Normal Labs, Another Pill, Still Sick
"Your labs look pretty good," my doctor said, scrolling through results. "Cholesterol is a little high, blood pressure a little elevated. Let's start you on a statin and a blood pressure medication."
I left with two new prescriptions and a vague sense that "a little high" had somehow become a reason to take medications indefinitely.
The Marginal Numbers Game
My cholesterol wasn't dangerously high. My blood pressure wasn't in crisis range. Everything was in that gray zone of "slightly elevated" that somehow translates to "needs medication."
After starting the pills, my numbers did improve—marginally. The cholesterol came down some. The blood pressure normalized on paper.
But I didn't feel any better. In fact, I felt worse—more fatigued, muscle aches, brain fog. When I mentioned this, I was told these side effects were "unlikely" from the medications.
The Pill-for-Every-Number Approach
Modern medicine has become remarkably good at medicating numbers. Your cholesterol hits a threshold? Statin. Blood pressure elevated? Here's a medication. Blood sugar creeping up? Another prescription.
But treating numbers on lab reports isn't the same as treating actual health. My labs looked better after the medications, but my life didn't improve.
The Side Effects Nobody Wants to Discuss
When I reported feeling worse after starting medications, the response was dismissive. The side effects I experienced were "rare" according to clinical trials. The benefits outweighed the risks.
But I was living with the fatigue and muscle pain, not the doctor reading the trial data. My subjective experience of feeling worse didn't seem to count as much as the objective improvement in my numbers.
The Cascade Effect
Start one medication, and often more follow. The statin caused muscle pain, so I stopped exercising. Less exercise meant weight gain. Weight gain meant higher blood pressure medication. It became a cascade of medications addressing problems that the medications themselves were partly creating.
The Question Nobody Asked
Not once did a doctor ask: "Why are these numbers elevated? What's causing the problem?"
Instead, the approach was purely reactive: see elevated number, prescribe medication to lower number, repeat labs, adjust dose.
The underlying causes—my diet, stress levels, sleep quality, metabolic health—were never addressed. Just medicate the symptoms and move on.
When Numbers Improve But Health Doesn't
After months on medications, my labs looked better on paper. The cholesterol number had come down. Blood pressure was controlled.
But I felt terrible. Exhausted all the time. Brain fog. Muscle weakness. Gaining weight despite eating less.
According to the lab results, I should be healthier. According to my lived experience, the medications were making me worse.
The Breaking Point
Eventually, I realized that improving lab numbers while feeling progressively worse wasn't actually health improvement. It was just making the numbers look better while my quality of life declined.
That's when I started questioning whether the medications were necessary in the first place, and whether there were root causes that needed addressing instead of symptom management.
What I Discovered
In my upcoming book, I explore:
Why slightly elevated numbers became medication triggers
The gap between medicated normal labs and actual health
How medication side effects compound over time
Why root cause investigation often gets skipped
What happened when I questioned the necessity of my prescriptions
Beyond the Numbers
Real health isn't about hitting target numbers on lab reports while feeling terrible. It's about actually functioning well, having energy, and experiencing quality of life.
Sometimes improving the underlying metabolic health fixes the numbers naturally without medications. But that approach requires addressing root causes, not just medicating symptoms.
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