Medical Questions And Answers
Medical questions and answers that are reliable are both easy and hard to come by. Easy, because there’s always an expert you can consult: Your doctor. Hard because doctor’s visits are rarely cheap or quick, and many people simple can’t take the time out of their day to make the trip.
In that way I’ve been lucky, since my father-in-law is a doctor. All my medical questions and answers are just a phone call away, and though his specialty is nephrology (kidneys), he’s obviously well versed in all sorts of maladies and conditions.
He’s especially proficient in his knowledge of heart disease and diabetes, since so many in his family have died to those causes. Again, this makes me lucky since my family also has a long history of heart disease, which killed both my father and paternal grandfather. Needless to say, I have many medical questions and answers on that subject.
When it comes to heart disease and diabetes, the advice he gives me tends to be uniform: Eat less, eat healthy and exercise more. My father-in-law himself is an exercise freak, jogging anywhere from five to ten miles a day, every single day, as well as going through a routine of stretching and resistance training.
I’m not an exercise freak. I’m more of a sit-on-the-couch-and-watch-tv freak, and the integration of exercise into my daily routine has not been an easy one. But it has been a rewarding one, in many ways.
I’ve dropped fifteen pounds in the past year, down under 180 pounds for the first time since I was in my early twenties. I’ve also cut my cholesterol by seventy points, and knocked a couple of inches off my waistline.
My exercise regimen isn’t as intense as my father-in-law’s, but it isn’t a joke either. I ride an exercise bike, which I find to cause very little aggravation to my joints (I suffer from arthritis) anywhere from ten to fifteen miles, five days a week. This burns anywhere from 300 to 450 calories a day, but more important it gets my heartrate up and builds muscle. If fighting an inflammatory disease – heart disease, diabetes and arthritis are all inflammatory diseases – that is the best thing you can do for your health.
Along with the exercise has come an improved diet. I eat a salad every night, and only one serving of meat-based protein such as chicken or fish. Occasioally I splurge on a steak or a piece of pizza, but those are only occasions and only splurges. I refuse to keep it in my house.