My last post talks about extensive bloodwork I received that showcased I was on the path to disease and I wanted to do everything I could to change that without relying on pills. I was on a mission to achieve optimal levels of bloodwork targets such as cholesterol, c-reactive protein (inflammation) and c-peptide (insulin resistance).

On May 7, 2020, I purchased How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger on Audible and listened to it any chance I got. Below is an intro to How Not to Die from nutritionfacts.org:

‘The vast majority of premature deaths can be prevented through simple changes in diet and lifestyle. In How Not to Die, Dr. Michael Greger, the internationally-recognized lecturer, physician, and founder of NutritionFacts.org, examines the fifteen top causes of death in America—heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson’s, high blood pressure, and more—and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can sometimes trump prescription pills and other pharmaceutical and surgical approaches, freeing us to live healthier lives.‘

While listening to the mounting evidence in this book, I learnt that genes are not my destiny. Neither of my parents made it to the age of 50 and I always worried I was destined for the same early death. If genes are not my destiny and I can stack the cards in my favour and have a chance at living a healthful life, I’m all for it! This news was super empowering for me to hear. It took me out of victim mode to empowerment and I wanted to start hedging my bets to ensure a long, healthy, disease free life. While I know that a whole plant food diet, isn’t a magic wand, it is certainly the best evidence based approach we currently have that is easily available to all right now. With my family history and bloodwork results from 2019, I was willing to make the lifestyle changes suggested and go all in to see what might be true for me & what benefits I might receive from eating plants.

Here’s a bit of family history:

• My mother passed away from Breast Cancer at 47 or 48 years of age (it’s been so long since she’s been gone, I can’t remember her exact age).
• My father passed away at the age of 49, likely from a heart event. He passed away the evening of St. Patrick’s Day and never woke up. Since the event wasn’t suspicious, no autopsy was performed. Knowing that often the first sign of a heart attack IS the heart attack and many do not survive their first episode, my money would be on some heart related event as to his cause of death.
• My Opa lived a long, healthy life, but did eventually succumb to a heart attack. He had angina for at least a decade before passing which did prevent him from participating in more strenuous activities. For instance, he purchased a bike at around 80 years of age (cute), but quickly gave it to my brother, stating that the bike was too much for his heart to handle.
• My dad’s cousin, who was raised with him like a brother had a heart attack at age 52 and was found alone in his garage a day or so after he passed.
• My Oma passed away from liver cancer at the age of 72 and T. Colin Campbell has research specifically on liver cancer how it can be turned on and off simply by eating whole plant foods and eliminating animal foods.
• My Opa’s sister lived for many years with dementia before ultimately passing, but her quality of life was never the same with that disease. Her husband passed away from alzheimers years prior and these are very devastating diseases to live with for everyone.
• Both of my mom’s parents are deceased and had Alzheimer’s disease.

Below are some of the lifestyle related issues, I personally experienced as a result of my old lifestyle.

Gout

I was in my thirties when I woke up one morning with severe pain around the joints of my wrist and hand. The joints were swollen and extremely painful. I called it the claw hand, as I couldn’t bend my fingers. I had zero strength and it felt like an impossible feat to even pick up my car keys. It was so painful, I was scared and was in tears.

At first, I thought I slept funny on my hand and did everything I could to ‘wake up’ my hand, but eventually went to the doctor where I was prescribed pills to help with the inflammation and sent to the lab for bloodwork to confirm it was gout, which it was. My uric acid levels were through the roof. I hardly drank alcohol, so understood my high fat diet was the cause. 

Hay Fever (seasonal allergies) & Cat Allergies

I have been allergic to pollen and cats as long as I remember. Since giving up dairy, my allergies cleared up. It’s such a miracle to get to breathe in the summer! Having hay fever is sort of like having a cold in the summer – itchy, watery eyes, sneeze attacks and a runny nose. The symptoms were the same with my cat allergy.  I usually avoided cats when visiting a friends house. Over the counter medication never seemed to work on me and always made me drowsy.  It’s been so much fun getting to know the cats in my family and friends’ lives.  It seems that everyone I know legit has THE BEST cat!

Fatty Liver

Something in my bloodwork in my twenties caused my doctor to send me for an ultrasound where it was confirmed I had a fatty liver.  My doctor at that time didn’t give me much advice except to ‘google it’ and ‘eat more veggies.’  I did google it and found Google’s answers to be both alarming and overwhelming so I turtled and did nothing and kept eating as per usual. I’m pleased to report that today my fatty liver is all clear!

High Cholesterol & Triglycerides

I have struggled with high cholesterol for many years.  My extensive bloodwork didn’t reveal anything new to me necessarily, but the alarming way in which the information was presented had my attention and that is my high cholesterol levels indicated I could be at high risk for a heart event in the future.

 Hypothyroidism

My thyroid is the only thing that hasn’t fully resolved with a whole plant food diet.  My medication has been reduced, which is wonderful, but I would sure love to ditch the meds.  I chatted with a doctor about it who indicated that since I have been on the medication for so long (almost two decades), I might not be able to get off of it.  That won’t stop me from aspiring to get off the medication though!

Alzheimer’s Gene

After my mom passed away from breast cancer, I did genetic testing to see if I carried the gene for breast cancer.  I discovered I did not have that gene, but did have the Alzheimer’s gene.  Darn. You win some, you lose some.  I understand having the gene doesn’t mean I will get it, just like NOT having the gene doesn’t mean you won’t get it.   My only hope is I started my new lifestyle early enough to either avoid a diagnosis or at least prolong one. It a huge fear of mine to end up with Alzheimer’s and forget I’m vegan or be in a home where vegan food isn’t served.

Gallstone

I have one gallstone and understand this is usually made up of cholesterol. Gosh darn it. I also understand losing weight too quickly could trigger an attack. Luckily, I’ve been on the slowest weight loss journey in history and I seem to be symptom free as I have only had one attack. Unfortunately, if the gallstone becomes a chronic irritation, I will need to get my gallbladder removed as they will not be able to simply remove the gallstone. There are unseen and long term consequences to consuming cholesterol we do not need to consume.

Migraines

Once I gave up dairy, I stopped having migraines. Migraines are not a simple headache. For me, migraines meant violently throwing up for hours and requiring a dark, quiet room. When I first started at Pizza Hut was ironically when my migraines also started. The first one I got was the during the first year I started working at Pizza Hut. I thought I was dying and went to the hospital, but there was nothing they were able to do at that time and I never received any advice from any doctor that there could be a connection between dairy consumption and my migraines, nor did they give me any advice whatsoever on the connection between the food I was consuming and the symptoms I was experiencing.

Just before giving up pizza, I had an extensive rash all over my face and chest and neck. I ate a ton of pizza those first six weeks of covid. I had never experienced a skin rash like this before so I can’t say for sure what it was, but after giving up pizza (which was the majority of my dairy consumption), the skin rash cleared up.

I’m sure I am forgetting some of my own history, but everything about my old lifestyle was screaming I was on the path to disease. The issues I experienced are not genetics as I have been able to clear up everything except my hypothyroidism with a whole plant food vegan diet.

Patricia is my very curious friend who has been fascinated with my journey from non vegan, to plant based to vegan. Patricia has sensed my passion for this lifestyle from the beginning and always asks the best questions. One day, she asked me to explain, WHY I had made the switch to a whole plant food lifestyle and below was my answer to her at that time.

Have you seen the movie Erin Brockovich? It’s based on a true story where Erin discovers a cover-up by PG&E involving contaminated water which was causing devastating illnesses in the community. There’s a scene where Erin is at a community member’s house and Erin is describing the water contamination to Donna, a mother of one of the impacted families. As Donna begins to understand what Erin is saying, Donna glances over at her children who are playing in the pool. In a panic, Donna hollers at her children to get out of the pool!! That’s how I felt after reading How Not to Die. Once I knew the foods I was eating multiple times a day were causing my own illness and the diseases of my family who had passed away, I had to change. Just like Donna couldn’t knowingly allow her children to swim in a contaminated pool that was making them sick, I couldn’t keep eating the foods that were making me sick.

Like Donna, I felt like shouting at everyone to get out of the pool!!! To stop shoving toxic foods into our bodies. I understood the foods I was eating were poisoning me. I was tired of losing people in my life and wanted everyone to save themselves and get out of the toxic pool.

Peace, love & plants,

Michelle 🙂

p.s. If you read all the way to the end, THANK YOU. I am so grateful to you for being here.