I am over 60 and I am drug free

I had the realization during my second major surgery this year that I am still statistically in yet another minority.  I know that it is always really cool to think about how unique I am as an individual, but I also like to be part of  a group.  This is the ironic thing about living in the United States, we all want to be loners, but also be part of a cool group at the same time.

So while I was recovering from my four hour triple A aneurysm operation I was greeted with an amazing reaction by all of my attending medical staff at Emory St. Joseph's hospital in Atlanta.  They were amazed that I was so healthy and that I was not on any prescription medications for a man of my age. Now a lot of my life has been lived in hanging out with folks who are living active lifestyles.  In the past few years I have started to take notice that most of my friends are younger than I am.  I also noticed that most of the people that are my age are not doing the things that I was doing.  Running 62 miles and riding a bicycle for 150 miles seem normal to me, but most folks see these activities as amazing.

The hospital staff kept commenting on how good my pulse was in my feet and how my veins were so easy to find in my arms.  Good news is always good to hear, but I always want to know more about what folks say so since I had their attention while they changed IV bags and took diagnostic information from me I asked them to explain what they meant.  What I heard was that most folks that the medical staff at Emory St. Joseph's see in the hospitals that are over 60 have been taking lots of prescription drugs for a number of years. Here was another minority group that I was in that I was not expecting to be in.  After leaving the hospital I wanted to do some Internet Research and figure out what was going on.

I am not naive to think that I am so special and I know that there are a lot of folks on the planet that are over 60 and are not taking prescription drugs, but I do know that western medicine has shifted the health of the world population to the dark side.

Last year the NY Times article titled Hypertension Guidelines Can Be Eased, Panel Says folks over 60 can have higher blood pressure than previously recommended.

Until now, people were told to strive for blood pressures below 140/90, with some taking multiple drugs to achieve that goal. But the guidelines committee, which spent five years reviewing evidence, concluded that the goal for people over 60 should be a systolic pressure of less than 150. And the diastolic goal should remain less than 90.

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I was recently confronted my medical doctor to start taking a prescription blood thinner and I refused on the advice of my Crew Chief +Sylvia Wormley.  I have modified my diet to eliminate corn syrup and foods that will contain or that will convert to sugars from my diet. I still have reservations about the doctor's advice on my blood pressure because the measurement of my blood pressure accuracy was always suspected by me as not being accurate.  I have since purchased a home blood pressure monitoring device and low and behold I can get accurate results of my "normal" blood pressure.

I am using the Omron BP791IT to monitor my blood pressure.  During my research into being over 60 and drug free I came upon some YouTube videos presented by Dr. Bergman.  Dr. Bergman calls into question whether blood pressure monitoring is an effective way to measure health in the first place.

If you have read this far without watching the video please watch it.  After watching this video then you will understand the Uncle Sam graphic at the start of the blog posting.  Please feel free to share this information with your social network.  Ideally we all need to be drug free, but in order to do this we have to give some thought into what it means to maintain health without dependence on many made foods that are full of chemicals and genetically engineered plants.  Understanding how your body works will take some time and research, please start now to learn for yourself how your physiology works.