Dentin

Or, "How I became even more disappointed in the medical practice in the USA than I already was". I'm getting older - half a century now - and have recently been having health problems. It started with soreness in my right hip about four years ago, gradually getting worse and worse over time. At one point I damaged it by sitting in a funny position for too long; later on, I did what I thought was a very normal set of lunges in the gym that made me almost unable to walk for months afterward. Then, about a year ago, I started having issues with my feet. At first, they were a little sore. They got worse and worse, eventually getting to the point where I again couldn't walk comfortably. They just would not heal, no matter how much time off I gave them. In the past three years, I've seen half a dozen doctors. Hypotheses ranged from early onset arthritis, to joint damage, to tendon damage, to disc compression in my back. Physical therapy helped a small amount, but the gains tapered off quickly and did not last. I was making no progress, and had simply restricted activity in my life to the point where things were tolerable. None of the doctors had any idea what was going on, and every visit was hundreds of dollars to be told things I already knew. One doctor prescribed exercises for the elderly to build muscle tone, without even bothering to ask about my current exercise regime or current state of fitness. (At the time I could do sets of 40 push-ups and one-legged squats to the floor and back.) To say that I was frustrated is an understatement. A bit over six months ago, I began to wonder if perhaps this was a side effect of the low dose statin I had started taking. The problems started prior to my taking the statin, but I found reports of statin side effects that looked vaguely similar to my issues. Perhaps I had fouled my cholesterol metabolism? I concocted an experiment to stop taking the statin for a few weeks, and eat a ton of eggs to try to get more cholesterol i