The headline in
the LA Times/AP story:“Scalia's death
probably linked to obesity, diabetes and coronary artery disease, physician
says.” The lede
in the story was, “Antonin Scalia suffered from coronary artery disease,
obesity and diabetes, among other ailments that probably contributed to the
justice's sudden death, according to a letter from the Supreme Court's doctor.
He said the long list of health problems made an autopsy unnecessary.”
According to a
letter from his attending physician, “significant medical conditions led to his
death.” The AP said that the
letter “listed more than a half-dozen ailments, including sleep apnea,
degenerative joint disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and high
blood pressure. Scalia also was a smoker, the letter said.” That’s quite a
list. So mainstream medicine comfortably reached a consensus that he was a very
sick guy.
Antonin Scalia
died peacefully and suddenly in his sleep at age 79. Given his multiple medical
conditions, that was neither a surprising nor a premature outcome. But it
didn’t have to be – premature, that is. He might have been expected to live
well into his 80s or even longer. Given his multiple conditions, however, it is
in fact somewhat surprising that he lived as long as he did. It’s a credit to
modern medicine and to the medical care he received.
I have neither a prurient interest
in his cause of death, nor do I suggest or support any conspiracy theories.
Rather, I wish to use Scalia’s death to emphasize, as Jenny Ruhl (at “Blood Sugar 101”) points out
here with more than a dozen links, “Heart attack risk more than doubles at
blood sugar levels considered to be ‘PREDIABETIC.’”
As the LA Times headline shouts, blood
sugar levels and obesity and cardiovascular
risk are all related; and the risk of heart attack, or a fatal heart arrhythmia (the
probable cause of Scalia’s death), can be reduced
by losing weight and controlling blood sugar levels…as I have said here ad nauseam. More easily said than done,
you say?
Well, consider this related
Associated Press story, filed by David Warren in Dallas, TX, that included an interview with a
physician of internal and emergency medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital
in Chicago. He said, “The justice's many ailments, taken together, were ‘quite
dangerous,’” and “he would advise a patient with those conditions who was still
smoking to stop smoking first and then lose weight.” Okay, that’s fair, but so
facile.
“Those are the main two things
someone in his position can do himself,” the doctor said, without suggesting how to
lose weight. He knew full well that most patients who follow medical advice on
how to lose weight will fail, but that’s
on the patient. (The doctor simply notes in the patient’s medical record,
“patient non-compliant.) “The rest falls on the physician,” he said, “to
medically manage blood pressure and make sure their blood sugar levels are
controlled well.” But all of these things are related, and all of them are
things someone can do himself. The effect on the body is synergistic. And the
catalyst that gets them all to work together is a Very
Low Carbohydrate diet.
The body can heal itself, can
achieve homeostasis at a new, much lower set point: a “happy,” balanced,
healthy body. As you eat Very Low Carb, 1) you lose weight (without hunger), 2)
your blood sugar levels and your bloods lipids (cholesterol) improve; and 3) as
you lose weight, your blood pressure improves and your cardiovascular risk
declines. You feel good. You’re not hungry all the time. You’re not
lethargic or sleepy after a meal. You have lots of energy.
You don’t need to rely on your
doctor to over medicate you for blood sugar control or maybe even blood
pressure. (I still take blood pressure meds, but after a large weight loss my
BP went from 130/90 to 110/70 on the same meds.) And after eating Very Low Carb
consistently, my HDL-C doubled and my triglycerides dropped by two-thirds; my
doctor took me off the statin I had taken for five years. And all those oral
meds for type 2 diabetes? Within days of starting to eat Very Low Carb, I had
to give them up to avoid hypos!
Of
course, after living a relatively long life, dying suddenly and peacefully in
your sleep isn’t such a bad outcome.
Subsequent to carrying on with a moderately long life, passing on all of a sudden and calmly in your rest isn't such a terrible result. Have a great day.
ReplyDeleteThat's my conclusion (literally) too. I hope you agreed with the other points I made in this post as well.
DeleteI am thoroughly amazed at how you made this website, It’s really great talent. picbear
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sophie. I work on it every day. It keeps me "in tune," metabolically speaking, and I enjoy learning to be a better writer too. I hope you've read more than just this column. I have now published 475.
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