Saturday, February 16, 2008

Day fortyseven

I weighed 236.2 this morning. Yes, I know. That's a seven pound weight gain from my low weight after the fast. Still six pounds less than my weight of 242.2 the day before the fast. That means a six pound weight loss in four days of fasting.

I'll take it.

My waist is still 45 inches flat.

I am now up to full strength again following the fast. I attended another yoga class today, feeling very strong.

Last night I had a transformative experience at Ray and Debby's house. I began to play the crowd a bit talking about my ideas about the abusive and negligent American health care system.

Turns out two of the attendees to the dinner work in the health care system. They took exception to what I said, as you can imagine.

I am not sure their exact capacities. They were a married couple, named Alex and Alice. I think Alex is a doctor.

At any rate this led to a series of heated exchanges. In the process, they defended the American health care system and maintained that they do not have a duty to inform patients of their options with respect to treating disease with WFPBD (my new acronym, i.e.: whole foods plant based diet; like it?). They started by maintaining there is dispute about the issue. I.e., WFPBD does not reduce blockage, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. I doubt that is the case, but there is certainly dispute about whether angioplasty, bypass, statins, etc., are effective too. And they seem to have no hesitation about discussing that with their patients.

I kind of got them off that point by saying, "Most cardiologists agree that WFPBD works, but they then assert that no one would want to do that."

They jumped on that one in spades. Alice told a story of a patient who had very high cholesterol, way above 300. This patient was not receptive to discussing lifestyle changes. When she talked about the consequences, the patient said that he was "not afraid".

And this is an amazing thing. This patient who Alice obviously disrespects and regards as pretty ignorant and misguided was her excuse as to why she does not need to inform her patients of options.

Wow.

The standard thus is that patients are weak, self-indulgent idiots who cannot take control of their own health. Who need to be given pharmaceutical drugs because they have no self-control.

And of course, in the process, they are sentenced to death.

I couldn't help it. I found their arguments momentally stupid, wasteful, and disrespectful. And I showed them so. In the process, I did not convince of anything, of course. At least, not today.

My bottom line is that so far I have nailed three major health problems with WFPBD: Enlarged prostrate, arthritis and irritable bowel syndrome. Any three of which are enough to take you out for good. Yes, the skin remains an elusive target so far. But it will clear, eventually. I simply need to stick with it long enough. There maybe some tough times to come, but I will live on and be healthy again.

I went to doctors for all three of these health conditions, and was prescribed various pharmaceutical drugs for all of them. As well as for psoriasis. None of these doctors, all of them heads of departments and at the top of their fields, informed me that I could treat and cure these diseases without drugs by a simply lifestyle change.

Eventually, I will undoubtedly go see all of them and show them what I have done. Perhaps that will not change the way they think about the practice of medicine. But, perhaps some day it will.

In discussing this with Ruth last night, she basically told me to give up for now. Focus on myself. Stop trying to change the world. I somewhat agree. I need to stop obsessing, enjoy the diet, enjoy my new state of health, and let the rest happen when it happens.

More later.

No comments: