In July of 2006, I almost died. I was in weeks-long diabetic shock, and the great doctors at Lahey Hospital were talking about inducing a coma, because even with 4 bags of saline, they couldn’t get me re-hydrated enough to jump-start my failed kidneys.
I had been a lifelong athlete—a martial artist since age 14, a long distance roller skater, a bike messenger, and a tournament Kung Fu fighter. But, I stopped exercising, after my wedding, to build a musical equipment repair business. I worked 12-hour days, 7-day weeks, but I rarely got off my bench chair to do it. I was teaching full time, getting paid for part-time, and running a business when I started getting too tired to walk up a flight of stairs, constantly—desperately—thirsty, and unable to control my body temperature. I would stand in front of the air conditioner sweating like a pig and thirsty as hell.
At 5’7″, I was 180lbs. But another doctor told me later, that my body was so badly dehydrated, that my true weight at that point would have been more like 230lbs. Finally, I was driving home from the school, in the rain, with my head hanging out the car window like a dog, trying to cool my body. I stopped at a convenience store and grabbed a half-gallon of grapefruit juice, which I gulped down in the parking lot. Within the few seconds it took me to walk back to my car, I was thirsty again. That was the day I decided to go see a doctor. After my visit, he called me at 6:00 in the morning and told me to get to an emergency room asap. “You’re joking, right?”
“Would I be calling you at six in the morning if I were joking? You’re lucky you’re not dead. Get up to the hospital, NOW!”
But my reaction to Sulfonylureas and other diabetic medicines was not good. I decided I would try using diet and exercise as my medicine. Within a few years, I had brought my A1C down to 6.0. After about 5 more years, my endocrinologist at the time said, “We hesitate to use the word ‘cure’, but between us, I can say you’ve cured your Diabetes.”
Sports and a Keto diet, are still my medicine. I want to use this page to chart, follow, and further develop my medicine free lifestyle. I’m 68-years old, and two of my personal heroes are [The Legend] Bruce Lee, and Jack LaLanne. I saw the latter perform on his 70th birthday. He pulled a pickup truck with rope, in his mouth. I saw him again on TV, at age 95, just before he died. He was standing on his own two legs, straight, strong, and firm. If you’re a reader, I hope this page can be helpful to you. Just know that I’m doing this for me. Keep reading and let’s see where this page can go.
