The “Jug Test”, Sacred Cows! and is High Cholesterol Good For You?
18 Jun 2005
My Father was a Scot who may take a whack at me from the hereafter for this item. But I believe it might also make him wonder what’s happening to his beloved Scots and others. Today we hear more and more about the medical problems of obesity. But a report from Edinburgh illustrates that obesity has many other rarely mentioned ramifications.
Doctors told the Scotland on Sunday newspaper that obesity was straining hospital budgets. Beds, mattresses and chairs were all too small. Radiologists reported that some Scots have become so overweigh it’s impossible to squeeze them into CT and MRI machines. Surgeons found that operating tables were too narrow and surgical instruments too short when trying to operate through layers of abdominal fat. And even hoists that had been used to lift overweight patients were now not strong enough to support heavier ones!
The result? Surgery had to be postponed until patients lost weight. But the report made no mention of what happened when diagnosis depended on the use of CT and MRI equipment! Nor what might happen to the psyche of the frugal Scots when they have to dig deeper into their pockets for new equipment. This sad commentary indicates what’s happening in many other countries as well.
An interesting item from Dr. Charles R. Bateman of Waterloo, Ontario. I had written about demolition drivers who often sustained whiplash injuries but quickly recovered without the aid of litigation. How the reverse is true in the general public who resort to the law for therapy.
Dr. Bateman reminds me of a study done by Dr. Barney Barrett a neurologist at Toronto’s Sunnybrook hospital in 1964. He found that cliff divers in Acapulco, diving from great heights, frequently suffered fractures of the neck. But they also quickly recovered and returned to diving again without litigation and insurance claims!
I like simple medical tests that don’t cost an arm and a leg so this one caught my eye. It’s called "The jug test" and is the brain-child of Dr. Bernard Roos, a specialist in aging at the University of Miami.
The simple test determines how speedily patients can move a five gallon (18.9 liter) jug of water from a knee-high self to another shelf at shoulder height without changing hands.
Dr. Roos claims it’s a quick, efficient way for health care providers to determine if people are able to deal with the physical tasks of daily living. So if you’re beginning to wonder about yourself or aging parents start looking for a 18.9 liter jug!
Sacred cows are not always that sacred. We all know that high blood cholesterol is bad for you. But is it? A report in the Archives of Internal Medicine claims that high levels of cholesterol are associated with decreased overall mortality in the elderly. It seems that high cholesterol may help to protect against infection.
Again every menopausal woman now knows that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is associated with increased risk of breast cancer, heart attack and stroke. But suppose a heart bypass operation is needed? A report in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery says HRT significantly improves the survival rate regardless of age. For women on HRT the death rate was only 2.7 per cent. For those not on HRT 6.7 per cent!
There’s one sacred cow that will always be sacred. Plumbers who have fixed hundreds of leaking pipes are more likely to fix the leak than those who have just repaired a few. It’s the same with surgeons.
A report from The Harvard Medical School studied 7,257 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent surgery. Patients treated at hospitals performing the fewest of these surgeries were more likely to require a colostomy or die within two years. The rate of permanent colostomy was also 7.1 per cent higher in patients treated at hospitals performing fewer than seven of these operation per year. It’s the old story that practice makes perfect.
The authors of the study believe this is important because patients who end up with colostomies have higher rates of depression and poor social functioning.
