Fifty and Fat
A close friend called me and said he was at the end of his rope. He is 50 years old and has never weighed as much as he does at this moment. Not only was he having problems with hypertension, but he also didn’t want to get out socially due to his feelings about his weight.
I was worried about his weight, but more importantly, I was worried about his health. This is a scenario I go through almost daily in my office with patients. They are unhappy with their weight, diabetes, joint pain, sleep apnea and when you start to talk to them about diet, most often they either tell you that they are really doing everything they can, or more commonly, why they can’t do what you are suggesting.
The one lesson I have really learned in life is that if you keep doing the same thing, you will likely have the same outcome. This is true for our health and the drug companies count on us not changing our ways so that they may continue to sell drugs month after month to smooth the edges off these maladies. You will never cure the affliction, you will just mute the effect of the diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea so that you will make it longer than you may have, but likely far shorter than you would if you didn’t have these diseases in the first place.
I have really found the answer. So much so that I have ventured down a path of health I would never have believed I would be able to go. I too had found myself having put on a number of pounds due to some extraordinarily stressful times in my life. Exercise did nothing and I began to think that this was the way it just was going to be. But, above all, I wanted to be healthy. So I started to learn. You may find this interesting coming from a doctor. Don’t I know? Well, the simple answer is kind of. I have always taken a special interest in preventative medicine, so I rotated in my residency with two wonderful preventative medicine doctors, Dr. Marissa Abbo and Dr. Steve Margolis. I learned as much as I could. Most doctors learn nothing about nutrition and prevention.
Time has passed and my exposure to these training grounds grew dim. Finally, I was exposed to Dr. David Katz and the documentary “Forks Over Knives” and I went to my doctor and said, this is it-I am making the change to a vegan lifestyle. This coming from a college swimmer who could eat whatever I wanted. It was hard at first, people confront you, “are you a vegan or something?” I started to get comfortable saying “yes”. Then I started to feel sorry for people who just didn’t get it. That was when I knew I had made the change to a healthy lifestyle. The problem was, people often don’t like when you have decided to make a change that makes them uncomfortable with the decisions they are making daily for themselves.
Over the last 9 months, I have lost weight (yes, I admit I haven’t stepped on the scale) but more importantly my joints don’t hurt, I sleep better and I am better able to concentrate. You see, I don’t really have time to be a patient!
So getting back to my friend. I suggested he start by watching “Eating You Alive”, a new documentary. He texted, “Well I guess I need to become a vegan, huh?” Well, not exactly. Start by cutting out the steak and french fries, the pizza and diet pop. Add in the fruits and vegetables and then we can talk. I will bet you money, in two months he will feel great, no matter what the scale says. More importantly, he may be able to avoid the cancer, coronary artery disease, and dementia that have been part of his family’s history. When you care for people, you want to really help them. Medicine and checking the right boxes for the insurance companies is fine, but the real message needs to come from how we live, who we love, and what we eat everyday.
