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| I am a 79 year old male who is still mentally active, but physically lazy. Good health was a gift when I was young, but at my age it has to be earned. After my second bypass in 1996 I started changing my lifestyle and improving my health, and these changes are what I want to talk about. |
| Perricone Promise: On 06/01/05 I started a new diet prescribed by Dr. Nicholas Perricone, M.D. He states that aging is intimately tied to diet caused inflammation, so I bought four of his books and am convinced he is right. After two years eating only the foods he recommends I can see and feel definite improvements in my health. My blood tests show no abnormalities and my enlarged prostate appears to be shrinking. |
| Equilibrium: I had noticed some dizziness occasionally and decided to do research on the inner ear. When I understood the basic function of the equilibrium sensors I created exercises to stimulate them. When that failed, it occurred to me that my brain might have forgotten how to process the data. The obvious way to relearn it was to do the very things that made me dizzy. My first try was cautiously strolling through the house while bobbling my head like a doll and concentrating on remaining upright. This was very effective and later I also modified my floor exercises to include equilibrium features. The Perricone diet recommends blueberries for age related dementia and loss of equilibrium and I have found that the berries and exercise have eliminated my disiness. Recently I have added duck walking which has increased my stamina and greatly challanges my equilibrium. |
| Food Sensitivity: Part way through a very serious acid reflux attack (more later) I noticed my arthritis symptoms had disappeared, but I gave credit to my medication. During this period I ate no bread and when I bought wheat serial for breakfast my joints became sore again. I switched from wheat to oats and the soreness left after a few days. Much later I discovered that beans caused the soreness also. Later still my left shoulder became inflamed and I started an elimination diet and found the cause was milk. I then reluctantly switched to diluted fruit juice for breakfast serial. High price to pay, but I was pain free. Now my Perricone diet pretty well eliminates these troublesome foods also. |
| Natural Bypass: The following is my understanding of my latest thallium treadmill stress test. It included an injection of a radio isotope solution to detect oxygen starvation in the heart muscle. Oxygen starved muscle emits an enzyme that causes the body to increase blood flow to the affected area. The isotopes also converge on the enzyme and the radiation it emits can be detected by a special camera. Several time exposures are made from various angles and these images tell the doctor where arterial blockages are located. A very active person triggers this enzyme repeatedly and causes the body to create a natural bypass. That's why I spend 20 minutes daily on my treadmill... My latest thallium stress test report from my nurse was "Just fine". |
| Fluid Intake: For years I heard experts tell us to increase our fluid intake, but none ever said why. At the time my skin was dry and scaly and my nose was so dry it bled every night. I started using a vaporizer to prevent the bleeding and apparently the bedroom became so moist that dust mites multiplied enough to give me a lung infection that put me in the hospital for several days of intensive testing. As it turned out it was cured with Advil. I discarded the vaporizer and humidifiers, which was ruining my house, and decided to tough it out with Mentholatum. Later I developed another condition that I thought was caused by a lazy epiglottis because when I ate dry nuts I would get choked and have to cough and/or sneeze. When I started testing the fluid intake recommendation I was astonished at what happened. My mucous increased enough to solve all three conditions. Even my stool softened and solved my constipation problem. On top of that my excessive ear wax buildup disappeared. I guess that's why, in my case at least. One more discovery: 10 glasses of water a day eliminated my dry eye syndrome. |
| Heart Palpitation: A while back I damaged my lower esophageal sphincter (top stomach valve) with hot coffee. A few hours later I experienced my first heart palpitations and the next morning had the worst acid reflux imaginable. Will talk about reflux next. The palpitations continued for several months with no help from my doctor. Then one day I ate a can of Campbell's soup and noticed the palpitations had stopped. I assumed it was the salt, so I increased my salt intake from then on, with no reoccurrence of the palpitations. I have stopped the salt intake since starting the Perricone diet and have had no palpitations. |
| Acid Reflux: As I stated earlier my esophagus was damaged by hot coffee. During the night my esophagus was severely burned and I think that also put my autonomic nervous system into shock, because my heart became unstable, my LES (upper stomach valve) opened up for about a month and my pyloric (bottom stomach valve) became erratic. My gastroenterologist prescribed Prilosec which was supposed to stop all acid production. With an open LES I had to sit and sleep in an upright position. My next attack came after I started Prilosec. My stomach was fully bloated and I had burning in my esophagus. Antacids had no effect so I was sent to the emergency room. Their conclusion was that Prilosec prevented any damage so they sent me home. I did hear one doctors say he thought it might be bile reflux, so when I returned home I checked the dictionary and discovered that bile is an alkali, not an acid. So I made a vinegar cocktail and the burning stopped at the first sip, for a while. After three cocktails my stomach emptied and I felt completely well. My belief is that the pyloric valve leaked alkali into the stomach and then was locked closed until the stomach contents was neutralized. As soon as the vinegar neutralized the alkali it opened and the stomach emptied. The doctors I talked to about this smile at me and say nothing. I had several episodes of bloating and each time the vinegar cleared the stomach. I must believe the evidence at hand. The Perricone foods don't trigger execss stomach acid, as yet. |
| Hypertension: At my age, heart attack and stroke are my greatest dangers. The Perricone diet rapidly lowered my blood pressure so I was able to stop my bp medication completely. My prostate medication "Flomax" also lowers my bp more than I like, but I am growing accustomed to it and my life is confortable. |
| Skin Allergy: For a several years I had a rash on my upper body accompanied by unbearable itching. Apparently it was caused by food sensitivity and the Perricone diet has solved that problem. |
| BPH: Benign prostatic hyperplasia is the name for enlarged prostate. It's an old man's disease and can be very painful. The swollen prostate presses against the urethra and restricts urine flow. In my case the drug Flomax softens the bladder smooth muscle sphincter and pretty well normalizes my condition, but has stuffy nose and insomnia side effects. |
| Voice Strengthening: Since I live alone and sometimes go for days without talking, my voice was withering away. After some thought I decided to read aloud, loudly. Since I usually read several hours daily it didn't take long to increase my volume |
| Skin Cancer: If your are squeamish this article will bother you. Over the years I have had two types of skin cancers: BCC, basal cell carcinoma (bottom layer of skin) and SCC, squamous cell carcinoma (outer layer of skin). My first was a BCC and that was decades ago. I went to a dermatologist for the first few times and became dissatisfied because it took very long to heal. The normal method uses Q-tip cotton swabs dipped in liquid nitrogen and placed on the lesion for a second or two, killing both layers of skin quickly, efficiently and painlessly. The problem was that a great many healthy cells were killed also and that extends the healing process. When both layers of skin are removed, new skin cells are generated at the periphery and grow inwardly, and that can take a month or more. I like to do things for myself so I devised a method that was not as quick and not as painless, but more precise (providing I can see properly) and produces quicker healing. It uses the very tiny hand made 10 watt soldering pencil I used for my electrical projects. It is a precision instrument compared to a Q-tip. Pain is greatly reduced when the heat is applied slowly. I start by coating the lesion with a thin layer of vaseline, then rubbing the lesion while the tip slowly heats until I see the skin start to separate and a blister is forming. Then I wait to see if it heals properly. If it's a SCC it should be healed. If it's a BCC I will have redo the procedure, twice. The second time I remove the loose skin with sharp tweezers and reheat the area until I see the basal skin moving under the tip. Generally less than a month is required for it to heal if I catch it early. I have used this procedure for years and removed all sorts of skin growths. |
| Exercise Routine: My first exercise (an all out one minute sprint on my exercycle) begins after my last nightly trip to the bathroom. While still in bed, I do joint therapy, stretching, situps and pushups. After rising I do my Groucho walk and start my floor exercises, which includes bending, stretching, twisting and then dynamic tension for maintaining upper body strength. DT is an exercise that causes opposing muscles to resist each other while vigorously flexing the associated joints. When finished I do a brisk 20 minute walk on my treadmill . |
| Folding Eyelids: As I age my skin is sagging all over my body. It's ugly, but normal, except for my eyelids. When they sag, they fold over and can't close completely. That allows tears to evaporate and leaves mineral deposits on my corneas. The deposit irritates the lids and soon becomes unbearable. It's invisible, but it causes a highlight that's easy to locate. Removal is very painful and causes soreness. I have tried many remedies and finally found a solution that works very well. I made a patch from Scotch double stick tape and applied it over the fold line on my eyelid. Then the eyelid is too stiff to fold. Later I discovered the Scotch glue was water soluable and the runoff irritated my eyes. Am now using Band-Aid Sheer comfort-flex bandages to make the patches (4 per bandage). Even a hot shower doesn't affect the patches. |
