Adventures with Analogies

Let's pretend for a moment.  Suspend disbelief if necessary, and just play with me a bit.

Let's pretend you loaned your car to a friend for a day.  If you don't have one or the other, just pretend that you do.  :)

Now imagine that your friend returns the car and you immediately notice the tires are covered with plugs and patches and are no longer balanced.  The car drives poorly, vibrating badly and getting worse the faster you drive.  So you ask your friend what happened and this is his response:

"Well, I drove through some fields full of thorns and nails, and each time I got a flat tire I took out your patch kit from the trunk and put in a plug or patched the tire.  Good thing you had so many kits in the trunk, because I think I must have patched the tires several hundred times!"

What would your reaction be to this scenario? 

If you decide to not loan your car to that friend again, or at least tell him to quit driving through fields of thorns and nails, congratulations.  You're a clear thinker.  You're practical and logical.

On the other hand you might decide that the problem was having so many patch kits.  After all, the only way the tires could be covered with hundreds of patches is if your friend had access to hundreds of patches to begin with.  So you decide to keep loaning your car to your friend, say nothing about the driving that caused the problem, and instead promise yourself to remove the patch kits from the trunk!  No more patches, no more overly patched tires.  Now you're thinking!

Hell, you're as smart as a doctor!

Don't understand or like my analogy?  Okay, let's pretend again.  Here goes:

You go see your doctor, and upon measuring your cholesterol he says "Your cholesterol is too high.  I'm going to give you a drug to lower it."

Cholesterol is used by your body to patch and repair damage.  It's probably elevated because of the damage as opposed to being the cause of the damage itself.  Does the doc conclude the damage should stop?  No, he simply prescribes a statin to reduce the number of patches!

When you come back in 6 months he checks your cholesterol again, and now that your body isn't making as many patches the number is lower.  He says all is well, and tells you to continue taking statins for life.  Does that mean the damage is gone?  Of course not!  He has treated the number, not the problem.  He removed the patches from the trunk and set you free to drive through fields of nails!

So what happens to your body now that you have shut off its repair mechanisms and have blunted your body's ability to fix itself?  Simple, you get other illnesses.

Don't believe me?  Do some searching for all-cause mortallity and statins.  Google away. While you're at it, google cholesterol levels and all-cause mortality.

Maybe we should let our body repair as needed while reducing the damage that needs repairing.  Maybe.  Like maybe we shouldn't drive in fields of thorns and nails.

If you're actually following my analogy at this point, I'll finish by saying that thorns and nails are equivalent to sugar, high fructose corn syrup, seed oils, and grains.

Have a nice drive.