Because it makes you feel like ASS.

And people know when you’re lying to them:

That’s what Mehra calls an “education gap,” in which clinicians don’t sufficiently communicate to patients the “value and side effects of beta blockers to patients.” Some patients assume that depression, fatigue and sexual dysfunction occur due to beta blockers, but studies indicate that the “frequency of [these] side effects is so low that we over-attribute [the side effects] and stop the drugs.”

Bullshit.  Beta blockers make you feel like ass. 

And exercise takes a lot of time, and cooking right takes more time, and if you’re scared you’re going to die are you going to spend all of your spare time trying to fend death off and then wondering what for? or are you going to do something you like to do when you aren’t slaving to keep your health insurance?

I know from experience that it is completely fucking impossible to simultaneously change pretty much everything about your personal habits overnight, no matter how afraid you are.  (Ever try to eat when you’re pregnant?  If you followed every rule, you’d exist on air.  But you’d have to move to an unspoiled mountain peak before you’d be allowed to breathe it.)

Doesn’t seem that hard to figure out, but I’m just some dumb blogger chick.  What would I know?

(ADDED): Actually, if I had to tell these fellows what to tell people, I’d tell ‘em to be honest about that the side effects can be bad at the beginning, but that you do get used to the drugs a bit and you stop wondering how death would be worse a few weeks after starting the things or increasing your dose.  You may never feel quite exactly the same, but the new normal tends to be acceptable if you wait it out, at least in my experience.  Telling people that it’s all in their heads is counterproductive at best.  That’s the sort of thing that makes people write off everything the doctor tells them from that point on, and then where are you at?

1. Telling people that it’s all in their heads is counterproductive at best.

   You’ve hit upon my greatest peeve with the medical establishment.  However, it can serve as a great signal of the particular doctor’s style and diagnostic capability.  If I have a doctor who tells me that some symptom I’m describing is “all in my head,” my take is to immediately walk away.  I consider the use of “it’s all in your head” as a way for the doctor to try to save face in dealing with a failure to arrive at a diagnosis.

   A little honesty goes a long way.  If the doctor simply says, “I don’t see any obvious reasons for that symptom,” I’d be far more inclined to accept the answer.

   One of the problems I see here is that doctors want too much to manage their patients (hence repeated references to “compliance” in their terminology).  Patients are people and don’t take kindly to being “managed.” At least I don’t.

   Given my previous experiences with the medical profession, I long ago gave up any illusions as to them being infallible or better than the rest of us.  They just happen to have more specialized knowledge, and I deal with them the same way I deal with other specialist professions.  If I detect that I’m being fed a line of bull or talked down to, then I’ll just go find another specialist who will be honest with me.

   Posted by Aubrey Turner  on  09/26  at  11:20 AM  from  Keller, TX

2. Beta blockers make you feel like ass PERIOD.  Docs will try to tell you different. After my mom’s heart attack, i think the BB’s reaked more havok on her body.

   Posted by  on  09/26  at  11:57 AM  from 

3. BBs are supposed to make you feel like ass.  That’s how they do their job.  I wish more physicians would understand that in explaining side effects to their patients.

   And I think that they DO do more damage than help, in some cases.  Especially in older folks.

   Posted by caltechgirl  on  09/26  at  05:28 PM  from 

4. That’s one of the reasons I’m scared spitless of those stupid pay-for-performance proposals...no way a doc should lose money if the patient decides it’s not worth it.  An awful lot of docs need to act a bit less, er...dictatorial anyhow.  Encouraging the laying-down-the-law style is a bad idea. 

   Of course, the whole freaking culture has a case of potential-longetivy-worship, but that’s a whole ‘nother issue.  Except it isn’t, because you’re expected to put up with absolutely any level of misery in order to up the odds of living as long as possible.

   Getting down off my soapbox now…

   Posted by  on  09/27  at  03:44 PM  from 

5. I wish more physicians would understand that in explaining side effects to their patients.

   Amen.

   When I went back for my first check after starting ‘em, the conversation went like this:

   Doc: How you feeling?
   Me: I can’t stay awake.
   Doc: Yeah, that’s beta blockers for you.
   Me: *blank look*

   I wish I’d been warned.  If it hadn’t been for the pregnancy, I’d probably have thrown the things away and never gone back.  Sleepy doesn’t begin to describe it.  I’ve never gotten back to anywhere near the energy level I once had, but at least I don’t fall asleep every afternoon anymore.  Heh.

   Posted by  on  09/27  at  03:53 PM  from 
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