Health Problems – A New Focus for This Blog

By: Scott

Well, I thought I’d try something new with this blog besides the usual family updates, thoughts, ramblings, and the like.

I’ll still make my occasional blog posts but I want to move onto something a little more important to me.

I want to get healthy. I want to help others get healthy.

For a couple of years now, my body has been telling me something that I continually ignored. Until recently, I was able to ignore it without too much problem, but since August, I’ve really felt I needed to start paying attention.

I’ve been to the doctor’s office several times now in this two year period and I was finally told I have acid reflux. Here’s some of the problems I’ve been experiencing:

– Dry cough. For over two years, I’ve had this weird “tickle” in the bottom of my throat that simple would not go away. This tickle gave me the constant urge to cough, cough, and then cough some more. From when I wake up, the more I coughed, the more I felt like coughing. This cough was unproductive and served no real purpose other than to attempt to relieve the “tickle” in my throat.

– Rare, occasional reflux when sleeping. This was very rare for me. Maybe once or twice a year I’d get this nasty acid come up my throat and into my mouth. Worst thing to wake up to, ever.

– A strange bubbling in my chest. Around my lungs, stomach, and anywhere else, at any time in my upper body, I’d feel this weird bubbling feeling.

This month, the problem has progressed to the point where I felt a sense of pending doom. I felt as if something was going to give out and I’d need to go to the emergency room. Scary, but a nice wake up call.

Since I am not a person who enjoys taking medication, I was hesitant to take any pills to resolve my acid reflux symptoms. In June-July, I started on Prilosec OTC as per recommendation from my doctor. After taking two treatments of the medication as per the directions on the box, I’d feel better during initial treatment then the problems would return while still taking the entire treatment. After reading about the side effects and how bad it was for me, I decided to get off it.

Then August happened. My mom had given me some Protonix pills and I finally took one. After breaking down to take one, I knew I had to change something, and soon. I know of others who have been taking Protonix for years and are stuck taking the pill to have any sort of quality life.  I didn’t want this! I don’t want to be medication dependant..ever..

Enter Tammy. She’s been worried about my health recently and jumped online to discover any sort of natural remedy to assist with acid reflux. She did find a very strange natural remedy for acid reflux and I’ve been on this remedy for a week as of tomorrow. I will say, God bless her, the remedy is already working.

After further research about what the remedy actually does, I think I understand what so many others have said all along, the American diet is killing you (me). I’ve switched to a diet the Japanese believe in (why are so many of them overwhelmingly skinny? hmmm).

Before going into my current diet, I want to lay some stats on you:
I’ve been on this diet since 08/11/07. 6 Days as of this post. Here’s the stats:
– My cough frequency has been reduced by at least 80%.
– The bubbling feeling has been reduced by at least 50%.
– My energy levels has drastically improved. Anyone want to play tennis, basketball, etc?
– I can think clearer
– Outdoor chores went from a hassle to *almost* fun.
– I lost 9 pounds.

I haven’t felt this good in a very long time.

As for the remedy, which costs about $4 for a two month supply, I will continue that in a whole new post since this one is getting entirely too long.

After a ton of writing, I have split up this new topic into 9 new blog posts (so far). I will queue them all to post daily. I will also post updates to my health as I go along here. This should be very interesting, to me at least.

Weight Loss Stats on this remedy:
08/11/07 – 275 – The first day of taking this remedy.
08/12/07 – 268.5 (Read ACV and Baking Soda – Side Effects in 2 days)
08/13/07 – 269 – Food looks good again
08/14/07 – 08/1507 – 268 range (lost half pound a day)
08/16/07 – 267 – I started to exercise due to increased energy
08/17/07 – 266

As the days go on, I’ll be sure to post any updates whether I gain or lose weight as well as my health updates. So far, I love this trend! If I can lose 5 pounds a week, how awesome would that be.

Goal weight: 190-210
Or essentially 190 + 20 pounds of muscle.

And just to give everyone an idea, I haven’t been below 260 in 6 years. When I see 250s, I will be insanely happy.