Oct 27, 2009 - Time for change

The visit to the cardiologist set into my mind that I needed to do all I could do to help the reversal process. In the medical community, there is much ignorance in the non-surgical/non-medical approach to plaque reduction. The best I heard from the drug side is the possiblity of alleviating the inflammation and slowing the progression of plaque formations and new deposits.
The best I heard from the surgical side is either stinting the artery or bypassing the artery with a useable artery from either the chest, one of the arms or one of the legs. If my life were in immediate danger, ie., I'm in the throws of a heart attack with heart damage imminent or my life is hanging in the balance based on what happens in the next several moments, please wheel me into surgery RIGHT AWAY and give me relief. Don't ask me, don't hesitate, just wheel me in NOW. I'm sure most of us would request the same treatment. It just makes sense.
In my case, I was given time to choose. Maybe I'm an unusual case. Maybe my cardiologist carefully weighed the long term outcome if surgery were performed. No matter, my next step would be critical to my recovery.
I have been exploring dietary changes and fasting for two years. I can best explain, after careful thought, that my passion for non-medical healing was a seed planted by God to prepare me for such a time as this.
Let me briefly tell you how this came about. Julie came to me with this drink diet called "The Master Cleanse" two years ago. I weighted 192 lbs and taking meds for high blood pressure and cholesterol. What could it hurt? Lemonade for ten days? I can do that.
So we did just that. I lost 16 pounds in ten days. Easily. During this time, I began devouring every book on nutrition that I could get my hands on, starting with "The China Study". This book was the springboard for my future direction in learning what optimal health really means and how as a nation we got so sick.
Next, we started eating raw foods. No, we did not eat raw hamburger - it simply means you eat what comes from the ground. No processing,no packaging, no canning, no preservatives. It was easy, but some meals took a while to prepare. Over the course of several months following this diet, though not strictly, I think I lost another fifteen pounds. During this time, I studied water fasting, reading works by Herbert Sheldon and other hygienists. Much of their beliefs I felt were right on the money and I began to accept this "radical" treatment (though it's been around for thousands of years) and that I, too, might benefit from a water fast. I'll explain how a water fast works and why it works better than any dietary approach and most medicines to heal the body naturally.
So I began a ten day water fast. I took it slowly, no exercise, still went to work (gasp!) and rested as much as I could.
My weight eventually dropped to 142 pounds.
And I never heard the end of it.
"You're too skinny", I heard most often and regularly.
My response? "Compared to WHO?".
Guess what? Of all the animals on the planet, which number into the millions, (from a biological stand point, throw us into that mix for a moment), only three suffer from weight issues. Can you guess which three? People, cats and dogs. None other. Perhaps we have it all wrong.
So here I am in beautiful Santa Rosa, California, two and a half hours from home, where I have incarcerated myself into a physician monitored healing center for the duration. I plan to water fast as long as the doctors on staff deem it safe or until I run out money.