The 1st of July 2013 marked six months of a radical transformation in the state of my health and wellbeing.
At New Year I weighed 91 Kg - overweight, bordering on obese and, having been a marathon and ultra marathon runner in my twenties, I was close to sedentary. For the previous ten years, doctors had been telling me that my blood pressure was too high, and I had been resisting their suggestions that I take medication, promising them and myself that I would change my diet and exercise regime and not following through with my good intentions.
At Christmas, Santa brought me two things that changed all that - a blood pressure monitor and a copy of Tim Noakes' Challenging Beliefs: Memoirs of a Career. I started reading the book and found it fascinating. The title refers to the fact that Noakes, a South African professor of Sports Medicine has spent a large part of his career challeging medical orthodoxies that his research has shown to be wrong. These are often based on a logical but unproven hypothesis that is expoited by commercial interests and then defended by those interests against any evidence that they are in fact not true.
Noakes has been something of a hero of mine since, with the naked eye, he diagnosed the cause of knee pain I was suffering, after my GP, a physiotherapist, a radiographer and an orthopedic surgeon had all failed to identify the cause. In his early sixties, Noakes was looking for a way to overcome his tendency to pick up weight, and to reduce his risk from a genetic predisposition towards diabetes. He researched and then tried a low carbohydrate diet, and reported that after six months he was lighter, faster and healthier than he had been in the previous twenty years.
On New Year's day I tried my blood pressure monitor and was shocked to record a reading of 216/125. That's not high, it's explosive! I sanity checked the meter by testing it on others known to have normal blood pressure, and it registered a normal reading of around 120/80. I decided that urgent action was required. With Noakes as my guide, I adopted a "paleo" i.e. low carbohydrate, high protein, moderate fat diet. I dared not run initially, fearing I would have a stroke or heart attack, but started walking every day. As my weight came down, my blood pressure came down in parallel. After two weeks I began jogging and, to cut a long story short, four months later and 13 Kg (35 lbs or 2 stone 8 lbs) lighter, I ran the Plymouth half marathon.
My weight has plateaued since then and I am not yet at my goal weight, nor is my blood pressure "normal" but with the lowest reading so far of 159/96, it is a huge improvement. My challenge now is adjust my diet, increase the amount I exercise and get rid of another 5Kgs in weight while also replacing fat with muscle. Regular monitoring of my blood pressure has shown that apart from weight and diet, stress, or rather, poor management of stress is a big factor. Managing my response to stress is my next big challenge.
While blood pressure and fitness were my key goals, an enormous benefit I have enjoyed is a vast improvement in my resistance to colds and infections. The first six months of this year have been the first time I have gone that long without a cold in as long as I can remember. It is also the first time in decades that I have been without almost constant nasal congestion. I attribute this to the gluten and largely dairy free nature of my diet.
My conclusion is that you, quite literally, are what you eat. If your body isn't performing the way you'd like it to, change the fuel you put into it!
At New Year I weighed 91 Kg - overweight, bordering on obese and, having been a marathon and ultra marathon runner in my twenties, I was close to sedentary. For the previous ten years, doctors had been telling me that my blood pressure was too high, and I had been resisting their suggestions that I take medication, promising them and myself that I would change my diet and exercise regime and not following through with my good intentions.
At Christmas, Santa brought me two things that changed all that - a blood pressure monitor and a copy of Tim Noakes' Challenging Beliefs: Memoirs of a Career. I started reading the book and found it fascinating. The title refers to the fact that Noakes, a South African professor of Sports Medicine has spent a large part of his career challeging medical orthodoxies that his research has shown to be wrong. These are often based on a logical but unproven hypothesis that is expoited by commercial interests and then defended by those interests against any evidence that they are in fact not true.
Noakes has been something of a hero of mine since, with the naked eye, he diagnosed the cause of knee pain I was suffering, after my GP, a physiotherapist, a radiographer and an orthopedic surgeon had all failed to identify the cause. In his early sixties, Noakes was looking for a way to overcome his tendency to pick up weight, and to reduce his risk from a genetic predisposition towards diabetes. He researched and then tried a low carbohydrate diet, and reported that after six months he was lighter, faster and healthier than he had been in the previous twenty years.
On New Year's day I tried my blood pressure monitor and was shocked to record a reading of 216/125. That's not high, it's explosive! I sanity checked the meter by testing it on others known to have normal blood pressure, and it registered a normal reading of around 120/80. I decided that urgent action was required. With Noakes as my guide, I adopted a "paleo" i.e. low carbohydrate, high protein, moderate fat diet. I dared not run initially, fearing I would have a stroke or heart attack, but started walking every day. As my weight came down, my blood pressure came down in parallel. After two weeks I began jogging and, to cut a long story short, four months later and 13 Kg (35 lbs or 2 stone 8 lbs) lighter, I ran the Plymouth half marathon.
My weight has plateaued since then and I am not yet at my goal weight, nor is my blood pressure "normal" but with the lowest reading so far of 159/96, it is a huge improvement. My challenge now is adjust my diet, increase the amount I exercise and get rid of another 5Kgs in weight while also replacing fat with muscle. Regular monitoring of my blood pressure has shown that apart from weight and diet, stress, or rather, poor management of stress is a big factor. Managing my response to stress is my next big challenge.
While blood pressure and fitness were my key goals, an enormous benefit I have enjoyed is a vast improvement in my resistance to colds and infections. The first six months of this year have been the first time I have gone that long without a cold in as long as I can remember. It is also the first time in decades that I have been without almost constant nasal congestion. I attribute this to the gluten and largely dairy free nature of my diet.
My conclusion is that you, quite literally, are what you eat. If your body isn't performing the way you'd like it to, change the fuel you put into it!
Those are some serious BP improvements. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteIf you pressure seems to stall, you may want to consider ruling out "medical" causes of primary hypertension, specifically pheochromocytoma and renal artery stenosis.
Well boys and girls, this evening (20/07/13), I measured my blood pressure at 150/94, a rather significant improvement on the 216/125 it measured at the beginning of the year, and the closest it's been to normal in a decade. The only pills I've taken are food supplement tablets. Diet and exercise are the keys to health + learning to relax! #paleo
ReplyDeleteAnd a couple of days later it was down to 142/84! This, according to my doctors, is not possible, other than by a life time of drug taking.
ReplyDelete