Last month I read an interesting article where Peter Attia, another doctor at the forefront of the LCHF movement, discusses the real causes of metabolic syndrome, of which obesity may just be a symptom. He says that "obesity is a condition that in many
cases –though not all– is predictive of increased risk for several diseases
through an underlying process of metabolic dysregulation. The diseases
that cluster around this metabolic dysregulation (or metabolic syndrome)–diabetes, heart disease,
cerebrovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer– collectively account
for the deaths of two out of every three Americans." My father was one of the unlucky two-thirds.
My dad had many of the afflictions
associated with metabolic syndrome. He was obese. He had diabetes. He had heart
disease. I’m sure he was on his way to Alzheimer’s disease (even though he
would staunchly deny it). He had
cancer… for the second time. Even
though we knew he had these diseases, his death was abrupt, which looking back
on it may have been a blessing in disguise since he was just about to start
radiation and chemotherapy in an effort to shrink the cancerous lump in his
chest, which after his death, his doctor admitted wouldn't have saved his life.
He had had lung cancer
about ten years ago and they were able to surgically intervene by removing part
of his lung. This time, however,
the lump was right on top of his pulmonary artery and it was just too dangerous
to attempt surgery. His heartbeat
was becoming erratic and the doctors were in the process of trying to find the
right heart medications to stabilize the rhythm. As a result, he began to have fainting spells. This went on
for a month or so until he got dizzy and fell down, broke his ankle and when he
was in hospital a blood clot caused him to have a heart attack, then another
heart attack, then another until he asked my mom to let him go...
I used to argue
with him over eating carbs even though he had diabetes, I even bought him a diabetic's guide to italian cooking. He got so mad at me for "telling him how to eat" that I ended up throwing the book in the trash (in the end he fished it out and marched me down to the store to return it). He would just cite
his doctor who told him he needed to eat “some” carbs to live and that it was
okay so long as it was “low gi”, etc, etc. So, he followed the doc’s advice, his diabetes was
progressing and he was well on his way to insulin shots… on top of everything
else… He was 74 and died this past
November, just three weeks shy of his granddaughter’s birth. It was a difficult time to say the
least.
Yes, my father did have a
relatively long life and yes, he was a stubborn man who only quit smoking in
the last few years and wouldn’t alter his diet too much (Italian American
temper and diet should almost be listed as precursors for metabolic syndrome). However, I believe it was the
combination of poor food advice throughout his life (grains being the base of
the food pyramid for example) and poor medical advice about diabetes control,
as well as the doctor’s not knowing what to do about his heart in the end,
caused his life to end just before my daughter’s life began and now they will never
meet. This is why, now more than
ever, I feel I need to share his story and add it to the plethora of sad
stories sprung from the fallacies of the American food and medical industry.
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