Once again the summer sun shows it beautiful face as we bask in its delight. With its warm weather and cool night time temperatures we quickly loose ourselves and set aside important health concerns distracted by summer projects. However, I am going to take this opportunity to write candidly about a very serious topic. If you aren't aware June is Men's Health month. In an effort towards my on going shift in obtaining sustainability in every aspect of my life, I have decided to empower my fellow brother's and sister's to do themselves a service and follow my newly adoptive check list on Men's Health. I do not wish to direct this solely towards men, I also wish to empower the women who just might find themselves reading this post in an effort to persuade the men in their lives to take heed of the health test that men should be aware of. The following idiomatic expression couldn't be more true, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"
With that being said, as men we tend to put aside our health. As if we're supermen. Ladies, you know your man. They will never admit something's wrong. It has been a year to the date, when I was hospitalized for what I thought would be the end of me. It would be the very thing which has inspired this blog post. That event has taught me a great lesson to which I am now sharing with you. I will no longer take my health for granted. I as many men believed, I had been leading a some what healthy life style. As it turns out, the life style I was leading was unhealthier than I realized.
I did exactly what most men do, when their bodies are in pain. I ignored the signs and symptoms my body was given me, letting me know something was wrong. I had been experiencing moderated dizziness for several weeks. However, I brushed it off, I convinced myself, it was stress, or blamed on low blood sugar after doing some heavy yard work. Even though my wife pleaded with me to see a doctor, I still ignored the signs. Yet, the dizziness became more and more frequent. Until one night on June 6, 2010, I experienced what the EMT referred to it as vertigo. As he said the word "Vertigo", I said to myself ,"Oh that's what this is, ok this will pass". The reality was, it turns out it was a little bit more than just vertigo.
It has taken me over a year to recover from that event. I had been diagnosed as having a severe case of vestibular neuritis. I had it all, the dizziness, the migraines, the hearing loss, it affected my cognitive function, I felt brain damaged. It affected my speech, and my ability to walk up right. I had sensitivity to daylight, and no perception of up or down in darkness, I would just literally hit the floor. I had to receive physical therapy in order to retrain my brain to re balance myself, in other words I had to relearn to walk again. The mechanism within my inner ear had been affected by a viral infection which effect my balance and other parts of my brain. It has also left me with a permanent scar, one which will be my constant companion for the rest of my life, tinnitus! I am learning to live with it.
It seems some how a virus was responsible for taking me down. Something so microscopic was able to take down a 250 lb man. As I laid there in that hospital bed I could not help but wonder how this could happen to me. Now I just wanted answers. My doctors could not find anything wrong. The MRI result came back negative. There was nothing wrong within my brain, no signs of damage. Yet, I still could not function normally. I ambulated as if I had Parkinson disease. I remember my Doctor telling me,"The only way to truly know what had happen in my inner ear and the brain was to do an autopsy". Yes, you read that right. An Autopsy! Like that was going to happen anytime soon. I would have to be dead for that to take place, and I was very much alive. With no definite answers to my event as I called it, and only left with a diagnosis of vestibular neuritis , so began my quest.
Therefore, I examined every aspect of my life and started making changes. The first thing on the list was getting myself well again, and so began my Men's Health Check list.
My road to recovery started that very June 2010. I vowed that I will never take my health for granted. I knew that if I went back and continued to live and eat the same way as I did before this event and expected a different out come, that by definition would be insanity. So in order to get well, I had to do things as I never did them before, I had to make radical changes to get better results. I didn't smoke nor did I drink alcholic beverages. Therefore, their was just one thing left, I made a decision to stop eating processed foods which turns out made up a majority of my diet. This may have seemed drastic, but if you had seen what I had looked like when this virus took hold of me you would understand my decision. This was my personnel choice, I decide the only way I was going to get better, and better fast was to only eat real foods, those foods which had not gone through any type of refinement and maintained their nutrients. Therefore, I avoided the following: sodas, frozen TV dinners, everything which contained the words diet, low cal, or enriched, anything made from white flour which included white bread and pasta made from white flour, anything which contained soy products or contained soy oil, products that contained high fructose corn syrup or products containing artificial sweeteners, and stayed away from corn oils, vegetable oil and margarine or fake butter. This was easier said then done.
As I walked through the supermarket ales the majority of the products that are on their shelves are refined and or processed. They also contained ingredients which I was trying to avoid. I thought I was going to starve. So I had two choices, start growing my own produce, or find farmers' markets, organic shops in my local area that carried what I needed. Therefore, I decide to do both. I grew most of vegetables that I needed and what I could not grow, I bought at my local farmers' markets or organic shops. I started a road trip back to the basics of food preparation. I purchase vintage cook books and looked at recipes from the 1930 and 40's before any GMO came into existence. Every recipe from that era called for real butter, and real ingredients not the fake spreads and empty nutrient deprived ingredients which fill today's recipes. I also got in touch with a dairy farmer in Upstate New York, which allowed me to buy Raw Milk. Yep you read that right too, RAW! I love it, its mother's milk to me. I think I am better because of it.
Once I knew I had gotten my food intake straighten out I sat down and listed the major areas where men need to know their status in regards to health.. At this point I laugh at the fact as urban dwellers we are quick to update our facebook status, but when it comes to our Health Status, we are left lacking.
The following are some of the key exams I had scheduled to have done in an effort to make for a more sustainable and healthier me.
I needed to know the condition of my heart, as men this is something we need to know the older we get, knowing the status of our heart is important. Are you fit enough to be doing strenuous activities or even just to start an exercise regimen. I sought out a Cardiologist and he order a stress test and an EKG. Making sure your I was not at risk for a Heart Attack.
Secondly, I now make it a point to know the status of my blood pressure, knowing if I was hypertensive or hypotensive was important to me, both by the way are maintainable.
Third runner up, I also had to know my Cholesterol levels. Both low density LDH and High density cholesterol. Having your levels monitored is important.
Forth knowing if I was at risk for Stroke after this event was crucial. As I have a family history of it, my dad had 6 mini strokes called TIA's. And he's fine now, walking and talking thank God.
Another aspect in men's health which I wasn't even aware until my doctor mention it, is hormonal changes in men. If testosterone levels are found to be lower than normal. It can create mood swings in men or depression. Isn't that a horrifying thing, a moody man. OMG. So I had that check too.
I also scheduled a colonoscopy to check for colorectal cancer which by the way happens to be the second highest cause of men's death, according to Web MD. So you know I was going to get this checked.
I wasn't going to leave anything to chance I asked my PMD to run a prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test. This is a test done for prostate cancer screening. Even though it is not done to men until the age of 50, I wanted it done it made me feel better.
Men should also be familiar preforming a self testicular test. Testicular cancer is treatable if caught early, if you feel anything that's abnormal get to your Doctor Asp.
Lastly I had my Doctor check me for Diabetes. Unfortunately both my parents have it and most likely I will be predisposition to it later on in life. But it doesn't have to be so. If I follow a specific well balance diet consisting of real food, I hope to never acquire diabetes. With the understanding that the choices I have made today will dictate the life I lead tomorrow. But am also aware there is never any grantees, I am not looking to live forever, that's is not the goal. The goal is to live a longer more productive life and in responsibly good health.
I am hoping as I put this post to a close that I haven't written this in vain. I hope you have taken my experience and have taken the time to schedule a doctors appointment. If you have been ignoring something that's been bothering you for fear of not knowing what it might be. Believe me when I tell you it is better to deal with it earlier than later. Let's give our Dad's, brother's, son's or that special man in your life a special Father Day gift with a clean bill of health. Lets get up to date with our Health Status. Remember as you leave the doctors office with a band aid in hand, pass on the word to your fellow brother's and sister's LETTUCE BEE SUSTAINABLE WITH IN OUR HEALTH.
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