A Happy Medical Update

Hubby is feeling much better after his recent heart attack.  He has also gone all in on improving his health through a much better diet than he used to have (basically meat and rice for every meal in addition to copious restaurant food).  When he was in the hospital, each meal would be a trough of unhealthy food (such as a big slab of meat loaf and mashed potatoes swimming in gravy) and then they would test his blood sugar and say something like "wow your blood sugar is pretty high!" followed by a shot of insulin After. Every. Meal.  Really?  They didn't think his high blood sugar had anything to do with the crappy food they were giving him??

Over the past two weeks we have been eating mostly whole food, plant based vegan meals with the occasional piece of fish and we have watched both his blood pressure and blood sugar drop like a rock.  He has a home blood pressure monitor and a home blood sugar monitor kit so he tests these things daily and it is so exciting to see his health metrics improving on a daily basis!  We are going to check with his doctor in a week and see about getting his meds lowered (if you are on meds to lower blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol and then significantly change your diet you have to be careful about these things going TOO low).

And even though all of his medical care and medications are free (yeah military service), it made me think about the people we see on the news who pay sky high prices for their prescription medications for chronic health conditions and have to choose between paying for heat and paying for medication.  I think if more people knew that a lot of medical conditions (not all by any means but many) could be treated, or even completely reversed, by changing their diet and walking around the block a couple times a day, the world would be much better off. 

Here are the things that influenced me to start us on a healthier way of eating:

• The movie 'Forks Over Knives'
• The book 'The End of Diabetes'
• Dr Fuhrman
• Dr Gregor
• Dr McDougall
• The movie 'Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead' Parts 1 and 2
• The movie 'Fed Up'
• The movie 'Hungry for Change'
• The movie 'What the Health'
• The book 'The China Study'
• The book 'How Not to Die'
• The book 'Eat to Live'