The Health Thread

[chasfh]

21 hours ago, Biff Mayhem said:

I ride on the sidewalk all the time but we don’t have a lot of foot traffic where I ride so it’s not an issue. I would imagine that it being illegal in Chicago is trumped by it causing lots of issues with pedestrians and bike riders colliding etc. 

Right. This is very much a walking city, and everywhere, every neighborhood, all 77 of them, and not just downtown downtown.

Kids under 12 are allowed to ride on the sidewalk, but once you’re old enough for a bar or bat mitzvah, get the hell out onto the street with the cars where you belong. 😁

[chasfh]

13 hours ago, Edman85 said:

Wanted to add one more thing that is a bit puzzling and points to genetics.

I am 5'9, low 150's, and have been 80th-90th percentile when it comes to diet and exercise routine my whole adult life... The easy button for this is to lose weight, but when I say I try to lose, it's on the order of 5-10 lbs (to get from high 150's to 150). Even before the sugar popped as elevated, I would forgo "Sunday Funday" to eat a healthy meal, etc.

It's very tough to try to fight back against it while being social. Most dinner parties/pot lucks are a no. Dating, in addition to some of the social flaws you all see from me on here, is tough when I need to be active most nights, and sitting and eating bar food is a no.

Speaking of going out to eat, I am a little surprised that with the widespread incidence of hypertension, restaurants have not focused at all on developing delicious low-sodium options. Basically everything on their "healthy" menus focus on reducing meat, sauces, or frying. There's so much more to it, but I guess there's no market for it.

[chasfh]

9 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

Well after bragging about my generally excellent health at age 74, three days ago I suffered a visual impairment that implied a possible stroke (which implies a host of bad results) or a detached retina (which implies possible blindness).

Four or five times in the last 20 years I’ve stood up really quickly and saw shooting stars and weird images that got burned on my vision - it’s sometimes referred to as a visual migraine or ocular migraine - and it was kind of frightening because if these images stayed there forever it would be awful but they went away after 10 minutes.

Monday morning around 2 AM this happened again for the first time in three or four years but part of the image never went away and never will and is burned into my vision in the left eye forever. My doctor tested me for evidence of a stroke of which there was none and sent me to an ophthalmologist which allayed my fears of a detached retina. When I’m looking through my left eye only it covers about 1-12th of the visual area of my left eye. It looks like a childish drawing of a ball of yarn. When I’m looking through both eyes it seems like a mild shimmer at the very bottom of my vision. 

I know other people to whom this is happened and it doesn’t affect driving or reading and your brain does you the favor of overlooking it as a problem after a while.

so the next time I think of bragging about my health I’ll be more circumspect about it. 

Best of everything to you, Bert.

This is a good reminder to never take for granted those physical gifts we still have.

[Edman85]

22 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Speaking of going out to eat, I am a little surprised that with the widespread incidence of hypertension, restaurants have not focused at all on developing delicious low-sodium options. Basically everything on their "healthy" menus focus on reducing meat, sauces, or frying. There's so much more to it, but I guess there's no market for it.

Sodium = preservation = food lasting longer = cheaper production.

I can cook better than 99% of restaurants, so the way I see it the only benefit to eating out is convenience.

[Edman85]

9 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

Well after bragging about my generally excellent health at age 74, three days ago I suffered a visual impairment that implied a possible stroke (which implies a host of bad results) or a detached retina (which implies possible blindness).

Four or five times in the last 20 years I’ve stood up really quickly and saw shooting stars and weird images that got burned on my vision - it’s sometimes referred to as a visual migraine or ocular migraine - and it was kind of frightening because if these images stayed there forever it would be awful but they went away after 10 minutes.

Monday morning around 2 AM this happened again for the first time in three or four years but part of the image never went away and never will and is burned into my vision in the left eye forever. My doctor tested me for evidence of a stroke of which there was none and sent me to an ophthalmologist which allayed my fears of a detached retina. When I’m looking through my left eye only it covers about 1-12th of the visual area of my left eye. It looks like a childish drawing of a ball of yarn. When I’m looking through both eyes it seems like a mild shimmer at the very bottom of my vision. 

I know other people to whom this is happened and it doesn’t affect driving or reading and your brain does you the favor of overlooking it as a problem after a while.

so the next time I think of bragging about my health I’ll be more circumspect about it. 

Best of luck.

[chasfh]

10 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

Sodium = preservation = food lasting longer = cheaper production.

I can cook better than 99% of restaurants, so the way I see it the only benefit to eating out is convenience.

I think the reason most people like restaurant food better than home cooking is all the things restaurants do to food that also makes it so much worse for your health.

[Dan Gilmore]

Ah, ocular migraines and floaters…

I had the ocular ones that go away (usually after resting for 10-15 minutes with my eyes covered) for a few years. Tried figuring out triggers, eventually traced one main trigger as MSG. I have so many floaters that the tech doing a eye scan said “when you blink it’s like a snow globe” 

Now my health issue is blood clotting-hereditary and hopefully managed with meds. 

[LaceyLou]

23 hours ago, Cruzer1 said:

The tingling in my entire arm has progressively gotten worse, and feels like a seizure more than tingling. The Dr thinks it will improve after the epidural. He said I'm about 10 years away from fusion surgery.

Sorry to hear that really sucks... I hope the epidural helps. 

[LaceyLou]

6 hours ago, chasfh said:

Speaking of going out to eat, I am a little surprised that with the widespread incidence of hypertension, restaurants have not focused at all on developing delicious low-sodium options. Basically everything on their "healthy" menus focus on reducing meat, sauces, or frying. There's so much more to it, but I guess there's no market for it.

I think most people still see eating out as a once in a while treat, even though many people eat out or get takeout more often than they'd care to admit. So with that thinking, they treat restaurant meals as a 'cheat' meal. 

 

[Edman85]

I thought more about this thread, and in the age of aggressive AI and no paywall, it might be a good idea to shut it down and delete it for all of our sakes...

[Cruzer1]

20 hours ago, LaceyLou said:

Sorry to hear that really sucks... I hope the epidural helps. 

Thank you. I hope so too. 

[IdahoBert]

On 2/19/2026 at 7:33 AM, chasfh said:

I think the reason most people like restaurant food better than home cooking is all the things restaurants do to food that also makes it so much worse for your health.

Years ago on NPR I heard an interview with Anthony Bourdain where he said that most people will find it deflating to discover that the “secret ingredients“ of a lot of the most appealing high end dishes they enjoy at restaurants is simply butter and salt. 

[chasfh]

1 minute ago, IdahoBert said:

Years ago on NPR I heard an interview with Anthony Bourdain where he said that most people will find it deflating to discover that the “secret ingredients“ of a lot of the most appealing high end dishes they enjoy at restaurants is simply butter and salt. 

Probably way too much salt, as far as I'm concerned. The butter is fine with me.

[LaceyLou]

Interestingly, it has been found that the upper limit for sodium (for most people, there are some who are genetically more sensitive to sodium than others) to remain healthy is a fair amount higher than the RDA.... and yet something tells me that restaurant food triples even that.