“Whatever it is that you are doing, keep doing it”

Arthur

Can you reverse health problems with a lifestyle change?

Arthur’s health was failing and after suffering a heart attack he underwent surgery. He also got type 2 diabetes. His doctors told him that the reason for his weight gain and joint pain and other things was that he was just getting older. The only thing to do was to take a lot of medications for the rest of his life, and accept his fate.

Arthur was not happy with this and decided to go looking for other options online. He found them, and two years later everything has changed.

The E-mail

My name is Arthur H Hazeldine, I was born in Reefton, a gold mining town in the South Island of New Zealand, in The South Pacific, on the 24th of May 1934.

From then, until what I did until aged fifteen is not really relevant to this story, except perhaps to mention that we lived under a threat of invasion by Japan, until they made their fatal mistake of attacking Pearl Harbor, and the Americans came and saved us. What is relevant is that we lived on real food and despite the fact that refrigerators were unheard of and not many had electricity, everyone was fit and healthy.

I was ten years old when WW2 finished, and had decided even then that I would follow after family members who had been serving with distinction, flying fighters in The Battle of Britain and against the Japanese in Burma. At aged fifteen I joined The Royal New Zealand Navy as a Seaman Boy, and found myself two years later involved in The Korean War. After serving ten years in the Navy, at age 26, I returned to civilian life, extremely fit and healthy.

Up until age forty I worked in outdoor employment, farming, then selling farm machinery. I was still extremely fit, I became a manager of a home appliance store and remained employed there, until I retired at aged sixty eight. The company which owned the chain of stores that I worked for required managers to have regular medical check ups, and I continued with these check ups after my retirement. By this time I had accumulated an impressive list of prescription drugs, because, according to the doctors, my blood pressure was not where it should be, my cholesterol was high etc, etc.

I was starting to experience joint stiffness and pain and my weight was creeping up. These were probably, due to, according to the doctors, “you are not getting any younger”. Insisting that I need even more medications. Hind sight is 20/20: Oh, how I wish I had known then what I have learned during the last five-six years! My problems were more than likely caused by the introduction of medications, not once was diet mentioned.

Fast forward to the 1st of March 2011, I had been out to a meeting until about mid day, and on arriving home I suddenly felt what one might call, “yucky”. I felt concerned enough to turn on my computer and type in “heart failure, symptoms?” The news came back, and it was all bad. I rang the doctor’s office and described my symptoms to the senior nurse, suggesting that I felt like it was indigestion. Her response was to tell me “you get in here NOW, and don’t you drive your car, I will tell you if you have indigestion or not”.

By this time I felt quite good, my neighbour drove me to the medical center. I was attached to a machine with a whole lot of wires, a piece of paper came out, the nurse grabbed it and left the room only to return seconds later with a doctor who said “ring the ambulance nurse’. He shoved a pill in my mouth and told me to keep it under my tongue – “You’re going to hospital, you’ve had a heart attack”.

The following six months were to prove rather scary, the triple heart bypass operation was performed and I spent a week in recovery, on returning home, my son, a chemistry technician at the local dairy company, noticed that the wound in my chest was becoming inflamed and by the next morning was discharging freely from what he described it with, what I would call a three dollar word, and he rushed me back to the hospital. I was taken into “isolation” right off, with nurses dressed ready for space travel, I had been infected with a hospital bug, that took the next five months to get under control, requiring two more operations, and nearly took my life.

I hope I have not put you to sleep with the above, but stay tuned, the best is coming.

There is nothing like personal experience to sharpen the mind, and by this time I was keen to know, if the doctors had been prescribing me pharmaceutical drugs to lower my cholesterol, reduce my blood pressure and to, according to them, prevent me from having a heart attack.

“What the hell had happened there?”

I left the hospital with a box of drugs, with instructions that I would need to take them for the rest of my life! I set my computer up on a thirty two inch screen, with unlimited data and set out to answer that question: What happened, why it happened and what I would need to do to correct it, why what the doctors and dieticians had been telling me had not worked. Little did I know what a huge can of worms I was about to open, but open it I did.

I think I might have had an advantage at the start of my research in that I had no idea what a carbohydrate is or any idea of how the chemistry of the human body works, I was starting with a clean slate!

The first site I came across was “Statin Nation” on Youtube by Justin Smith, then “The Skinny on Fats’ and “The Oiling of America” by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig PhD at Weston A. Price Foundation then Dr Natasha Campbell McBride (GAPS). Our own Prof Grant Schofield (what the fat) then there is this Swedish guy who started The Food Revolution who really set me alight! I have been building up my knowledge checking and double checking, for the last six years, finding the information and trying it out on myself.

It took me some time to give up grains, when Joe Mercola said that grains could cause type 2 diabetes I tried to formulate my bread with “whole Grains”, because the “experts” were saying that we need the “fibre”, I learned that no matter how you dress them up, grains are carbohydrates and carbohydrates convert to glucose, I now have two bread machines that are redundant, I don’t want to give them away because for the rest of my life I would feel that I had given away a poisoned chalice.

I soon realized that I was going to need to take some drastic action if I was to completely regain my health, I was still not a happy camper, with type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, gaining weight – 90 kg and rising, constant joint pain and a cataract starting in my right eye.

As I was living in a city, I decided to move back to the part of the country where I used to farm, and where I can grow the bulk of my vegetables and obtain plenty of grass fed meat, butter, cream and eggs.

By the time I arrived at my new location, I had learned enough to realize that the medications were a big part of my problems, the medical center in the city had sent my records ahead to a local doctor, and when I look back on what transpired at my first visit, I find it amusing.

The first thing that this new doctor said as I entered his consulting rooms was, ”You know that you will be on these statins and blockers for the rest of your life?”

And as I said, ”No I won’t”, you could have heard a pin drop!

– “Your arteries will be in a hell of a state, you could have another heart attack at any time, how much, (medications) have you got left”?

– ”None, I threw them in the rubbish”. At this point I had a feeling that this doctor was slightly agitated, he started to give me the lecture on “relative risk”, and concluded with, “then why are you here, what do you want me to do for you?”

– “I want you to give me a prescription for a glucose meter, I have already purchased a blood pressure meter and I understand that glucose meters are free to diabetics”. At this point he left the room to consult with a colleague, returning some minutes later with my prescription for a glucose meter on the condition that I consent to monthly blood checks. Because I had a cataract forming in my right eye, (part of the type 2 diabetes drama) I had been having three monthly eye examinations with the view to having surgery, when it was “ready,” after the last examination the specialist told me “There is very little damage, surgery is no longer required, let’s have a look in twelve months”, then commented “You’re not on any medications, are you?”.

About eighteen months ago, after a blood test, the doctor who told me that I would have to take medications for the rest of my life and that type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease that can only be managed with drugs, rang to tell me that I am no longer type 2 diabetic and that “Whatever it is that you are doing, keep doing it”!

Now that I am over eighty years old, I have to have a medical examination each year to renew my driver’s licence, yes, I still go to the same doctor, his attitude towards me on the last two years visits, is, I would say quite warm. His comment, on learning about the cataract “That’s strange”. And on checking my heart, “there’s nothing wrong with YOUR heart!”

My present health is exceptional, my weight is steady on 70kg/72kg (154-159 lbs), all joint pain is gone, short term memory almost complete.

I have learned a lot in the last six years: Eat real food that is, or has been, recently alive, if it has to have a long list of contents on a label, don’t eat the ***# thing, observe what obese people have in their shopping trolley.

Learn from the mistakes of others, you won’t live long enough to make them all yourself!

Yes, hindsight is 20/20, if only I had known all this twenty years ago!

Comments

Congratulations on finding out how to reverse your health problems Arthur! Well done!

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