Re: Cardiologist

I was diagnosed with a slightly enlarged heart about 10 years ago, but
no arhythmias.  I never did anything about it.  I remember the measured
the thickness of the walls, so they should have been able to tell if my
heart was just stronger, or if it was thinner and bloated.  But they
never explained it to me like that.  At the time I was experiencing
panic attacks, and my blood pressure was regularly about 155/85 with a
pulse in the 70s.  I was on and off small doses of inderol or vasotec.

Two years ago, my cholesterol profile was bad.  Total cholesterol was
about 240, high but not terrible, but my HDL was down around 27!  And my
triglicerides were very high (about 320 I think).  I was eating a lot of
bread, pasta, and cereal.  I had a big stomach.   I was 220 pounds.  The
Russian doctor I went to, who was just recently out of American med
school, told me to stop eating bread.  In fact, he gave me this diet:
Breakfast=fruit, cottage cheese.  Lunch=salad, chicken.  Dinner=fish,
soup.  He also told me to walk for 1 hour every morning, and again for 1
hour ever evening, and also for 10 minutes of every hour I was awake!
He scared me by telling me that because my HDLs were down at 27, I was
almost beyond the point of no return, and if I didn't get my act
together immediately and seriously, I would go diabetic.

So I went home and, always wanting a second opinion, started researching
cholesterol on the Internet.  I found ATP III (the guidelines doctors
use to evaluate cholesterol risks) and saw that I had what is called
"metabolic syndrome."  My risks were low because I was young, but
obviously I was on the wrong track.

I started eating his diet, and walking.  Religiously.  I didn't realise
the diet was pretty much Atkins / Paleo.  After walking like that for
about 3 weeks, I found that sometimes I felt like running.  Out of the
blue.  No pressure, it was just like I was a kid again and I felt like
it.  So I would do little bolts, sprints, half miles.  Pretty soon I was
running 3-7 miles per day, and loving it.  (I didn't keep it up, now I
am back to walking 3-7 miles).

Today I have no idea what my heart size is currently.   Today, no panic,
no meds, pressure is usually 130/80 with a pulse in the high 50s.  I'm
now about 190 pounds, and creeping down into the 180s (30 pounds of
weight loss without feeling hungry).  I'm trying to get my cholesterol
measured, but I have no medical insurance.  My totally unprofessional
medical advice is to exercise and to eat paleo.

But don't ignore the enlarged heart thing like I did (shame on me).  Go
ask them if it is thinner/weaker than the average heart, or just
bigger.  They should have measured the thickness of the heart muscle walls.



Re: Allergy tests

I have never had any allergies, so I have no real experience, but my
feeling about these things, from a lifetime of listening to other folk,
is that most of them are completely bogus.  But not all - I have a
friend who is obviously allergic to peanuts (he looks really funny when
he swells up and we rush him to the hospital).

There is a huge market for health products, and many people want to
believe there is something physically wrong with them that is therefore
easy to fix (when in actuality I think many of them, most Americans
perhaps, fail to realize that their problems are psychological).  So the
market need is created, and before you know it, 70% of the shelves in
health "food" stores are not food at all, but bottles of pills and extracts.



Re: Containers

> Then you should not eat salads either as there is more e.coli on salads
> than on meat

Yes, most meat has very little E.Coli if any at all.  But occasionally
you will eat a colony of it!  With salad, that occasion just won't
happen, because salad isn't a rich E.Coli breeding medium.


-Mike