I had just read the far less than informative letter President Trump's physician Sean Conley when I watched the President declare a National Emergency. I think there is a National Emergency all right. I believe the President is desperately ill.
Not that you would know that from anything his doctor has said. According to Conley the President is in very good health overall.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Acosta/status/1096153878914101253/photo/1
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Fox News would like us to move on. Nothing to see here.
Not so fast.
What you need to know is 40mg of rosuvastatin is the maximum dosage allowed of this medication.
I bet you thought I was going to talk about his weight. Don't worry I will get there.
Rosuvastatin is a drug that reduces total cholesterol by lowering low density lipoprotein and raising levels of high density lipoprotein which is protective against heart disease. Most doctors in the US start patients at 10 to 20 milligrams once a day. Conservative doctors and those in Canada and Germany start at 5. Or go 10 every second day. That is because there is such a thing as rosuvastatin intolerance.
This is a very useful drug with some serious but rare side effects and even after all these years physiological effects that aren't well understood.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3627279/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...
What the authors are saying is that by some uncertain means rosuvastatin reduces inflammation and lowers blood pressure. You will notice Trump's BP is listed in the letter as 118/80 which is very low for a man his age and that may well be a positive side effect of his rosavustatin prescription.
Some of the better known side effects of rosuvastatin are:
-insomnia
-jaundice which can cause your skin to be yellow or yellowish
-headaches
-stomach pain
-headaches
And more seriously:
-diminished liver function
-onset of type II diabetes
There is by the way little data on side effects of long term use of 40mg of rosuvastatin. But what we know for sure is that this dosage is contraindicated for patients over 70. There is a real danger of it building up in the patient's liver and causing liver failure.
So why risk it? What are these doctors seeing in the President's blood work that requires such a huge dosage. And why aren't they sharing that data with the American public?
There are only three possible reasons for upping the dosage. The first is that the patient's total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein levels were rising despite his earlier dosage. Rising cholesterol in a 72 year old obese man on 20 mg of rosavustatin screams ticking time bomb.
The second reason for such a high dose would be an elevated reading on a high sensitivity C Reactive Protein (hsCRP test). This test just tells the doctor if you have inflammatory responses going on anywhere in your body. But high levels of inflammation are predictive of heart disease and thus so is hsCRP. Again ticking time bomb.
We do know the drug doesn't work anywhere near as well on patients who won't consume less fat and less calories, get more exercise, and lose weight. In other words it is not an optimal choice for President Trump.
So again I ask why is an obese, lazy, 72 year old man with a multi hamburger a day taking a drug not intended to be used in this situation since it's effectiveness will be reduced by his behaviors? And in a dosage that could well be a death sentence and an ugly death at that. And where in this report is the essential liver function test we need to know if this dosage is destroying the President's liver.
The third reason you might be on maximum dose of rosavustatin is because there is a growing off label use of rosavustatin. To delay the onset of Alzheimer's. I think the question has to be asked. Does the President have dementia. If not why is he on rosavustatin?
Now ironically we have to ask if the former dose caused the cognitive issues that we have seen the President exhibit over the last few years and if those symptoms are going to be worse on the increased dosage. There is certainly research that suggests this could be the case.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5830056/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...
There are other questions I'd like answers to such as
-why are the President's doctors describing a man who is either racing up on a heart attack, suffering a major inflammatory disease, or in the grips of dementia as healthy
-why are the media not pushing back hard on this absurd medical?
Now as to the President's weight. I don't want to fixate on this other than to say there is a body of research that suggests obese people may be more likely to suffer liver damage while on rosavustatin.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23959724
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...
This again suggests rosuvastatin is contraindicated for the President.
Two final thoughts:
The mental issues the President is suffering in full view of the public are those you would expect during liver failure. It is called hepatic encephalopathy. This was particularly evident during today’s announcement.
https://www.healthline.com/health/hepatic-encephalopathy-2
www.healthline.com/...
Hepatic encephalopathy is a very likely outcome of what we know about the Presidents overall health and the medication he is on.
Fox News is wrong. Even the data the President has made public indicates a man in failing health and raises new, critical concerns. Today’s events just bring the urgency of dealing with the President’s health back into focus.
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In my next diary I am going to talk about my long (40+) year career as a scientist. Most of that has been as a medical scientist doing research on humans.
I realized reading the comments that I assumed a degree of knowledge about human physiology that some of you may not possess. And in the process missed a chance to include a public service announcement. I would like to redress that here and now.
What I am about to say is simply a fact. There are no rhetorical tricks involved.
As you age your bodies ability to process drugs changes. There are no hard and fast rules about when these changes begin to occur. And it isn’t the same for any two patients or for that matter any two drugs.
You need to work with your primary care physician and your specialist to make sure that these changes are detected and your medications adjusted appropriately as you age. I always recommend starting with your annual physical at age 60. If you are the caregivers to elderly parents or a professional care giver you need to be especially vigilant and ask both the person you are caring for and their physicians questions about verifying appropriate dosages and making necessary changes.
Please look after you and yours!
And I would offer President Trump and his family the same advice.
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I remain deeply concerned for the President’s future health. I would worry about any President that appeared to be at risk. My concern is magnified in this case because there is little proof he is receiving competent medical care.
I have engaged in the original post in rhetorical tricks which have apparently struck many of you as reminiscent of other conspiracy theories you have read. You are absolutely right.
I assume we would all acknowledge that the President’s health and his medical care are a matter of concern. Yet at the time I posted the original diary I could find no main stream media push back against the latest joke of a physical and on social media the attention was all on the President’s weight. I wanted to send up a flare and see if I could start a conversation.
Those of you who have read my other work know I tend to be so measured I come off as wishy- washy. In this case the urgency of the matter seemed to require fireworks. I am sorry it offended some of you. That was never my intention.
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I hope I have restored all of the links I lost when the article was pasted in here. But I left the original addresses as placeholders and in case you need to cut and paste.