Perpetual Novembers; Spring Eternal in my Mind; Late-Summer Labyrinths: Power struggles and conflicts of interests... back to the isolation chamber

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Power struggles and conflicts of interests... back to the isolation chamber

Look, the Effient is for preventing a medical emergency with the stent... it is to prevent coagulation in the stent... The statins are for decreasing cholesterol production by the Liver... If Magnesium functions in the same way, yet decreases other medical risks, why not take the Magnesium? Afterall, 80% of Americans have a deficiency in Magnesium at the same time as an incredible increase in the related chronic diseases "of affluence"... But, who has a deficiency of Statins? It seems to me if "they" had their way, they would convince the U.S. government that, in order to prevent heart disease, children should be placed on Statins. Afterall, the plaque build up and the poor diet habits begin in childhood... I don't believe that "he" ate a hamburger or KFC and suddenly created a medical emergency. However, deficiencies and toxic build-up along with plaque build up (not due to cholesterol but to LPa, VLDL, Calcium and oxidized LDL, the lack of sufficient HDL (or the right type of HDL) for transporting oxidized LDL and excess of LDL back to the Liver to be converted into bile...) gradually cause medical emergencies...

Like statins, I've read about Metaformin... But, I can't say that I paid a ton of attention to Metaformin. Contraversial drug treatments for diabetes don't interest me... What interests me is preventing, controlling or curing diabetes by removing what exacerbates it... You wouldn't be at odds with me if I told you how I think Bruce should "treat" his diabetes... But, you would be at odds with me if I had told you to tell Aunt Annabel to ignore the idea of going on chemotherapy... or what I'm saying about my not wanting to take Statins since I can take magnesium, hawthorn extract, pomegranate juice, cacao, turmeric and a whole bunch of other things for improving the health of my coronary arteries...

I just had my blood tested for Homocysteine which is supposedly the greatest marker for arteriosclerosis... You can check that claim. We'll see what "they" tell me on Friday. On the 2nd I receive the results of my Electrophoresis of Lipids. I do not know if I'll be able to interpret it... and the cardiologist will be extremely offended if I send him it...

This is not about waging war. In fact, the tension is pretty damn discouraging for me... It is about creating "peace of mind"... This is how I learned to take care of myself. I know you feel it unfair that I rehash all of your wrong doings... It's not about that. I lived a life. And that life was lived in a certain form... partially due to how I as a little boy responded to the situation... greatly due to how others responded to that situation. You weren't there with us and Uncle Stan. In ways I wasn't there either since it was Seth's statement that made me realize that what I remembered happening to Beth (projection due to dissociation) had actually happened to me. And, yes, I wonder how I was as that 4-year-old child that so greatly got on Uncle Stan's nerves, so much so to warrant his wrath and violence within the circumstances... I also wonder about how much pressure I put upon you with my needs and how you lost your patience under such circumstances... However there were many things said and done and ignored that shouldn't have been...

In the end, I learned to live alone and to only believe in myself... You would say that I was let down by many people... But, there comes a time when you realize that you canNOT risk being let down by others... you cannot risk the laziness or irresponsibility of others... Doctors can be horribly irresponsible and lazy. Yes lazy... to read the updated studies... years after having graduated from Medical School with their specialty... Not enough time for reading the new journals... the line of appointments... every time a patient takes up too much time with their questions and concerns... and now there are patients waiting in the lobby for 45 minutes after their appointment scheduled...

A year ago "they" debunked 60 years of Ansel Keys influenced public policy relating to saturated fats and cholesterol... Decades of the FDA ignoring science and directly or indirectly protecting the billion dollar vegetable oil industry and the trillion dollar cholesterol lowering pharmaceutical industry. This came out in the NYTimes... in February... And then Sweden changed its dietary guidelines regarding saturated fat, cholesterol and refined carbs... and said that they highly doubted, even with the science backing them (the scientists) up, that the U.S. would change its guidelines... Why is this important? Because most countries health departments follow the U.S. lead, even if they are incorrect.

In England it is prohibited to combine Beta Blockers with another drug because of the high risk of causing diabetes. That prohibition does not exist in the U.S. And that's why I ask, "Aproved by Whom?" It may not be so important that statins are the only treatment approved by the FDA, just as chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery are the only treatments approved by the FDA for cancer... Does that make them correct?

Read Gary Taubes "Good Calories;Bad Calories"... He touches on a ton of contraversy between certain research institutes and the FDA... How certain scientific research was blatantly ignored since the 70s only to resurface ironically as a slap in the face in February 2014. The book was published well before 60 years of bad science, bad medicine and bad policy was turned on its head and published in the New York Times...

I wasn't reading this for prevention of an imminent heart attack. I was reading this for understanding how to truly eat healthfully, increase my energy, decrease my inflamation and finally decrease my size and weight... Nothing to do with statins or metaformin...

Truthfully, I don't believe I'm an idiot. But, I've been so isolated for so long, especially in my youth... Sheri was so good at isolating me... that it is difficult for me to be socially acceptable and accept so easily as do you... I guess you've gotta try and understand the monster you made or leave him alone.

Well, that is how I generally see myself when telling people about the affects of... refined carbs, sodas, wheat products, energy drinks, proton pump inhibitors (for relieving one of the affects of their poor dietary habits)... metaformin so that Bruce can continue eating what he wishes... Isn't that the same with Statins? Put the junk in my mouth... the statins will remove it from my blood or liver... The
Gastroenterologist who referred me to the Cardiologist prescribed me a proton pump inhibitor (Omeprazol that seems to be being dumped in Mexico; even Costco had a sale on it). And I told him, "You've gotta be kidding! I don't have esophagitis or a hiatal hernia and studies
on FAP/Gardners patients with Helicobacter Pilori in their stomachs have a very high risk of developing cancer of the stomach if they take a Proton Pump Inhibitor..." That's why I'm the monster. But, tell me, Who is the idiot? Where the hell do I get my information from?

And yes, I will probably die well before you would consider it my time... maybe in the next year (24% of survivors of AMIs die in the first year after their first heart attack...). But, I refuse to be anyone's idiot or pawn.

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Unfinished "Self-Portrait at 33"

Something I've dreamed of painting since just after my ultimate surgery in 2001. I post this now since I don't know if I will have the chance to work on it before going back on the road on Sunday... The problem is I've been sick for the past 5 days, painting this for the past week, a few hours per day. Whatever the sickness is, it isn't anything I've known and seemingly changes every day. In order to guarrantee my being well anough for the intense work for the following month, I may have to leave this hanging until I return at the end of August...

"La Sonrisa de Amarillo" (Amarillo's smile).

"La Sonrisa de Amarillo" (Amarillo's smile). José and Nicolas were commenting that I should sell the shirt I use for painting, since it is covered with paint. And then José said, "better yet, I'll give you one of my shirts to paint..." It was a joke. But I took it seriously. He has shirt he bought 4 years ago in Zacatecas with a copy of a painting of a bull in a bull fight. However, the print was erased from the shirt years ago. So, I decided to use the space that had the bull. "Amarillo" (Yellow) was the dog at my in-laws ranch when Margarita and I met. Due to a bad fight, he was left with one side of his mouth and one of his ears mangled, which gave him a permanent half snarl with one fang sticking out. He died years ago. But we often mention him...

New House/Studio Guadalajara

Over 20 years ago our friend José "Montaña" bought a parcel of land in the center of Guadalajara. His uncle who was a constructor/mason helped José build the brick house that has 6 bedrooms. Not long afterward, José entered into his older brother's Indian crafts importation business and decided to sell the crafts in fairs around Mexico. His brothers were one of the first people in Mexico City to enter into the Krishna movement that gave them certain perks. While José became vegetarian 4 years ago, sells the Indian furniture and crafts etc, has a giant shrine to Ganesh in his house and hosts the Mahareshi at least two times a year, José doesn't consider himself a Krishna. For at least 15 years José experienced extreme success in the fairs and was able to send his children to private English Language schools (his oldest son went to University in Texas and Married there),was able to visit with his children the U.S. and India and even bought the "castillo" (castle---an insider joke) next door. For years he used it as a store house and for a shop where Mary had workers fabricating crafts and Mexican/asian Indian style clothing. Then, about 4 years ago, Mexico entered into the international economic crises and José began losing money in the fairs. (I, on the other hand, have managed the situation and the coffee business well enough to be able to improve our economy over the past 2+ years, although this year we lost half our fairs (my decision not to enter into suddenly horribly violent zones where the people are fleeing and have fair to go out to the streets.) Out of desperation, José put the house he built on the market and moved his family into the "castillo"; his children were not happy. The "castillo" was built in the 19th century and has very high ceilings and wonderful giant windows and a terrace surrounding the second story kitchen. After a year on the market, One of José's Asian Indian suppliers bought the house and decided to put it on the market. A year ago, dreaming of having an artist studio/house in the center of Guadalajara with it's majestic tree-lined streets, I asked José to contact the Indian suppliers to see if they would sell the "guest house". José replied that he couldn't locate the Indians' representative in Guadalajara. And that ended that fantasy. However, a year later, upon returning to Guadalajara, Margarita called Mary who asked Margarita if we were in need of a house. We had just rented a house for 3 months (a house infested with cockaroaches). However, I had to see the house. The moment we set foot in the empty guest house without kitchen, bathroom, closets, I was hit with the return of the dream I left behind when we left Guadalajara last November. This time I could see all the projects we would begin over the next 10 years. So, we decided to rent the house and hoped that the 32 day fair in Guadalajara would be good for us; and it was. So, now we are "building" the kitchen, we bought a new refrigerator, are having a stainless steel restaurant sink fabricated for us, are looking for good furniture, looking into nice tiling and thinking about the future one more time.

"Hummingbird Goddess of the Mountain"/"Diosa Colibrí de la Montaña"

Crucified Pregnant Woman

(Unfinished Painting November/December 2010). This was the last painting I worked on before putting aside the painting and drawing for 6 months. I don't have any artist training. I haven't ever taken a painting or a drawing class. I don't know anything about anatomy and I have NEVER seen naked pregnant woman, let alone a naked pregnant woman on a cross. That created a hell of a headache working on perspective and shadowing... How does a head hang with the arms spread outwards to the side? My dilemma. After the fair of Tepic, I asked my friend José "Montaña" to take it with him to Guadalajara. Truthfully, it created so much stress that I really didn't want to see it. The problem is that we don't have a house of our own. I don't have a studio for storing my work and supplies...

Stream of Consciousness Drawing "Your Turned Back/The Cold Shoulder" July 11, 2011

In La Isla de Mexcaltitan, Nayarit

The story goes that the group of Mexica indians had a dream one night of the great city of Tenochtitlan they would construct 200 years later in the Valley of Mexico, now known as Mexico City that later on became known as the Aztec Empire. The dream was had on the Island of Mexcaltitan, Nayarit. Upon leaving his "home" on the edge of the river Antigua in Veracruz, Cortez journeyed to the center of what is now known as the Republic of Mexico and conquered the Aztecs, with the help of the Totonoco indians of the region known as Veracruz. Cortez destroy the Grand Tenochtitlan, probably the largest pre-hispanic city in the Americas and constructed churches and cathedrals where the ancient temples and pyramids had been...

Pico de Orizaba in the Morning

I took this photo during our Sunday morning walk. We found a wonderful route that circles Margarita's parents' house; great for a jogging route. When I've run in Mexico, Margarita was my running partner. Back in 2005, when we were running in the Lakes, there were many times when Margarita ran faster than I ran. But, I always passed her on the hills... The wonderful thing about this route is that it passes through the woods, coffee plantations and sugar cane fields; a lot of hills as you can see... So, we've decided that, if we have a strong finish of 2011, we'll buy land here and build a house.