Is 15 minutes really enough?

When you walk into a doctor's office, you are in for a hurry up and wait situation. You sign in with a receptionist to let them know you are there, then sit and wait until someone calls for you. You may then have weight, pulse, and blood pressure checked by a nurse or medical assistant. When the doctor finally arrives at the small examining room you are seated in, you get to spend a whole 15 minutes of the doctors precious time cataloging your ailments and being handed little strips off the doctors prescription pad. You walked in with one or more problems, and walked out with prescriptions for magic bullets that will cure your ailments and absolve you of any responsibility for your own well-being. If you have the same problems a week later, it is the doctors fault, or the pills did not work. It couldn't be your own fault for not taking proper care of yourself. I get aangry at this attitude now, even though I once had it myself. The problem is that most people don't see it in themselves. I didn't until I was forced into a situation that caused me to do so. If you are over 40, obese, or obviously not in top physical condition, the first words out of your doctors mouth should be, "What are you eating?" But that is not the case with 21st century medicine. Big Pharmacy has persuaded us that a pill is the answer to whatever ails us, and we are gullible enough to believe what we have been told. A doctors office is now an outlet for pushing pills that can have horrendous side effects. Medicine has gotten away from one of the first precepts set forth by Hippocrates, "Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food." Recent research has found the Standard American Diet is the root cause of a whole series of diseases including heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer's, and cancer don't forget to add in everything from ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel to restless leg syndrome. That is why they are calling the Standard American Diet- S.A.D., because that's what it is, and until people come to grips with that reality things are going to get a lot worse.

Healing with Steel?

Some people think they can take the easy way out and get rid of fat by undergoing surgery such as the lap band or stomach stapling that restrict the size of one's stomach capacity or by vacuuming away fat stores by liposuction. These are tactics of people who refuse to face reality and believe that they have control of what goes into their bodies. They want a quick fix so they don't have to accept responsibility for their unhealthy lifestyle. They prefer the risk of surgery rather than have to embrace any lifestyle changes. Many of the people who try the lap band or stomach stapling are people who have tried any number of diets and failed. Their weight gain is not their fault. The American public has long been misinformed about what is a healthy diet and what is not. They have been taught that low-fat is the way to go. That eating fat is what makes you fat when nothing could be further from the truth. Bad science back in the 1970s set us on a dangerous path toward metabolic syndrome and shortened lifespans. Recent research has found that contrary to fat making us fat, it is a necessary ingredient for our overall health, and especially, the health of our brain. According to Dr. David Perlmutter, in his book Grain Brain, the brain is composed mostly of fat and needs cholesterol and other fats to survive. He believes the increase in Alzheimer's disease and dementia is directly attributable to the trend towards a low-fat diet and an increase in the amount of sugar and refined carbohydrates consumed by the general populace. The majority of doctors don't know about current trends in nutrition research, and they are misadvising their patients by suggesting to them radical solutions like surgery. It has been statistically shown that people who undergo procedures such as the lap band soon regain whatever weight they lost unless they make other lifestyle changes including diet and exercise. What is necessary to obtain optimal health is a diet that best serves our physiology. Humans are omnivores. We need the foods are forbearers ate. We do not need the highly processed garbage that lines supermarket shelves and can be found in every fast food restaurant. Those are the things that are slowly killing us. More to come.

The First of 10 Reasons to Fire Your Doctor

If your doctor has been out of medical school for 10 years or more, he or she is probably way behind the latest research in nutrition. Most doctors only receive one semester of nutritional studies in medical school. On top of that, most of the information they receive is out of date unless their instructors are currently engaged in nutritional research. This lack of education and keeping up with what is happening in the field of nutrition is responsible for much of the obesity problem faced by millions of Americans. In the last five years, research in nutrition has turned upside down what most doctors and other health practitioners know about the subject. The majority of doctors practicing today were not taught to seek out the source of a person's malady, but to treat the symptoms with medication. This is one of the basic flaws in the medical system, and one that is costing billions to be added to the cost of healthcare. Much of the responsibility for this dangerous and expensive situation can be laid at the doorstep of the pharmaceutical companies that fund most of the medical schools. It is not in their interest to cure anything. It is much more profitable to treat symptoms and have continuous return of the patient for refills of a drug whose side effects might be worse than the problem they are supposed to be treating in which case another medicine will be prescribed to counter the side effects. Thus, on goes a continuous cycle that does not take away the problem but merely masks it. When an overweight patient goes into a doctor's office suffering from metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and prediabetes, they can expect to be handed several pages ripped from the physicians prescription pad for drugs to control the symptoms. You cannot blame the doctor for doing this because it is what they have been taught. To them, there is a pill for every problem. The pharmaceutical companies create a demand for their products by advertising on television, in magazines, on radio, and any other way they possibly can. They are all vying for the public's dollar. It is impossible to turn on a television, a radio, or open a magazine without coming across several ads for medications of every sort. Now, when someone experiences one of the symptoms that the ad allegedly cures, they go to their doctor and demand these medicines, even though the ads carry a long list of possible side effects that can be scary as hell, including death! What is really sick is our medical system, and Obama Care is not the cure. Stay tuned for Chapter 2: Healing with Steel.

Getting to the point

I've given you my back story, and told you that I'm working out now on the Total Gym, but that is not the reason for starting this blog. It is because I have regained my health by changing my lifestyle and want to encourage older people like me to do the same. Old age does not have to be a time of illness and disipation. As I stated previously my top weight was 386 pounds. At that weight, I suffered from high blood pressure, type II diabetes, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, edema of both legs, arthritis of the spine, and a partial paralysis of my left leg. I was unable to stand for more than three or four minutes without excruciating pain. I was also suffering from depression as a result of my wife's sudden death. To say that I was in poor physical condition at the time is a gross understatement. Being forced to do all the things that I counted on my wife, Judy, to do like grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning the house all fell on me. This was the second time in my life that this had happened. The first was when my wife, Sue, died of cancer in 1996. At that time, my only child, Karen, was living at home and commuting to college. She was able to help with some of the things that needed to be done. This time was different, as I was alone. I knew I had to do something to improve my health, and I remembered seeing presentations on PBS by doctors talking about ways to do so. I particularly noticed Dr. Joel Fuhrman and his presentation on the end of diabetes. I took notes while watching and began putting into the practice what he was preaching. As I was very unsure of what my financial situation was going to be, I was reluctant to order Dr. Fuhrman's course through my local PBS station, but ultimately, I did. Following his program, I began losing significant amounts of weight, and as I did so my health improved, eventually, to the point where I am now taking no medications and I have reversed or vastly diminished all the problems I catalogued above. This metamorphosis came about by only changing my diet and not my exercise habits, which I was to find later, was a mistake. I now know that exercise is a vital ingredient and improving one's overall well-being. To prove the point, I, who could not stand for more than a few minutes at a time, today pushed a grocery cart around a local supermarket for nearly an hour. This was possible because of the weight loss that has occurred and my belated increase in exercise. More on that later

Wow! How out of shape I let myself get

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a program on QVC where they were offering a Total Gym for only $300 with free shipping. Once again I was tempted to order one. I had had one previously, but I was too heavy to use it because the model I bought was only rated for 225 pounds and at the time I weighed in at over 280. Rather than break the machine, I sold it. The one being advertised at this time was rated at 350 pounds which I am well below. I ordered it, and a few days later it arrived. Before attempting to use it I read all the materials and watched the exercise videos that came with it. I knew I was badly out of shape and that it would take me a long time to get back some of the muscle tone that I had lost through lack of use and dieting. For beginners, Total Gym only recommends two exercises that will use up to 80% of the body's muscles: the leg pull, and the two arm pullover. Thinking I was in better shape than I actually was, I set the bar at exercise level number three and found it nearly impossible to do the two exercises. Resetting to the lowest possible level, I was able to do half of the 25 repetitions for each that they recommended. The next day, I knew where every one of my previously unused muscles was located. Since then, I have worked my way up to the 25 reps in each exercise. Now I am determined to keep going and rebuild my body as much as possible. Chuck Norris, who advertises the Total Gym, is in his 70s like I am, and in good enough shape to work in action movies. If he can do it, so can I. I know it's going to take a lot of effort, but I know I can do it. Stay tuned.

My Back Story

It's only fair that you know where I started and what the motivation is for creating this blog. On February 7, 2013, my wife, Judy, died by her own hand. She had been suffering from depression and was hospitalized because of a suicide attempt a week before. The first time she was left alone after being released from the hospital she took her life by stabbing herself in the stomach with a Bowie knife. I have come to believe her illness and death were caused by malnutrition and an undiagnosed medical problem, hepatitis, which I believe she picked up in the hospital. The malnutrition, I believe, was caused by her constant sipping on soda pops and the lack of vegetables in our diets. We both lived off sandwiches, fast foods, and things that came in boxes or cans like Hamburger Helper and Chung King Chow Mein. Judy's problem was exacerbated when she began having dental problems and losing most of her teeth. Toward the end, she was unable to chew and barely able to swallow even soft foods like yogurt. Of course, this was upsetting to me and exasperating for her. Some of her depression came from fear of losing her job. She had already been cut back from 40 hours a week to 30, so financial burdens fueled the fire. With her death, I lost everything: my wife, nurse and companion, my home, my workshop and tools, and my stepsons and their children, whom I had come to love, and who now blamed me for their mother's death. When this happened, I was 74 years old, diabetic, suffering with arthritis of the spine, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, a partially paralyzed left leg, and clinically obese weighing in at 386 pounds. How I got to where I am now, at 252 pounds and still losing weight, is what will unfold in future posts. I now live in a senior apartment, and I am viewed as something of a health guru by most of my fellow tenants. I am not stopping or resting on my laurels. Instead, I am continuing toward my goal of health and fitness. I invite you to join me on my journey.