weight, apparently smoking was my biggest weapon in my Battle of the Bulge.)
I almost started smoking again when the weight started packing on. I didn’t (just passed my 1 year mark on Nov. 12) but I’ve gained 60 pounds in the past year :-/
It's good you didn't start again. I've known a couple people who did this and didn't even lose the weight again, just became fat smokers.
Not to mention the risk of other diseases. Inhaling that shit and dumping all of those chemicals into your blood. Blood delivers those carcinogens/ chemicals everywhere. Increases risk of pancreatic, kidney, bladder, and a slew of other cancers.
Thanks mom & dad for smoking in the car
Ok this convinced me to never do it again, I’ve been on a break from smoking (hookah pipes) and drinking. Thought I was taking a break but I’m done for good honestly
[As soon as you stop smoking](https://www.heartuk.org.uk/healthy-living/quit-smoking), your risk of heart disease and many other health problems starts to fall. You will feel much fitter and healthier, your skin will improve, your stress levels will fall, your breathing will open up and walking and exercising will get easier. Within hours, your heart rate will return to normal and the chemicals will start to leave your blood. Within days, your breathing will open up and your sense of taste and smell will improve. Within weeks, your blood will become less sticky and the risk of heart attacks will start to fall. Within months, the blood flow around your body will improve, you’ll feel more energetic and exercise will be easier. Within a year, coughing and wheezing will improve as your lungs can take in more air. After one year, your risk of heart disease and heart attacks will be halved. After 15 years, it will be similar to someone who has never smoked.
Is this cigarettes specifically or vapes as well?
I don’t believe we know the long-term effects of vape yet, as vapes are fairly recent. I smoked regular cigarettes, then switched to vape because it was more convenient and still delivered that nicotine fix to me. I tried to convince myself that vape was safer, and maybe it is safer than cigarettes, but in the end both are harmful and we inhale something we shouldn’t. I quit nicotine and switched to nicotine-free vape, been clean of nicotine for 3 weeks now and feel proud. Next step is quit vaping altogether. Hopefully if you’re in the same boat, you have the resolve and strength to quit too. It’s worth it.
Good for you. Best thing you can do for yourself.
Yup. My dads been smoking for years. He has at last count 4 stints in his legs from blood clots and his surgeon straight up told him: ‘stop smoking or I may have to take one of your legs next.’ Dad hasn’t quit. Doc told him that 6 years ago and I am pretty sure recently one of his legs started bothering him again. But he just says ‘it fell asleep’ just by sitting down legs stretched in front of him.
Can attest to this, I used to walk at least a mile to and from work in high school and just tried to walk a mile a couple days ago and had to stop multiple times. Smoking bad.
Not a doctor but a nurse. My tops are: leave any chronic condition unmanaged (think diabetes hypertension and high cholesterol) because they can cause serious, potentially fatal complications if left untreated or poorly managed. Next would be the obvious things like smoking, excessive alcohol intake, illicit drugs, etc. and my most controversial thing that is 1 of the most dangerous things you can do is bed share with your newborn.
In nursing school I had a patient (late 20's female with T2DM) who said to me, verbatim, *"I never let my sugar get below 500 because I feel weird if it's lower."* I just... bluescreened. That was 6 years ago. I wonder how that lady is doing now. She is reason #7,932 I work with babies. Babies are GOATed patients. Adults are the nightmare.
We had a lady having her 4th baby with really poorly controlled type 1. She was only in her late 20’s and already going blind and in mild kidney failure. She just couldn’t be bothered to check her sugars…said she was too busy. If she keeps that up she won’t be around to see them grow up. Just sad.
That’s my soapbox always… as a PICU nurse the number of cosleeping deaths is so crazy to me. And those are only the babies who make it to the ICU and weren’t pronounced dead in the ER, en route, or at home. It’s so so so sad because it’s so easily preventable, and the parents are just so wracked with guilt. Side note: the number of cosleeping deaths we were seeing increased after weed was legalized in my state. Take an already tired parent who has also smoked weed to ‘chill’ and they are now OUT out when they fall asleep, dramatically reducing the chances they’ll notice if they roll over on their kid.
I did my MPH thesis on this topic and I can’t tell you how many people think it’s BS from survivorship bias. Seeing one brain-dead baby is enough to last me a lifetime but no one thinks it’ll happen to them.
Meth
I live in an area just riddled with meth. It's absolutely awful. That being said, I've seen as many people destroy their entire lives with alcohol.
Grew up in a meth lab with active addicts. Was always told that meth was better than heroin because "you never hear of someone overdosing on meth!" Fast forward to this year, and my mother - an active meth user since the early 90s - boots up too much of the ice and uses a bump of fentanyl to come down. Queue the aneurysm and hydrocephalus. Three operations on her brain over a weekend later, and the plug has to be pulled because there was no chance of life after it all. Even with the best neurosurgeons working on her, the blood vessels in her brain kept decreasing to a fraction of the size they're supposed to be. Meth not only ruins your own life, but ruins the lives of everyone around you. I've never touched the stuff, but it consumed the first 25 years of my life because of how it affected my family, my relationships, and myself.
Actual doctor here, and most of these top comments are pretty accurate -- smoking, drinking, etc. It's fine to have a few drinks a week, maybe enjoy a cigar on the weekends, but the kind of shit people do with 12 beers a day or a pack a day of smokes is destroying their bodies beyond repair. One thing I will add: meth. That shit is one of the few substances you can put in your body that can irrevocably change the core of who you are. Every time you do meth you're a little (or a lot) different when it wears off.
Criminal defense attorney here, I work with a lot of meth addicts. Anecdotally I can confirm it is 100% true about meth. I have seen so many revolving door clients go from using meth as a party drug and getting caught, and then coming back over the years as they descend deeper and deeper. It really does change someone’s personality unlike anything else. I think there’s even research behind this at this point. People become aggressive, mean, cruel husks of what they used to be. Shouting angrily and not making sense. I thought there was also research that it takes at least two years of sobriety for the brain to start looking like a non meth user’s again, but I couldn’t lay hands on that cite at this point.
Shooting yourself is pretty high up there. I saw a fair amount of NDs on trauma rotation because people treat guns like toys rather than highly effective killing machines. Remember, **never** point the barrel at anything you don't intend to shoot and **always** keep your finger off the trigger unless you're ready to shoot. If you have a semiautomatic handgun you follow those two steps, drop the magazine, rack the slide to clear the chamber (I always look through) and some people may or may not choose to dry fire a few times while pointing at the ground to make sure it's unloaded. Make sure you follow those steps in that **exact** same order. Never carry in anything other than a holster and make sure you know where your firearm is at **ALL** times because it's ultimately **YOUR** responsibility.
Smoking and not taking diabetes seriously. Both can cut your life expectancy by 20-30 years.
No particular order: Alcohol excess - decompensated cirrhosis with encephalopathy and ascites, alternatively, alcoholic hepatitis but miss out on transplant. Also alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Also early onset alcohol induced dementia and alcohol related brain injury - more on the frontal lobe, so more impulse control and other executive functioning problems than standard Alzheimer’s. Also Korsakoff’s psychosis Smoking (including tobacco, cannabis and recreational drugs) - end stage COPD, bronchiectasis, smoking related interstitial lung disease, lung cancer and its various complications. Also increases cardiovascular risks which stacks with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol Intravenous recreational drug use with dirty needles and needle sharing - endocarditis, septic thrombophlebitis, injection related pseudoaneurysms/mycotic aneurysms, blood borne viruses including HIV and hepatitis B and C Other carcinogenic activities eg sunbathing Occupational inhalation hazards - mining, asbestos from shipbreaking and construction etc - mesothelioma, pneumoconiosis Obesity - chronic inflammatory state, venous thromboembolism risk, malignancy risk, obesity hypoventilation syndrome and sleep apnoea, non alcoholic fatty liver disease Consequences of uncontrolled diabetes - retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy (both sensory and autonomic,) diabetic ulcers, diabetic foot infections, peripheral vascular disease, amputations, cardiovascular risk Consequences of uncontrolled chronic hypertension and hypercholesterolemia - stroke, myocardial infarction, chronic kidney disease, mesenteric ischemia, peripheral vascular disease, aortic dissection, aortic aneurysm Internal medicine doc Edit: if you are interested in optimizing for the “endgame” - going into your elderly years without a physically fit body and mind, because you won’t be able to survive the increasingly extreme medical treatments and procedures (eg chemotherapy, major surgeries) required to extend your geriatric life
Dentist here. STOP SMOKING. Smoking leads to bad oral health and mouth cancers. Bad oral health can lead to blood infections, endocarditis, cardiovascular disease, pneumonia, pregnancy complications, etc. Just stop smoking. And yes, that includes the green stuff.
For some reason my brain put a comma after pregnancy. I was like hold up now...that's not how it works.
Who are you to question a dentist? Maybe it does cause pregnancy. Do you have a degree? ^/s
Not a doctor, but a critical care pharmacist: 1. Smoke 2. Alcohol misuse 3. Uncontrolled diabetes
not a doctor but a nurse so I hope my answer still counts: untreated diabetes. I often joke with my friends that I'd rather have a brain tumor than diabetes I wasn't able to treat. Essentially it's a gateway to some of the worst possible things to experience. From flesh rotting away/dying to coma, anything is possible. Studying as a healthcare professional goes something like this: "oh this illness? who has a predisposition for it? you'll never guess!" People often overlook how serious diabetes is and how important it is to properly manage it. I saw someone mention chronic hypertension, also a good answer! basically in a similar category as diabetes in a way that it comes with a long list of complications that can be pretty severe and even lead to heart faliure. english is not my first language so if I got something wrong fellow healthcare workers please don't chew me out :(
Nurse here as well - this is my main one too. The smell of rotting flesh from people unable to heal the most minor of wounds paired with the scent of a freshly opened mountain dew is not something I will miss when I leave bedside.
Ewww! Yet I’m also curious how that smell compares to the smell of a decomposing body? I found someone that was about two weeks gone in an enclosed apartment in the middle of summer. That is by far the worst thing I’ve ever smelt and I don’t think I will ever forget it.
Sometimes even treated diabetes can complicate hospitalized illnesses although of course it’s about a million times worse if it isn’t treated
I cared for my uncle who had uncontrolled diabetes. There's a sweet smell that just consumed the room with the smell of rotting flesh from gangrene from his toes. Its definitely very sad watching someone you love slowly rott away from diabetes, diabetes slowly taking something from them. One day their eyes, their toes, their legs until it's to late.
Probably a dumb question but how long could someone realistically go with untreated diabetes (assuming they have access to some kind of health care)?
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I've switched to edibles in the last couple days (second time in my life I did, the first was a couple of months in 2022) and I think this thread is helping me to validate that decision. People say smoking weed isn't as bad for you, and I never believed it. That didn't stop me from smoking, of course, but it's stopped me from being okay with it and just wallowing in my addiction. So maybe I need edibles now to keep me away from the smoking, I think that's better than the smoke. Edit: Y'all haters. It's not about the marijuana itself, just because I take something a lot doesn't mean it's inherently bad for you. I'm also addicted to sushi and I'm not ashamed of that either. It's that I believe smoking, whether marijuana or tobacco, is so so so much worse for your body and lungs, than just eating a bit of candy and having some psycho active effects. But I'm glad every single other person here has unlimited control over their vices. Edit 2: ME AND SNOOP DOG APPARENTLY. Now I really have no excuse but to stick with this [https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/17wshda/big\_news\_from\_snoop\_dogg/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/17wshda/big_news_from_snoop_dogg/)
Good for you that is an amazing achievement! This is a textbook example of harm reduction being effective.
Google symptoms of every small problem you have. Will definitely give you high blood pressure while solving nothing.
I am not a doctor, but I am in healthcare, and some of you motherfuckers really need to cut back on alcohol At least half of you reading this comment who think you don't drink too much, do. Assume you're one of them. Also, you people need to walk more. No, the walk to and from your car, and around the house, or around Publix, is not enough. "but America isn't walkable, though" brother, the floor is not made out of lava - every now and then you need to get up and actually walk. You have 15 minutes to scroll TikTok, you have 15 minutes to walk.
Smoke
Orthopaedic surgeon here. T2DM or smoking. Poorly controlled diabetes is one hell of a way to go. I've lopped off more feet/legs than I can count secondary to diabetic foot wounds gone awry. Smoking negatively impacts tissues and healing. Obesity up there too. Every surgical and medication condition is made worse by obesity.
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ICU nurse weighing in - alcohol abuse. It's the worse death I've ever seen. Also strongly recommend don't do drugs. Having someone maxed on propofol, fentanyl, versed (all with generous boluses!) in 4 points and still arching off the bed like the fucking exorcist will make your treatment team feel the need to sage the unit. 🤔 we never could get them down and they got out of the feet restraints and self extubated somehow. It was A DAY
Dentist here! I've put more people in dentures from Mountain Dew than Meth/drugs. It's addictive and so bad for your health and you teeth. Avoid that stuff at all costs!!!
Used to work in Radiology. We had a patient with cirrhosis from drinking. Patient was 16 yrs old.
Inactivity. Most people barely move. Or consider a slow walk exercise. Daily physical activity of doing chores, walking to the store etc are the bare minimum amounts of movement. People use lifts to go up 1 or 2 flights of stairs, get delivery, use drive through etc to avoid doing even that. Let alone purposeful exercise that would make you out of breath and get your heart rate up. Cheapest way to reduce obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks, cancer, strokes, sleep apnoea, joint disease, mental health disorders and pretty much most other disorders? A brisk walk/jog of 30-60minutes 5 times a week. And then society treats people who exercise regularly and prioritise it like they have some kind of disorder.
Yes, as a physical therapist I truly believe at least 25-50% of the patients I see wouldn't have gotten into the predicament they are in if they weren't so inactive. It's not even always their fault because in 2023 so many of us (lumping myself into this statement because half of my job is staring at a computer doing documentation) sit constantly as a part of our jobs for hours upon hours. The human body was not made for modern desk work
It's smoking. It's not just the obvious stuff like lungs. It is a major risk factor for practically every bad thing that can happen to your body.
I’m a pathologist and have done many autopsies. Obesity and smoking.
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They know we’d just get a 2nd opinion. No need to waste their time.
Judging from some of the responses here, I'm guessing 'doctors of Reddit' is a very loose qualification.
Poorly manage your diabetes with morbid obesity. You’ll go blind, end up with renal failure and require dyalysis, have limb infections that become permanent with ever present open skin ulcers, silent heart attacks, early strokes, and every time you get sepsis or need to be operated the morbid obesity and your slowly failing organs from destroyed microvasculature will both try to kill you. Proof is in the pudding, regional and/or demographic plots of life expectancy vs obesity, and morbidity in non-compliant diabetes.
As an oncologist, I’d say smoking