Five years ago I was prescribed Benicar after having tried but failed to control my blood pressure. My family history with heart disease is strong, and I assumed my genetics had finally caught up with me.
About a year ago I was motivated to improve my overall health and changed my diet by reducing my carbohydrate intake, eliminating most grains, and beans, and radically reducing sugar from my diet. Over a period of three months or so I lost 20 pounds. I was surprised at the weight loss because it was happening without me trying. I was not exercising more, so I knew the change was happening because of food.
During this time, I also deepened my yoga practice and made it a point to reduce my stress from work by reframing many if not all of the conflict in my workplace and seeing my job as more of a theater piece where I play a role, and at the end of the day, I walk away knowing that my work does not define who or what I am. The planet can do just fine without me. We are all in God’s loving hands. It has been liberating.
Again, in all of this I was not really trying to achieve a particular goal. I just wanted to be healthier and enjoy life more. I was not expecting a quantifiable change.
Months into my lifestyle shift, I found myself in my cardiologist’s office for a check up. His assistant checked my blood pressure a couple of times and I thought it must be high. When he comes in, he asked, why are you on blood pressure medications? I looked at him confused, and told him he had prescribed them for me. He told me that I could come off of them, that my blood pressure was low and the meds were not necessary. I was surprised and grateful.
Looking back, I attribute the change to the loss of weight because of the food choices, stress management, and yoga. These three things seem to have worked synergistically to improve my health.
I share this story because some of you reading may be dealing with some form of chronic disease like I have. Like me, you may not have even thought that there was a way to reverse the situation.
Although I’m not suggesting that anyone come off of their meds with this story, I am strongly encouraging you to do your research and take control of food, stress, and movement.
I’m also sharing this today because last week I watched Dr. Rangan Chattarjee’s TEDx presentation on chronic disease. He makes similar claims and is able to back these up with clinical experience. The take away is that we can make basic changes to the way we live that can have long lasting effects on our physical and mental health!
Take a look. It’s 18 minutes.
Lastly, Maribel and I are here to help. Don’t hesitate to reach out.