I have always been active and exercised to keep healthy and weight in order. There was a day, on the stair master however, where I found myself fatiguing quickly; periods where I needed to stop completely to take deep breaths and losing my composure.
I couldn’t understand why this was happening. Perhaps it was the supplements I was taking? Not enough hydration? Or incidental? This anomaly continued for the next three days and worsened thereafter. This problem made me wonder how my health diminished so rapidly. My days of box jumps, high intensity interval training, and other fast-paced drills were over. Very concerned (and hoping that it was not a prelude to heart disease) my wife scheduled an appointment with my Doctor. After our consultation, dozens of vials of blood was drawn from my arm. I thought that morning was a simple blood test, but the Phlebotomist looked at the Doctor’s prescription and he looked surprised and I remembered him saying, “Wow.” I hate seeing needles that was the most blood ever drawn in my lifetime for me personally.
With the results, my Doctor could only determine inflammation present in my body, but could not detect exactly where. He ordered a sleep test that happened to be one of the most chaotic and restless nights in a small room with thousands of wires hooked up to my body. The sleep test did not prove anything helpful, but recommended a breathing apparatus called an CPAP machine that cost would be hundreds of dollars and charges for new filters every month. I didn’t think the cost of that breathing apparatus was worth it, so I decided to can that idea.
Another suggestion my Doctor had was making an appointment to do a stress test at the local hospital that took five months just to get in to see the Cardiologist. I remember that day and the “White Coat Syndrome” that comes along with having to face the unknown. My blood pressure went through the roof, but no one could tell how much fear I really had inside. My wife told me there was nothing to worry about and never told me what really happens at the stress test. The Cardiologist came in BEFORE the test was done and said, “I know exactly what is causing your problem. You have high blood pressure!” based on my blood pressure results given to her by the nurse.
The stress test was not a pleasant experience. In fact, I think that test alone could have killed me. I recall having to run as fast as possible to get my heart rate up at a specified measure and jump off and lay back down on the hospital bed while holding my breath that seemed to be an eternity as they monitor my condition. As the technician said, “OK, continue to hold…hold…hold.” To tell you the truth, I thought that my lungs were going to burst open and I was going to die on that table by people that were supposed to save me, not kill me! Holding my breath after an intense run and then instructed to hold my breath made me want to scream, “What is wrong with you, can’t you see this is torture?” They made me do this “run and die test” more than once to track my heart condition from a monitor and did not see my face turning blue and a second away from blacking-out. In that room, the medical staff made a diagnosis. The Doctor asked the technician what she found (apparently the Cardiologist couldn’t read the Monitor herself) and they all said that I have Mitral Valve Prolapse, aka MVP.
As the medical staff moved me to another waiting room, the Cardiologist came in after twenty minutes and wrote a prescription for high blood pressure medication. She did not take into account what my wife said about my “White Coat Syndrome” or the fact that we knew that my blood pressure is normal from the test at my Doctor’s office. She asked me what drug store I preferred (I knew that the diagnosis was inaccurate) and set out to do my own research to find out what turn of events led me to become fatigue, tired, and feeling older beyond my years!
I then began to read and research as well as analyze what made me feel fatigued and unable to take ten steps without feeling that my chest was going to burst open. There was a book stashed away in my library called The New Sugar Busters, a book bought by my wife over thirteen years ago and I never read it because I thought that giving up sugar was about losing weight. I never knew that refined sugar has been causing my body to cease slowly; a toxin that erodes a multitude of flesh and bone including the heart! The inflammation that was happening inside of me was not caused by sleep lost, high blood pressure, depression, or external environmental pollutants. It was the cause of my own demise by living on a diet that has been chipping away on my life and lives of millions around the world and they don’t even have a clue to what is happening.
This is a journey to provide people with good choices and a chance for people to make a decision to regain their health for themselves, their children, and the ones they care for. It is really up to an individual to make lifestyle choices in nutrition that has changed my life and the life of my wife Mindy. Everyone has the free will to express themselves or choose what path in life they take. Our hope is to use what we have experienced, researched, and learned from a multitude of resources. Is sugar the main cause for heart disease and other debilitating health problems? It is not a main cause, but for us, eliminating a diet that was laced in refined foods have made us stronger, healthier, and wiser. Our blog will host information where one can gain a pathway towards better physical, spiritual, and mental health. A venue to express and learn from whatever course of action one chooses. In any case, we pray a lifestyle where nothing is too difficult even if success have not yet been achieved. We must keep on dreaming.
Wil