I was very sick and did it all to myself. Well I had some help, things like, “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner.” and, “Milk, does a body good.” My family bought into that lie so it was easy for me to not even question it. Until it was nearly too late.
Nearly too late for me came around mid-2016. I was on four medications but doctors wanted me to take a lot more than the four. One of them was a generic of Lipitor and was part of what my doctor called statin therapy. I really disliked the whole idea of medication instinctively and I have learned that my instinct was spot on.
Type 2 diabetes, hardening of the arteries, heart disease and strokes top the list of illness I have or have had. I say have had because already my lab works shows I am not even borderline diabetic. In mid-2016 I came across some information that said the statin therapy I was on was working against my well-being.
I started to talk to my Medicaid sponsored doctor about what I was learning and I felt as if she just blew off my questions with jibberish every time.
I had a social worker type person (CBRS worker) and I asked her to come with me as I tried to present my questions in writing to my doctor. She refused to respond to my concerns and as my CBRS worker and I left the building she asked if I needed help choosing a new doctor.
Not only did I fire my doctor, I stopped taking all the medications except for one aspirin a day as often as I could remember. Now it is rather foolish to just stop all therapies without some kind of game plan. For me, that was simply cut as much of the animal products out of my diet as I could.
Within a few weeks, I did notice a difference. Just as I was led to believe by the internet my mind would clear up some, my body would ache less and memory might improve. You see, I learned that statins rob the body and mind of much-needed cholesterol. What I was learning is that I needed to rely on my liver to produce all of the cholesterol my body would use.
I wasn’t committed to that vegan lifestyle just yet though. I just had no clue how to be vegan and I was sure I loved meat too much to go that far. I was sure I could moderate myself to health.
I did lose a lot of weight and become borderline diabetic instead of severely diabetic. The symptoms of the heart disease and hardened arteries were getting worse and it felt as if I had months of life left in my tired body.
Every day I would have multiple episodes of partial paralysis with numbness especially on the left side of my body. Right up to when I committed to veganism and quit a three pack a day tobacco habit I would have what doctors told me were TIAs or mini-strokes more than 20 times a day. I have had two strokes that I didn’t realize until a head x-ray not to mention a couple of heart attacks nearly a decade earlier.
Mid-March of 2017 was the last physical I have had as of this writing. Most of my levels from the fasting labs were, “impressive” and for the first time, a doctor told me that if I quit smoking and committed to a vegan diet I might avoid the need of medications for heart disease and diabetes.My CBRS worker was there with me and as a result of that doctor visit, she and her children did a 30-day vegan challenge. I did as my doctor suggested and committed to the vegan lifestyle that day and two weeks later I smoked my last cigarette.
I am sick of remembering those days and events for now so stay tuned for a part two and possibly more of “Awakening from Healthcare to Health”. In Part two I talk about my next stroke and the only one so far I have been hospitalized for and how Dr C told me wrong and it took me 3 more years to learn that most of my TIA s had to do with inflammation and pinched nerves and not “mini-strokes”.