I had been taking high blood pressure medication for 39 years. Four months ago, I stopped taking my asthma, gout, cholesterol, and high blood pressure medications. These are the medications I am required to take to “stay healthy”.
The standard medical protocol: If you have unwanted symptoms you take a pill. You wheeze, you take asthma meds; your feet hurt, you take your gout meds … The root cause of those symptoms is not neglecting to take a pill. If not hereditary, the root cause is more likely something in your environment – stress, toxins, lack of sleep, something you did or didn’t do, or something you ate or didn’t eat. It may be that addressing the causes of those symptoms will make those symptoms go away. Quite unexpectedly, I discovered that the cause of my maladies was what I ate.
I began eating in a way I had never eaten before. I began a strict low carb diet primarily to lose weight; all the other positive changes, I had not hoped for or even imagined possible.
Before the diet there were a bunch of small annoyances that I figured came with age. Example arthritis, I figured it will progress, and I will deal with it as it comes. Now throughout the day I open and close my fists – yep, still no pain and arthritis-free. That and a bunch of other conditions I had been enduring are totally gone. The list:
Double vision gone
As it happened at the end of day while driving, my eye doctor said it was probably because my eyes were tired. Well, my eyes don’t get tired anymore, no double-vision regardless of time of day.
Vertigo gone
This occurs infrequently, sometimes throwing-up bad, but usually mild. Still, it is something I would rather not deal with and have not had to since this diet.
Gout gone
Infrequent, but when it does occur it can be acute – not one single episode.
Brain fog gone
This has been a profound change. Possible reasons:
Consistently high insulin levels make the brain insulin resistant resulting in not enough glucose to the brain. This diet results in lower insulin levels and more ketosis with more ketones as a result.
The brain does well on ketones.
Brain fog is a potential side-effect of statins (cholesterol medication) – I no longer take statins.
Increase of hormones essential to growth of new brain cells (Neurogenesis). Those hormones are human growth hormone HGH and Brain Derived Neuro-trophic factor BDNF.
Arthritis gone
Some days arthritis, especially in the hands, was more bothersome than others. Now all days are good, not even a trace of arthritis.
Asthma gone
Something I was first diagnosed with as a child. It is usually mild. It is often exercise induced and usually more pronounced in the winter. I have not resorted to my rescue inhaler before or after any exercise in months. In the past with any long, forced exhale there was anyways a bit of a wheeze at the end – no more. I am anxious to see how I fare this coming winter.
High blood pressure for 39 years – Gone
In 2020 I was on the largest dose of blood pressure meds my doctor would prescribe. My average of BP reading with meds was 139/81. My doctor said that my high blood pressure was part of me, it was in me, there was nothing I could do about. “Idiopathic”, he called it.
Today, my average blood pressure reading without meds for the last four months is 121/73. This change is so unanticipated and so outside my experience that I expected this to be a temporary anomaly, but after four months the lower readings persist. Doc said it is unlikely I would ever need to go back on the meds. Doc said that I had been living in a milieu of underlying inflammation, and with the inflammation and excess weight gone so is the elevated blood pressure.
LDL cholesterol up
While my HDL cholesterol and triglycerides moved in the right direction LDL cholesterol did not. Besides stopping statins, there is another reason that LDL rose; it is a byproduct of ketosis - explanation here. There are benefits to statins, and there are potential side-effects. I am not willing to risk those side-effects. I am considering a non-statin alternative should dietary intervention not succeed.
Sugar/carb cravings gone
I could eat a whole pie and/or a quart of ice-cream in a day. Large scoops of Ovaltine were required for my milk. When I finally purged the stockpile in my cabinets I found six jars of Ovaltine and pounds of pasta. I really liked sugar and carbs. That has changed. See below.
Taste preferences change
My omelets have up to four different vegetables in it, my salads up to eight different ingredients. All sauces and dressings I use are high in fat, and importantly, have no-sugar added. It tastes so good it is surreal. I always thought drinking black coffee was torture. No more.
40 pounds gone
It took about four months. I have lost this much weight before. In fact, I have done it repeatedly the past 40 years, and each time I gain it back. Each time I say this time is different. This time it is different. See next item.
Hunger pangs gone
A few years ago, I was talking to a client, Shirley. She had lost 53 pounds, and I had lost 20. I told her I was hungry “all the damn time”. I asked her if she was always hungry. She said no. In the months that followed, I managed to gain the 20 pounds back, but Shirley did not. For 40 years I was stuck in the yo-yo land of weight loss followed inevitably by weight gain until now. Like Shirley, I am now keeping the weight off and I don’t suffer hunger pangs. I eat what I like, eat as much as I care to, and I don’t gain weight. Since getting to this point, my world has changed.
I have more energy and an overall improvement in my well-being. Maybe not carrying around 40 extra pounds has something to do with that. With fewer aches, no wheezing, and more energy I am more inclined to exercise. I have been walking farther and exercising more.
I am no longer, as my doctor put it, “living in a milieu of underlying inflammation”. Interestingly, the type of strength training we do at our Austin Personal Training facility exponentially produces myokines, an anti-inflammatory agent produced by the muscle in response to demanding exercise. Result: even less inflammation! An added benefit, demanding exercise stimulates and further increases HGH and BDNF – more neurogenesis. Life is good.