So. Studies have shown that length of life can be extended by eating a very low calorie diet, twenty to thirty percent less than a "standard diet." Whatever the standard diet is, you can bet it's significantly less than the average American diet, so we're talking severe calorie reduction here.
Thanks to the University of Wisconsin-Madison (my nephew's current college of choice), the National Institutes of Health, and DSM Nutritional Products of [ahem] Basel, Switzerland, there is a better way. Drinking red wine apparently has similar effects and works by nearly the same mechanism. (If you're ambitious you can read the full report.)
Let's see. To drink, or not to eat...is that a question? I don't care much for wine and even then I prefer whites to reds, but I could manage this.
The article doesn't say what happens when you combine the starvation diet with drinking red wine, though the picture it evokes in my mind is not exactly one of robust health....So what about dark grape juice? Would it have enough benefit? What about if I added a bit of red wine vinegar to my grape guice?
My bad cholesterol was over 170 awhile back and my doctor suggested the use of something called Cholest-Off. Another friend said her grandmother used to use vinegar. So I decided, what the heck, I would try both. (The vinegar just gives the grape juice a little zip!)In three months my bad cholesterol dropped to 126.
I did work on improving my diet as well, but was no where near as strict as I am sure I was supposed to be.
Now it has been 6 months since I have been to the doctor and I go again tomorrow. I really have "fallen off the wagon" as far as my diet goes and wasn't as good with the Cholesterol lowering plan as I should have been. Doing it only when I thought of it. We'll see what happens.
I'm guessing my blood pressure will be high because I'm dreading the results of my lab work.
I know about white-coat hypertension! I actually bought myself a home BP monitor so I could reassure myself -- and practice not being afraid of it.
That's a pretty impressive cholesterol drop. Grape juice with a little vinegar sounds delicious, too.
Don't forget that one or both of the lab results could also be spurious. Heather had a horrible hematocrit reading once and the doctor put her through all sorts of annoying and expensive tests -- only to conclude that the original reading had been wrong. Simply repeating the crit would have saved a lot of grief.
Red grape juice is a source of resveratrol, but not as much as red wine, because something about the fermentation increases the quantity. So does stress when the grapes are growing, because resveratrol production is the plant's anti-fungal response. A Cornell study indicates that New York State wines are especially potent. But there may be hope for grape juice yet: a Mormon study hopes to prove that it also has heart-protective properties.
Well, unfortunately the bad results for my cholesterol were not wrong. I had one reading that was 160-something that caused my doctor to be somewhat concerned. I was supposed to modify my diet and exercise and come back in 3 months. Unfortunately, that was the 170-something reading.
Hopefully the lower reading was not an abberation. I always leave her office psyched up to eat right and exercise more and then.....
My BP readings are consistently higher (not concerning, but noticeable) in this pregnancy. The last two pregnancies, I had a 1 1/2 hour car ride to just sit and relax, where now I'm usually rushing out the door and driving there myself. I don't think I'm usually nervous about the reading itself, though.
Bad cholesterol: 154
At least it was under the 160 that I guess is the threshold for really bad. Back to see her in 6 months.
Blood pressure was fine and I even ended up getting a tetanus and pertussis vaccine (they are combined now). She was saying they hadn't really been pushing tetanus vaccine in the past few years because there was short supply. Mostly those injured and in the emergency room would get them.
Now the vaccine is available so they are suggesting people get it. It is one of those vaccines I have thought of over the years, but given my fear of shots/blood drawings if a doctor didn't suggest it, I would never bring it up myself.
I tend to get a tetanus vaccine every five years -- if I remember, that is. They say you should get it every 10 years, but if it's over five years old and you have an injury, they say you need to come in and get a shot within 24 hours. After one experience stepping on a nail on the first day of a three-day campout, I decided I wasn't again going to put myself in the position of not being covered if I couldn't (or didn't want to) find a doctor in less than a day.
Obviously I haven't had one in a while (2004, I think), as I hadn't heard of the tetanus/pertussis combination. Does it still include diphtheria? Last I knew they gave DPT to kids and DT to adults. And since kids are now getting DTaP, is that what you got?
I guess I don't know for sure. She probably said, but I knew I needed a tetanus and haven't had a vaccine except probably MMR in any recent memory, so I didn't give it much thought.
Shows you that for the more serious stuff you should have someone who will go in with you and make sure they understand. Someone who will slow things down and be clear as to the risks and benefits. When I am the patient, I can't think of what questions to ask, I just want to hurry up and leave. And I have a NICE doctor!
