“Patients with cardiometabolic risk factors represent a group at high lifetime risk for CVD. These patients frequently have dyslipoproteinemia (low HDL cholesterol, increased triglycerides, and/or an increased number of small LDL particles)(WHICH JIMMY DOES NOT HAVE!). We recommend an assessment of global risk followed by a multifactorial risk reduction strategy for such individuals targeting each risk factor and emphasizing both lifestyle (SUCH AS LLVLC?) and pharmacologic therapy. In terms of dyslipoproteinemia (WHICH JIMMY DOESN’T HAVE!), we recommend the following:

• Statin therapy for the majority of dyslipoproteinemic adult patients with CMR (JIMMY DOESN’T REQUIRE STATIN THERAPY BECAUSE HE DOESN’T HAVE DYSLIPOPROTEINEMIA)

• For patients with CMR on statin therapy, guiding therapy with measurements of apoB and treatment to apoB goals in addition to LDL cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol assessments (NOT APPLICABLE TO JIMMY)

• Treatment goals, summarized in Table 1, that address the high lifetime risk of patients with dyslipoproteinemia and CMR. (NOT APPLICABLE!)

• Clinical trials to determine whether the pharmacologic therapy required to achieve very low levels of atherogenic lipoproteins is safe and cost-effective (NOTICE THAT AFTER RECOMMENDING AND GIVING PEOPLE PHARMACOLOGIC THERAPY, THEY THEN WANT TO TEST IT TO SEE WHETHER IT’S SAFE!!

• A concerted, multifaceted, public health effort, focused on lifestyle modification (LLVLC??), to reduce mean population levels of atherogenic lipoproteins to values well below current ones.”

So, since none of these recommendations would apply to Jimmy, and seeing how even they don’t know how safe their plan is, exactly HOW is Jimmy a “dead man walking”?

I worked for many years as a Medical Staff Coordinator in major hospitals. Part of that job is reviewing credentials for physicians when they first apply to be on staff, as well as monitoring current medical staff’s current medical education, to make sure they keep up with it every year.

Being well acquainted with the medical education and background of both M.D.s and D.O.s, I can assure you that D.O.s have as much as, and often more, education as M.D.s do! They go to medical schools which are accredited by the very same agency, plus they also do a one-year rotating internship after graduation from medical school, no matter what specialty they are going into. It is required of all D.O.s to do that internship.

M.D.s more often do no internship at all, but go straight into residency for their specialty right out of medical school (which gives D.O.s one more year of schooling and a more well-rounded experience, in my opinion).

When osteopathic physicians specialize, they learn in the same teaching hospitals, side by side with M.D. graduates. Do NOT put osteopathic physicians down as non-physicians! That just shows your ignorance.

I consider D.O.s superior to the average M.D. because, in osteopathic medical schools, their students are taught to take the “whole patient” into consideration…including physical, mental, and psychological health…plus they learn about spinal manipulation and how an aligned spine contributes to the overall health of the patient.

I consider D.O.s to be similar to an M.D. and a chiropractor rolled in one. Two docs rolled into one, so to speak. I personally always seek out D.O.s for my personal physicians. I find them to have much more interest in me as a patient and have a much better bedside manner, as well as to be usually more well-read medically and better informed as to newer treatment options.

My current PCP is an osteopathic physician who wants me, as a Type 2 diabetic, on a very low carb diet! I take no diabetic meds at all and my blood sugars are stable…my blood pressure is on the low side. (I’ve been on low carb since 1997.) My doc knows the latest about EVERYTHING! No matter what I read about to take in to her, she’s already read it and can discuss it with me in knowledgeable and usually positive terms.

I would be utterly surprised if this “Doc” who wrote to Jimmy is an “osteopath,” as you so callously and in ignorance suggested. He sounds to me like a know-it-all medical student still, not yet a doctor at all.

Carol

Didirina