After college in my twenties and thirties I struggled with weight gain and dieting. As previously posted when I entered my mid-thirties I made a serious commitment to changing my eating lifestyle, not just dieting and serious cardio-exercise. As a result of making these permanent changes in my eating habits and winning the exercise discipline battle, I was able to lose weight from 200+ pounds down to my ideal weight for my height which is 6'2", 170 lbs. Through proper eating, exercise, and lifestyle management, I have been able to stay at that weight for over 25 years. Prior to that, I struggled through a pattern of putting on pounds, dieting, losing pounds to a desired weight, then putting the pounds back on, and repeating the cycle. I was not exercising regularly, eating red meat almost every meal, and consuming other foods that were both unhealthy and high in fat content, including deserts. My blood pressure was beginning to increase very gradually as was my cholesterol. I watched my father battle heart disease and lose the battle in 1980. I saw myself drifting into the same battle.
I have been diligent in having an annual physical exam accompanied by the expanded blood analysis. In 1994 I went had a thorough medical exam at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Cooper attained much renown in the 1970's with his books and work in the field of exercise science. For years my resting pulse rate has been in the high 40's. My blood pressure is always < 120/80 (target norm). The only issue that has been a problem has been a high cholesterol drift that began about 8 years ago. Medically, it was determined that this was genetic and not due to my diet or lifestyle. I agree with that diagnosis as my father battled cholesterol in a day when there were no drugs to reduce bad cholesterol. I have taken 10mg daily of Crestor (statin) for the last 7 years. This, along with proper diet and exercise has kept my cholesterol index in the 150's, which is acceptable.
In 2004 I was hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in lungs). It's a long story, but this was caused by complications from taking a drug to kill a tuberculosis issue. I tested positive for TB after traveling extensively abroad in the early 2000's doing mission work. The drug took care of the TB issues, but created a side effect of a blood clot. The clot was the size of a dime in my right lung and was extremely painful. However, after 6 weeks of treatment and 6 months of consuming blood thinning drugs, I was totally recovered. I was back on the streets running within 6 weeks and have never experienced any further problems.
One issue involving GERD did come about from the blood clot experience. My doctor suggested that I take a baby aspirin (81mg) daily. I did so until several months ago when I deduced that this was contributing to an increase in reflux and GERD problems. I do believe the medical evidence for taking a baby aspirin daily to aid in the prevention of heart disease. However, for GERD sufferers like myself, consuming aspiring is like throwing gasoline on a fire. The acid effects of aspiring are too difficult to tolerate, even the coated versions.
I'm going to complete my discussion of dieting in the next post.
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