The family genes that have been passed down to me could be called anything but healthy. All of my grandparents have passed on from this life, the last one going several years ago now. Two bouts of cancers, a heart attack, and…well, just plain ol’ death took the four of them away.
In my own life, I’ve experienced some odd things for only being 28. Two knee surgeries, some random things that can only be labeled as embarrassing (which some of my college friends would remember), and a grand mal seizure that stopped the N train in New York City for about 45 minutes one night to name a few.
So it wasn’t all that surprising to get my cholesterol checked and find out that it’s less than impressive. This as well runs in my family. I didn’t know I even had such a thing as Triglycerides but apparently I do and they are fairly high (540), and wouldn’t you know it, the good cholesterol is low and the bad is high. The blessing out of all of this is that I have the privilege of finding out early enough and today I got to lay out a plan with a Cardiologist of what life looks like so that I do not end up going from a heart-attack at age 63 like my grandmother did (for similar reasons). Unfortunately she also had this knowledge but chose not to do anything with it.
Looking back through my families health history I feel that the cards are stacked against me on many levels and I’ve always kind of thought that it would be a miracle to make it to 75 but I also know that I want to do what I can to take care of my body regardless of what I was dealt. Part of this, I have brought on myself in the past 5 years and I accept responsibility for that. The other part seems sort of unfair and makes me angry. But regardless, this whole thing starts today with my 6-week plan to see how much I can naturally lower my Triglycerides and then start hitting the other things.
I guess this is a good time to say a formal good-bye to every kind of food that brings me joy in life. Good bye chocolate milk, good bye ice cream, good bye sugary drinks, good bye Trans fats. (as you can see, this isn't all hereditary!
5 comments:
Good bye Thursday nights!
Just kidding : ) This is good stuff, D-ball. We are behind you, man. Way to take it on!
oh man, sorry dustin! maybe we can start a low-carb, low-sugar, low-fat, high exercise club and thurday nights, we could all get matching sweat outfits and jog around multnomah village. ania could probably keep up with all of us.
if you die can i have the beer brewing stuff?
You'll have to split it down the middle with Chris.
You clearly don't watch enough tv. All you have to do to lower your cholesterol is eat more cheerios.(plus right now there is a batman flying thing inside each box)
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