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Oakchair
“Why, it might be argued, should anyone think it is anything but inevitable that the preeminent schools of a capitalist society produce professionals to serve the societies preeminent capitalists?” –Calvin Trillin
“For every complicated problem there is a solution that is simple, direct, understandable, and wrong” — H. L. Mencken
“The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” –Karl Marx
—–
According to the experts normal blood pressure is under 120/80. If it is higher than 130/80 you’ll need to take some expensive pharma drugs or else…
The concept that high blood pressure causes increased mortality was adopted after the Framingham Heart study, which is the most widely cited study used.
When professional mathematicians looked at this large 18 year long study they concluded:
“In fact, these data actually statistically rejected”
“the paradigm MUST be false”
“a universal cut point at a fixed pressure, in particular at 140 mmHg, has no justification”
“no benefit in reducing pressure from 160 mmHg”
Furthermore they noted that:
“no randomized trial has ever demonstrated any reduction of the risk of either overall or cardiovascular death by reducing systolic blood pressure” (when it was 160mmHg or lower)
https://www.math.ucla.edu/~scp/publications/EHJ.pdf
——
A year long study from China looked at blood pressure and all cause mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation.
Mortality rates were 1.9 and 1.6 times higher in those with blood pressure under 110/70mmHg
As figure 2 shows those with low blood pressure had the highest death rates. The highest blood pressure group had the lowest mortality rates.
https://mednexus.org/doi/10.1097/CM9.0000000000002627
—–
Table 2 shows blood pressure drugs were associated with an increased risk of:
hospitlization/death from falls 2.19 and 1.23
hypotension 2.43 and 1.32
kidney injury 2.92 and 1.44
syncope 2 and 1.2
Fracture 1.45 and .99
electrolyte abnormalities 2.64 and 1.45
gout 1.99 and 1.35
First number is the unadjusted rate and second number is the rate using the authors adjustments.
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004223
—-
“Patients in a pragmatic trial were surveyed at baseline to identify and characterize 6 potential BP medication side effect symptoms”
Table 2 shows the percentage of people having big or very big problems with each side effect.
18% for tiredness
7.5% for dizziness
10% for leg swelling
7% for cough
12% for frequent urination
9% sexual dysfunction
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40578923/
——
“Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” -Karl Marx
NR
Oakchair is back with more AI-generated slop. That Chinese study doesn’t say what he claims (or rather, what Chat GPT claims) it says:
What the study actually says:
So this study confirms what many other studies have shown: blood pressure that is too low or too high carries an increased risk of death. Contrary to what Oakchair (or rather, Chat GPT) claimed, the mid-range blood pressure values had the lowest risk of death, as the study itself said:
So the moral of the story here is, don’t go to Chat GPT for medical advice or analysis.
mago
Probably don’t want to get your blood pressure boiling over whatever stressors may be pushing your pulse over the top.
A year ago I mate a rare visit to see a primary care physician, and the first thing they do is measure your blood pressure and mine was over the top.
I explained that being in their milieu which is normal for them is totally not for me, hence the elevated readings.
They sent me home with a chart to fill out and a mandate to monitor daily blood pressure, which I duly did every morning for 30 days. It was all within normal range.
Didn’t follow through with an appointment. And a year later the chart collects dust. Never going back again and I don’t care. Not that it matters. Just saying. Best not to get worked up over nothing.
bruce wilder
Tulsi Gabbard has brought about the release of a number of documents confirming what many of us suspected from the beginning: Russiagate was fabricated for political advantage, using compliant intelligence agencies as tools and compliant media as fools and useful idiots.
The reaction among political media to being handed documentary confirmation of their lack of integrity has been to cry, “but, Epstein!”
The irresponsibility demonstrated seems to be boundless.
I have listened to Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn try to fathom the depths of depravity involved, but the shocking reality is how petty and shallow the motivations and goals of all involved were. Taibbi for a while sounded a bit like Rachel Maddow touting the possibility of prosecutions to come. There won’t be any further prosecutions, imo. This is just how everyone in Washington acts all the time. It is like someone revealed that Vince McMahon is NOT letting a title fight be decided in the ring, as opposed to the writer’s room. [sarc] You mean Pro Wrestling is fake!? [end sarc] “Control of the Narrative” took over decades ago in American politics as not only Job #1, but the only job for professional journalists, pundits and politicians. So many players coordinated their misbehavior and malpractice that none dare call it conspiracy. It really wasn’t a conspiracy. It was just handing out scripts and talking points to the right people and letting those right people do what they do so well. You can’t really blame Seth Meyer for feeding his kids on Trump jokes, can you?
The mentality is that it simply doesn’t matter whether any of it is factually accurate. It doesn’t matter to what will be said or reported, what will be done as a matter of policy, what will be remembered or argued “as if” a matter of principle was involved.
Lots and lots of people participated and they won’t remember that they lied and deceived themselves and others. Not many remember anything.
mago
Yeah. Days of guns and roses.
Don’t remember anything except selectively.
What’s that in the road? A head?
We’re living in Monty Python world.
Fabrications and delusions
Mental fog
And we can’t find our way home
Moving into the dog days of August
Love what you can and who you can best as you are able.
canopy
book of the week
Fear of Falling
The Inner Life of the Middle Class
by Barbara Ehrenreich
“A brilliant and insightful work that examines the insecurities of the middle class in an attempt to explain its turn to the right during the past two decades, Fear of Falling traces the myths about the middle class to their roots in the ambitions and anxieties that torment the group and that have led to its retreat from a responsible leadership role.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24457.Fear_of_Falling?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=PNRISlFCsb&rank=1
shagggz
Ian: “don’t go to Chat GPT for medical advice or analysis.” – Or anything relying on factuality, really.
Oakchair
Re: “Don’t go to chat GPT for medical advice or analysis….
——-
Right, because chat GPT doesn’t think, use logic, delve through various biases, or consider where and how “facts and data” are accrued. It doesn’t even have the curiosity to wonder about those things. It simply regurgitates what it’s told to.
That’s how the media operates regarding most topics especially anything related to wars or any scientific topic. That’s how doctors operate.
Chat GPT is going to save society because it will show everyone the horrendous pitfalls of outsourcing their thinking. People will rise up and stop following orders and think for themselves. We’ll have real discussions instead of intellectual cesspools like NR’s posts. Wait, never mind that’s not going to happen.
NR
Just like you regurgitated what it gave you in response to whatever prompt you typed into it to create your comment above. The problem is that Chat GPT isn’t very good at actually analyzing things and drawing accurate conclusions. And you were apparently either unwilling or unable to read and comprehend the sources it cited. If you had been, you would have realized that the study Chat GPT gave you had a different conclusion than it claimed.
It does take a lot of gall to complain about “intellectual cesspools” while posting AI-generated slop that contains information that’s flat-out wrong, though, I’ll give you that. “Intellectual cesspools” indeed! Take a look in the mirror.
Jorge
@mago – your experience with having your blood pressure checked is called “White Coat Syndrome”, and it is quite common. They’re supposed to know about it.
Jorge
I’m calling the beginning of the end for Trump, in re: firing the boss of BLS.
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/01/trump-jobs-labor-statistics
When the President is inaugurated, he gets a number of speeches. One of them is: “You can pick any idiot for Secretary of State, Defense, HUD, etc. Here is a list of acceptable candidates for Treasury and The Federal Reserve- you will choose from the list. You don’t get to screw about with The Money.” He is trying to screw about with The Money, for very bad reasons, and this is the red line.