I have read that medical professionals outside the US consider American thresholds for such things as high cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, and the like are both too low and too much one size fits all. It has been suggested the the central reason for this is to push pharmaceuticals (cholesterol lowerers, beta blockers, etc.), i.e., doctors are in cahoots with the drug companies. Does anyone know of site where figures for US, Canada, Europe are compared and contrasted?

Times have changed, all right, but I think that you are being unduly pessimistic. After all, there are other stats which substantiate the lowering of the thresholds increasing one's chances of heart disease and diabetes, to name only two diseases which have been increasing in incidence.

One such stat is the number of overweight and obese Americans, said to be higher than in Europe, although European stats are on the increase with the introduction of American fast-food joints there.

Also up are incidences of just plain old pain. The last few times that I visited a hospital as an outpatient, there were signs about symptoms for which one should speak up to one's doctor, for example, rashes, which is indicative of HIV, but there was the frequently asked "Do you have pain?" as well, which is indicative of any number of ailments resulting from poor diet. Know that the patients were even being asked to rate their pain on a scale from 1 to 10.

I was most surprised to find that the digital scales had me weighing in at 16 pounds above what my last fighting with my bathroom scale revealed; yet, no one censured me on having to lose weight. When I finally went on the bathroom scale, I had to censure myself--and take action. I still suspect, though, that the hospital scales are either "fixed" or sent off balance by the morbidly obese who jump on and off of them.

Research, too, has caused a few changes due to the outcries of cancer institutes, and I was also surprised to learn that the standard mammogram is now to be accompanied by a sonogram, but this is happening in only a few places. One city hospital in Queens has a four-month wait for a mammo alone, while one state hospital in Brooklyn has a two-month wait for a mammo with a sonogram.

While one can read health magazines and Internet health news, one cannot so readily shop around, but a few telephone calls here and there are sometimes shocking but necessary to steer one to the right conclusions and places.

Finally, one should speak up to one's doctor. So I asked for the month when flu shots are given (October) and said that I would return then. My doctor said, "What for?" I said my age (59). The doctor said, "You don't need it. You don't have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, . . ." When I got home, I thought that she forgot to mention asthma as well.