This particular blog post has been quite personal, in that I am one of those people who can run a high cholesterol. That is unless I follow the diet which I’ll recommend later. However, it became much more personal when a close family member had cardiac bypass surgery. Thankfully, they are doing very well, but it was a sober reminder that I too must always be on guard with my diet and exercise.
“I watched myself die.” These were the words of George when he returned to the clinic after a long absence. In that time George had experienced his second heart attack. He had been having all too familiar chest pains and went to the emergency room. While hooked up to the heart monitor he saw the line go flat and then passed out. George did see himself “die,” but due to the grace of God and being in a hospital with great medical care, he was standing in front of me telling me all about it. The interesting thing was that George never had a total cholesterol over 175. George doesn’t know it, but his is one of two experiences I had early in my career that prompted me to ask “Why?” and lead me to my Internal Disorders specialty.
Wishing you weren’t having a birthday again this year? Humans have been looking for the “Fountain of Youth” for centuries. What we really want is to look and feel younger than our age. It takes some self discipline but it can be a reality. Developing a therapeutic lifestyle is the first step. A therapeutic lifestyle might be defined as making daily choices that will enhance your health and prevent disease. In fact the National Institute of Health (NIH) recommends lifestyle changes as the most important and cost-effective way to lower cholesterol. Lifestyle changes are now recommended as the first line of therapy for many chronic diseases.
“I watched myself die.” These were the words of George when he returned to the clinic after a long absence. In that time George had experienced his second heart attack. He had been having all too familiar chest pains and went to the emergency room. While hooked up to the heart monitor he saw the line go flat and then passed out. George did see himself “die,” but due to the grace of God and being in a hospital with great medical care, he was standing in front of me telling me all about it. The interesting thing was that George never had a total cholesterol over 175. George doesn’t know it, but his is one of two experiences I had early in my career that prompted me to ask “Why?” and lead me to my Internal Disorders specialty.