Quote:
Originally Posted by aerohead
A friend shared 'HOW NOT TO DIE' by Dr. Michael Gregor.The contents of the book try to stay as close to randomized,double-blind,placebo-controlled,large cohort clinical trials as exist in the available literature.He also does daily pod-casts.
Arterial plaque,hardening of the arteries,high blood pressure,high cholesterol,erectile dysfunction,type-2 diabetes,heart attack and stroke etc.,are all symptomatic of diet and lifestyle.And can all be reversed with a change in diet and lifestyle.
One of my physicals trended downward.The doctor said they could prescribe medication.I opted for a change in diet and more exercise.Next physical I had straightened out.
One thing Gregor mentioned was,that for anyone taking something for ED, the next step would be an operating table or the morgue.As to vascular health,ED is the canary in the coal mine.
A television show over here is about a county coroner/medical examiner in Florida.Often at autopsy,she discovers almost complete blockage of the coronary arteries.The deceased had no symptoms other than sudden death,either by heart attack or stroke.
Many cardiologists over here have gone vegan.I'm doing a flexitarian diet.I eat flesh and binge on fat,salt,and sugar,twice a week.So far,so good.
Glad you dodged a bullet!
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Thanks, I'll have a look at that. Thank you all for your well wishes.
As for diet and exercise, I always thought I wasn't doing too bad. I ate fruit and vegetables every day, kept meat and fat to decent proportions, did walk a mile and a half every lunch break and the stairs to the 4th floor at work. Then I drank one or two beers almost every evening, usually some 8-9% Belgian tripel at that. Never drunk, but seldom sober.
Then I got a recurring pain in my sternum. At first I thought it was muscle, cartilage or stomach related, it could be allergy, it could be Lyme's disease, search the net and it could be anything...
4 months ago it developed a pattern. One hour and a half after a meal, usually my light breakfast, I got a pressing pain (not stinging nor throbbing on either side of my sternum, often radiating to my throat, and maintaining for up to 4 minutes before disappearing in seconds.
It was impervious of outside effects (massaging, knocking, taking a deep breath did not make any difference) though in the end phase a good yawn sped up recovery somewhat.
Then 15 minutes later the next one came along, sometimes 4 in a row.
I was seeing a doctor for it who sent me to a cardiologist who did not recognize the symptoms as heart failure and rather suspected a stomach or liver problem. I got an acid blocker...
One Saturday morning I woke up with chest pain, arms and legs numb and tingling. I recovered within a minute. My wife who had a bad first half of the night was fast asleep, so I let her sleep.
By the 4th mini stroke she was awake. I told her not to worry, it was already getting less severe.
The 5th one was rather heavy though so we did call the doctor, who sent an ambulance. Just after the 8th stroke they arrived. I was getting up and noticed during that stroke that my toes were purple.
The ambulance nurses did an ECG but found nothing strange. Blood pressure and cholesterol were on the high side of normal.
Now even the cardiologist conceded that the problem might be coronary after all, I got a CT scan and it indeed showed some 'irregularities'. I got medicine and the advice to exercise more. I already documented each attack and found they were most frequent in the weekend and the first working day; apparently the lunch break walk is beneficiary. Also I found that attacks were more frequent right after eating pasta or in the days after drinking beer (I was already trimming that down a bit at that point), so I reduced that even more and finally eliminated it altogether when even a single 'sin' got to my heart. But even without I kept having attacks.
Last Thursday I got a heart catheterization and a stent to widen up the coronary artery. 3 days on I can fully use my arm again, and I had no further attacks of course.
A few weeks ago I enlisted in a half year 'health coach program' at work that just kicked of at the right time. It stressed what I was already doing: more fruit, unlimited vegetables, more exercise. But also: no free sugars (even fruit drinks), processed food, meat or animal product except for steamed or roasted fish, almost vegan. Google G-BOMBS if you like for the core of it.
Instead of 1 or 2 you mix 6 or more vegetables from different vegetable groups and they complement each other like the colors of the rainbow.
I was highly skeptical of that 'rabbit's diet' but to my amazement it completely satisfies and takes away any craving or hunger. I simply eat as much as I like, never go hungry and yet I do lose weight.
The most important part is the sugar balance.
Our blood stream contains about 5 metric gramme of sugar. If you drink a soda or a big glass of orange juice you get a sudden influx of sugar several times as big. No problem, for healthy people: insulin to the rescue to bring down the sugar to a normal level.
Once that's achieved insulin production stops again. But the remaining insulin in the blood keeps binding sugar, so we get below our normal level.
Nothing that a big glass of soda can't fix! So again we go up in the sugar rollercoaster, and at the end of the day we've been overstocking our body for 75% of the time.
Now solid fruits and vegetables also contain sugars, but they are locked in the cellular plant structure and therefore are released more gradually, won't prime the rollercoaster and won't cause the dip. Instead, if they peter out the sugar level drops very gradually so our body has time to switch to burning fats. And almost without noticing we're slimming.
I weighed in at 92 kilogrammes 2 months ago. 83.3 yesterday, 83.4 this morning...