I visited my father in the nursing home today. As some will know he has been deteriorating for about 13 years. Prior to that he was a healthy, vital, septuagenarian. A Satyananda trained Yoga Teacher, a vegetarian of many years and more recently a vegan. He had an automobile accident and spent three weeks in intensive care at Nepean Hospital. During this time his heart stopped and he was revived. The nursing and medical staff remarked at how healthy this man was, low blood pressure, low pulse, blood sugars etc. I was there to pick him up when his time was up and the determination with which he walked out is something I will never forget.
His life went downhill from there. He eventually went in to have a stent inserted. This made a difference to his energy levels but he started developing increasingly aberrant behaviour. He was eventually hospitalized after a particularly violent outburst where he fainted. Despite early attempts to escape his imprisonment (his term) he has been institutionalised ever since. When I saw him today he was immobile except for a weak rasping cough, his face was flabby, his eyes hollow. He didn’t recognize me.
His behaviour has been a topic of some conversation and much speculation amongst his children and my mother. Before he went vegan (after reading Peter Singer by the way) he had been fond of cheese, yoghurt and sundry high fat foods. Even when he changed his diet he munched on nuts and used avocadoes as his main source of protein. A vegan diet can only help with cardiac disease if it is a low fat diet.
I believe the specific cause of his dementia was the operations, both in intensive care and more specifically the procedure to insert the stent. I came across an article by Dr McDougall where he comments on Bill Clinton’s tragic decline. http://www.drmcdougall.com/bill_clintons_madness.htm Needless to say I was infuriated. 31% is a huge number of people to have a major side effect from any procedure. This fact doesn’t seem to get much airplay. Cardiac surgeons are deemed heroes or better but there is a dirty secret under the radar. When blockages in the heart vessels are forcefully cleared the offending material speeds through the arteries. Unfortunately the next port of call is the smaller vessels in the brain. This is where the plaque does the real damage. Sections of the brain are blood starved and atrophy. A Stroke causes instant death or disability or Dementia sets in. Unfortunately a lot of people survive a cardiac incident and pay the price nonetheless.
The fundamental problem is the societal addiction to fats and oils. Of course we choose what we put in our mouths but if a crime can be downgraded due to mitigating circumstances so can dietary preferences for delicious greasy foods. Our biology is loaded against us. The facts are well known. The science has been meticulously documented.
Still our televisions resound to advertisement of high fat foods. The cricket season will no doubt be a continuous tribute to the wonders of fried chicken and its link to sporting excellence, the farmer will remove his hat, mop his brow and chow down on twice the recommended daily intake in a single cheese sandwich. Surgeons will perform to rapt audiences in their theatres. Drug company representatives will extoll the latest cholesterol lowering miracle cure and the death rates will remain the same. The economy and its biggest money churner, health, will continue to grow and the facts will remain hidden behind the gleaming altar of increasing GDP and increasing quarterly profit results. Politicians will smile and gloat. Their patrons, the Multinational companies, will increase market penetration and we are the ones being fucked.
FAT IS VERY, VERY BAD FOR YOU! The lies about good fats and bad fats are marketing, no more, no less. Now you have been told.
I visited my father in the nursing home today. I got really angry.If you want to get off fat see:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/index.html
http://www.heartattackproof.com/
http://www.tcolincampbell.org/
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