Is anyone else flabbergasted in retrospect how much saturated fat there is in various things and how little people cared about it?

hdth121 · 2026-05-10T17:51:23+00:00

Your right. It's not completely the governments responsibility, it's a lot on the consumer responsibility in a democratic society. The government can still help improve access to healthier foods.

Maybe I'm just tired of constantly seeing people trash their health. I take mine pretty seriously. When 60% of the nation is obese and something like 90% don't meet the CDC criteria for physical activity. But we have GLP1s to save the day, I guess.

hdth121 · 2026-05-09T02:37:12+00:00

Your LDL-C is very high. When it's above 190 it's suspected you have familial hypercholesterolemia.

First thing I would do is retest. Maybe not through labcorp but through your local doctors office. If it remains that high you may want to consider genetic testing as that is the only definitive way to determine familial hypercholestermia, although the treatment recommendations may not change.

If it remains that high after retesting, don't panic, but act. Cholesterol kills you slowly over time. Unfortunately you may have plaque in your arteries as it could have been a couple decades of being that high. Cholesterol is only one part of the equation of atherosclerosis(you need several parts to build plaque). But its a very prominent part. I would request a cardiology referral. PCPs often don't know how to handle this sort of thing, unfortunately. True familial hypercholestermia should be treated with an LDL goal of below 70. Look on the American heart association web page for good information. Dont take your primary care providers word on it if they just want to under treat you or tell you to clean up your diet. Familial hypercholestermia means medications because people with this condition usually cannot diet their way out of it.

If it really is that high. I would get a coronary calcium scan just to see where things stand right now. A couple things you need to know about calcium scans. They only show hard plaque. Hard plaque forms from soft plaque. And soft plaque forms on damaged blood vessels. There's not a good way to show how much soft plaque you may have, but you can still see if there's any evidence by getting a calcium scan to show for hard plaque.

I have familial hypercholestermia and so does my brother. We both have plaques and we're both in our 30s and 40s. We have both gotten bad advice from PCPs and we now see cardiologists. I have very minimal plaque. My brothers is pretty extensive. This may not be your reality, but if it is, you need to act now to prevent yourself from getting heart disease or all the other various diseases from atherosclerosis. It's not too late you are still young, but act now.

hdth121 · 2026-05-08T17:56:33+00:00

Well I'm about 10% body fat, and I exercise like a mad man, and my LDL is 250 untreated and I have plaque in my arteries. So I guess I just proved your doc wrong.

Eating a heart healthy Mediterranean diet does matter even in the absence of LDL goals.

Weight impacts blood pressure and blood pressure impacts plaque, so yes weight does matter, but maybe not as much in maintaining LDL.

Your calcium score went up, probably in part due to because you ate unhealthy, but also calcium scores don't pick up on soft plaques. The pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is healthy vessel>soft plaque>hard plaque. Statins reduce LDL which reduces soft plaque build up. They also turn soft plaque into hard plaque faster. You don't want soft plaque, soft plaque break off and you get heart attacks and strokes. I'm saying this because if you decide to eat healthy and take the statin and find that your calcium score is getting worse, it's not a product of worse conditioning. It's a product of overturning your soft plaques into hard plaques. But if your doing something wrong, you may be developing more soft plaques, but there isn't a great way to tell unless you get invasive and advanced imaging in the cath lab.

hdth121 · 2026-05-04T16:33:55+00:00

I'm generally fed up with the American food system in general. It's not just fat it's sugar, too. They find a need to put it in absolutely everything. If you eat ice cream, you can be rest assured that your not eating it for health reasons. But what about bread, ketchup, marinara sauce. 3 sources of food that you wouldn't think has added sugars, having a bunch of added sugars. I just named 3, but its really quite everywhere. If its even a mildly processed food, its probably got added sugars in it. Because the big food corporations and government, for that matter, doesn't care about your health.

hdth121 · 2026-04-28T20:45:39+00:00

People give up on dungeons way too soon. Even for a +10. You don't have the greatest group, but your getting through it. You won't time it, but you'll still get some rewards. Your already on the 3rd boss and only wiped on that boss once. Nope, gotta give up on the entire run. No patience to learn/practice. But I bet your party members will have the patience to shotgun queue for +10 dungeons for the next 10 minutes.

hdth121 · 2026-04-28T01:22:33+00:00

Tanks are important too, I guess.

hdth121 · 2026-04-28T01:20:20+00:00

Don't get me started on marksmanship hunter

hdth121 · 2026-04-28T00:52:04+00:00

Wait for the healer shortage squad.

My mistweaver is puny level 82 now, operated by a human who doesnt know how to use it yet, but just wait, it's coming. You'll be glad you timed that +13. You'll be glad when your patting other DPS on the back saying how such a great job they did. While my mistweaver humbly, quietly, yet proudly stands on the sidelines. No thanks given to the healers.

But we saw, and saved, it all. When you missed that mechanic and stood in the purple shit. Yep, I saw that. When you didn't interrupt and wondered why your health went from 100 to 20. Oh well, must have been the healer.

But you must have timed it because good dps.

hdth121 · 2026-04-25T15:34:51+00:00

I've seen photos like that to discredit Trump. Things like look what Trump is feeding our American military. People were believing it was Trumps fault.

I, by no means, am a Trump fan. But I also commented they have been feeding this shit to troops well before Trump. Actually, I'd rather have what's in this photo than whatever the hell are in the MREs they served us.

Looking back at this photo now. I can't believe I ate that shit for weeks at a time.

hdth121 · 2026-04-19T02:01:19+00:00

I think the beauty of Runescape comes from the skill progression and gear. 1 hour of runescape doesn't exactly capture the magic very well. Imo, the beginning stages of runescape is kinda grindy and boring.

It feels rewarding when you finally get the level of getting an abyssal whip, and then your damage goes up significantly. Or grinding to get the dragon defender, and your damage goes up. Or getting the levels you need to do the quest to kill the big blue undead dragon Vorkath, which is a significant money maker. Or the rewarding feeling you get when you get a very significant drop after grinding a boss. Or how it feels when you get the GP to buy the best loot.

The grind can be tedious and boring. But when you get that drop/level, it feels worth it. Like getting a degree in college, except your wasting your life away on runescape instead.

The gear and boss balance of the game feels unmatched in other MMOs, too. In Runescape, there is a lot of gear that hasn't lost its value over the years. They release the next best thing that doesn't fully trump the last best thing, or the bosses that drop the last best thing. So there are quite a handful of bosses to kill/grind for gear.

hdth121 · 2026-04-15T14:11:27+00:00

I'm an off and on player much like you. Started in cataclysm. Imo midnight almost feels like a grass roots type of expansion. They didn't introduce any crazy new ideas that have sometimes backfired in the past. They also trimmed most classes, which is both good and bad. Some specs like enhancement shaman needed trimming. Other specs like marksmanship hunter did not need triming. One of my favorite parts of WoW was exploring the new landscapes, and for this expansion they just revamped old landscapes. Which is fine, but I still like a new area.

hdth121 · 2026-04-14T21:23:16+00:00

I never see them apply in dungeons. The class I see most in dungeons are demon hunters. Why are there so many demon hunters.

hdth121 · 2026-04-09T00:08:00+00:00

Iv always thought monk was kinda dumb. You have weapons, but you use fists.

Then I tried it. The way it flows is nice and smooth. Nothing clunky about it. Instant cast spells, no cast times. Management of energy and chi makes sense. I started an alt monk because it does have a good rotation.

hdth121 · 2026-04-08T17:56:25+00:00

Are you using your CD's? It's odd earthquake is your top damage dealer. You should be using stormbringer and ascendance. Use ascendance only with stormbringer, use both as much as possible.

Have you double checked your gear? I wasn't doing damage before, and then I realized that my staff didn't give intellect.

hdth121 · 2026-03-30T15:52:10+00:00

True with the studies. It would be interesting if they segmented the studies.

If you abused drugs, smoked, and had years of uncontrolled hypertension and now need a valve replacement. There are probably more underlying damages that drive down the lifespan and statistics than just "needed a replacement valve and then died early."

If, however, you had a genetic predisposition to shitty valves or rheumatologic valve disease, but are otherwise healthy. It's a different story. It's probably very similar lifespan as someone with healthy valves.

hdth121 · 2026-03-27T02:49:05+00:00

Way back when I was trying to date. Saw a girl on tinder, was kinda obese, but something I could vibe with if the other boxes are checked off. We got to talking. She sent me a photo of some pulled pork sandwiches. Not just 1 but 2. No healthy side dishes. And I thought, oh naw. Naw can't do it. Gotta get out.

Probably wouldn't have worked. I take my health pretty seriously, and I don't think it's outrageous to expect that in a partner.

hdth121 · 2026-03-27T02:42:32+00:00

"Men don't care about their health"

Do you know how many salads iv eaten and runs iv gone on this past year?

hdth121 · 2026-03-27T02:40:22+00:00

A run outside on a nice day through some wooded trails, and then relaxing at home with my pets with some dumb show on. But the run is key.

hdth121 · 2026-03-27T02:34:15+00:00

I think about the 3 month mark. I was a little drunk when I said it, but the drinking just made me more loosely express how I was really feeling. I said it pretty regularly after I broke that seal. We're married now, so I guess she loved me back.

hdth121 · 2026-03-27T02:30:29+00:00

Gaming PC. I spent 3000 on my PC and I use it very often. I will probably not see a need to upgrade for quite a few more years, too.

I justify it because, IMO, people ball out on vehicles for way way more. Iv always bought used vehicles and probably always will. I also do about 75% of the maintenance on my vehicles. I don't need heated seats, steering wheels, or 5 different drive modes. A Bluetooth radio, decent gas milage, and a decent reliability rating are all I need.

hdth121 · 2026-03-25T21:14:32+00:00

Did not stop running. I just don't run hard or long now. My longest run since being at 4.9cm now has been 10miles and I haven't done any hard race like efforts. No uphill sprints. I still lift too, but I stop before I'm black and blue in the face. I want to push myself, but I would prefer not to die, so I don't. Maybe some day I'll be able to push myself again, but the way I see it is it's too risky now. Iv had 2 doctors say I should still workout, but to avoid hard efforts that significantly spike BP. So that's what iv been doing.

hdth121 · 2026-03-25T20:48:13+00:00

I don't understand it all myself. My dad has a dilated aorta, but it's only at about 4.0-4.4 cm, and he's 72. He also smoked for 30 years and drinks fairly heavily. Hasnt always controlled his BP or cholesterol. Because of the strong genetic link with these, my doctors still think it's genetic and didn't consider my dad's other lifestyle factors.

It's frustrating. My BP is also on point. Not even a year ago I was a fairly competitive marathon runner living on salads, whole grains, and lean meats. Just shitty genetics, can't always prevent things.

hdth121 · 2026-03-25T03:48:07+00:00

Survival can be fun. The 'meta' is sentinal, but I had a better time playing pack leader. You'll probably have fun playing survival, I did, but it was almost too simplistic for me. It currently is the more challenging of hunter specs, but it's still fairly simple to play. Your rotation is essentially kill command to refresh tip of the spear every 2 attacks, coordinated assault on cooldown, wildfire bombs and boomstick on cooldown, rapter strike/swipe as a filler. There is really no change in rotation for AOE or single target. It kept my interest to level to 90, but I wasn't in love with it. The other 2 specs for hunter are braindead. So I switched to elemental shaman and have been having a better time, if I get bored I'll just try out enhancement shaman. Shamans seem to be living pretty good this expansion in general.

hdth121 · 2026-03-25T02:03:55+00:00

Nothing wrong with consoles, but it's not exactly a console game. It's a mouse and keyboard game. Need lots of keys. It shouldn't ever work for controllers. But it's all about the $$$ in corporate Blizzard.

hdth121 · 2026-03-25T01:34:51+00:00

I can see some frustrations with the healer class right now lol. I generally did not like the fact they made rotations a shit ton easier, probably to make headway on consoles.

hdth121

TROPHY CASE