To Moms And Doctors

Off Topic
1

My mom’s a doctor, and she says that my weightlifting is causing my hypertension. Yes, I WAS a stage 1 hypertensive, but since I started eating oatmeal for dinner, my BP plummeted to normal levels. Now, my mom wants me to reduce my weight to 136 lbs “just to be safe” in case my BP goes up again, and she wants me to stop ALL weightlifting activities. She threatens that if I don’t stop, she’ll rstop paying for my gym membership.

She keeps on insisting that I stop, but I argue that it wasn’t the cause of my hypertension. She thinks I already stopped, but I never stopped. My BP went down only because of my oatmeal, and she thinks it’s because I stopped weights and did cardio only. She can’t be any wronger.

I mean 136 lbs? Come on!

Lesson learned? Moms AND doctors don’t know everything. Next time either of the two impose their wills on your lifestyle, investigate before you listen.

BTW, I can’t wait before I become a doctor and earn my own money. Kinda ironic, but at least my gym membership is in my hands.

2

The world is flat.

3

Is your doctor saying that nonsense too?

Your mom has good intentions but needs to educate herself. This is like the guy whos mom wont buy him eggs because she is misinformed. Sadly, I have no solution for you.

4

My mom called our family doctor when I was in high school because she found the Protein powder/weight gainer hidden under my bed.

For the record, I train at the same gym right now as my childhood family doctor and he has been avid weight lifter for decades.

Unless your mom actually lifts weights, I wouldn’t expect any change in her perspective. The medical community is about 10 years behind those who actually follow physique development to any degree at all, thus the insistance on high carbohydrate intake as the “healthy” way to eat.

Your case, however, is different if you are showing signs of hypertension at your age. That brings familial history, overall diet and body composition into question. At 150lbs (from your profile), I am also not sure why your mom believes that is the cause of the hypertension.

At 5’7", I am not sure why your mom believes you need to be 136lbs (why such a specific number?) to be healthy, but perhaps you need a second opinion.

Also, isn’t it about time you started paying for your own gym membership? Getting a JOB is out of the question here?

5

[quote]Defekt wrote:
Is your doctor saying that nonsense too?

Your mom has good intentions but needs to educate herself. This is like the guy whos mom wont buy him eggs because she is misinformed. Sadly, I have no solution for you.[/quote]

I am worried that any guy who needs his mom to buy him eggs probably isn’t mature enough to be lifting at a gym by themselves to start with.

6

Lol, yeah. I was mainly commenting on the good intentioned ignorance.

Shes probably basing what he should weigh off of the wonderful BMI system. Or at least that would be my guess.

EDIT:

http://www.bodyshapingtips.com/images/BMI-Chart.png

even on the BMI chart you fall into underweight, and the chart is notorious for being a piece of shit to measure health

EDIT 2

yeah just show her the BMI chart because shed be more likely to believe that you weren’t in danger from collapsing at your obese 150

7

[quote]Defekt wrote:
Is your doctor saying that nonsense too?

Your mom has good intentions but needs to educate herself. This is like the guy whos mom wont buy him eggs because she is misinformed. Sadly, I have no solution for you.[/quote]

My mom IS my doctor. Sad…

8

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Your case, however, is different if you are showing signs of hypertension at your age. That brings familial history, overall diet and body composition into question. At 150lbs (from your profile), I am also not sure why your mom believes that is the cause of the hypertension.

At 5’7", I am not sure why your mom believes you need to be 136lbs (why such a specific number?) to be healthy, but perhaps you need a second opinion.

Also, isn’t it about time you started paying for your own gym membership? Getting a JOB is out of the question here??[/quote]

She’s very superstitious and stubborn. She thinks I’m overweight because “Filipinos naturally weigh a lot less than Caucasians with the same height.” However, I do have high cholesterol, sodium and thyroid hormones, so the oatmeal really helped bring down my BP. My mom’s also hypertensive, so that explains a lot.

My mom likes 136lbs because it’s the lower limit before I become underweight. Apparently, she’s so obsessed with avoiding me becoming obese that she’s willing to make me malnourished. Sad.

As for the job, unfortunately, yes. I’m concentrating on my studies right now, and any decent part-time job where I live won’t be able to pay for the gym membership. It sucks living in the third world (except for the fact that I’m bigger and stronger than most people my height in here).

In any case, as long as I keep getting stronger, it shouldn’t be the end of the world to stay at 150. Lesser evil, I guess.

9

[quote]Defekt wrote:
Lol, yeah. I was mainly commenting on the good intentioned ignorance.

Shes probably basing what he should weigh off of the wonderful BMI system. Or at least that would be my guess.

EDIT:

http://www.bodyshapingtips.com/images/BMI-Chart.png

even on the BMI chart you fall into underweight, and the chart is notorious for being a piece of shit to measure health

EDIT 2

yeah just show her the BMI chart because shed be more likely to believe that you weren’t in danger from collapsing at your obese 150[/quote]

The sad part is that she panics when I’m NEAR the overweight range. It doesn’t matter to her if I’m STILL IN HEALTHY RANGE. Haha.

What’s worse is that she’s basing EVERYTHING on BMI. I find it sick that a renowned doctor like her wouldn’t know the shortfalls of that wonderful BMI system.

10

[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Your case, however, is different if you are showing signs of hypertension at your age. That brings familial history, overall diet and body composition into question. At 150lbs (from your profile), I am also not sure why your mom believes that is the cause of the hypertension.

At 5’7", I am not sure why your mom believes you need to be 136lbs (why such a specific number?) to be healthy, but perhaps you need a second opinion.

Also, isn’t it about time you started paying for your own gym membership? Getting a JOB is out of the question here??

She’s very superstitious and stubborn. She thinks I’m overweight because “Filipinos naturally weigh a lot less than Caucasians with the same height.” However, I do have high cholesterol, sodium and thyroid hormones, so the oatmeal really helped bring down my BP. My mom’s also hypertensive, so that explains a lot.

My mom likes 136lbs because it’s the lower limit before I become underweight. Apparently, she’s so obsessed with avoiding me becoming obese that she’s willing to make me malnourished. Sad.

As for the job, unfortunately, yes. I’m concentrating on my studies right now, and any decent part-time job where I live won’t be able to pay for the gym membership. It sucks living in the third world (except for the fact that I’m bigger and stronger than most people my height in here).

In any case, as long as I keep getting stronger, it shouldn’t be the end of the world to stay at 150. Lesser evil, I guess.[/quote]

That explains a lot. No offense, but I don’t think MD’s from third world countries are even able to practice in this country without additional certification. I may be wrong about that, but I have worked with Cuban ex-doctors who can’t practice here, and as such, are working as assistants.

11

[quote]Professor X wrote:
That explains a lot. No offense, but I don’t think MD’s from third world countries are even able to practice in this country without additional certification. I may be wrong about that, but I have worked with Cuban ex-doctors who can’t practice here, and as such, are working as assistants.[/quote]

True. A lot Filipino doctors opt to become fithy rich nurses in the US and lots of European countries.

12

[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Defekt wrote:
Is your doctor saying that nonsense too?

Your mom has good intentions but needs to educate herself. This is like the guy whos mom wont buy him eggs because she is misinformed. Sadly, I have no solution for you.

My mom IS my doctor. Sad…[/quote]

That’s gonna be one awkward prostrate exam.

13

Actually, weight training lowers hypertension. It builds additional blood vessels. Building more blood vessels is like laying tons of additional pipe in a house and turning on all the taps. Water pressure goes down.

High BP is not itself a condition, but rather reflects some underlying issue. Too bad your mom is a doctor; I believe we have come to a point where mainstream physicians are now doing more harm than good to people. Most of them have good intentions, but base their recommendations on flawed assumptions. The fact that most are glorified pimps for drug companies does not help either.

Edit: I should have said that, over the long term, weight training lowers BP. Your BP will likely be elevated during and immediately after a weight training session, but the effect of training lowers it. In that sense, weight training’s effect on BP is inversely proportional to it’s effect on testosterone.

14

[quote]undeadlift wrote:

My mom IS my doctor. Sad…[/quote]

Then you’re between a rock and a hard place. You can always find a new doctor. Unless she follows you to the gym, just tell her you’re taking it light, until you’re out on your own, and able to pay your own way.

She’s your mom, she loves you and is just lookin out for ya, misinformation and all.

15

OP - bad luck, but hey, when you move out or get a job you can do whatever you like. I guess if I was in your situation, I would just try and get as strong as possible.

16

Your BMI result is:

34.09

You are in the range that is classified as obese and your health would greatly benefit from a life-long reduction in weight.

LOL.

This is from bbc.co.uk (british broadcasting cooperation).

I find it quite irresponsible that the site doesn’t explain that BMI only works for sedentary people.

This is one of the many ways that lazy members of the general public are allowed to feel supiorior to athletes/bodybuilders.

17

[quote]Professor X wrote:
The medical community is about 10 years behind those who actually follow physique development to any degree at all, thus the insistance on high carbohydrate intake as the “healthy” way to eat.[/quote]

Probably further behind than that. MD’s are the worst when it comes to advice on exercise or nutrition advice…I’d like to shove that Food Guide Pyramid up their ass. Even stranger is how off the clinical exercise so-called experts can be. At least MDs can fall back on the excuse that they focus on fixing problems instead of the rational theory of illness/disease prevention.

You would think that someone who studies exercise science for four years would be on top of their game but unfortunately what they teach seems mired somewhere around 1950.

You still read Yahoo headlines that say: “New Columbia University study shows that eating fastfood and not exercising may slightly increase risk of WIDE ASSERY”.

18

My mom is a RN and she doesnt bullshit me about weight lifting at all…she does bother me about paying 15$ for a jug of protein power but thats normal…

19

OP, I can be your doctor. Lol.

20

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Defekt wrote:
Is your doctor saying that nonsense too?

Your mom has good intentions but needs to educate herself. This is like the guy whos mom wont buy him eggs because she is misinformed. Sadly, I have no solution for you.

I am worried that any guy who needs his mom to buy him eggs probably isn’t mature enough to be lifting at a gym by themselves to start with.[/quote]

Dude, you judge my maturity off of one thread? You don’t know me at all. Maybe this says something about your maturity.
By the way, I finally got my mom to look at some research and discuss the issue with me and she’s fine with the eggs for breakfast thing now.