Tuesday, December 11, 2012

(posted by Ernest Hemingway (new alias))

Look out Monica - that freight train bearing down on us is Christmas!!

It is hard to believe that it has been nearly 3 weeks since my last post.

As you might expect, we have been quite busy since November 21, 2012. Here is a bit of a summary:

1.   Monica regularly combs through the Georgia Straight looking for events, concerts, talks etc. that we might be interested in attending. With a certain amount of synergy, she found a talk on Diet and Cancer being  given at an integrative medical practice on West 16th called "ConnectHealth". We went to this talk on November 27th.

The speaker was Dr. Gerald Crystal, a professor from the UBC faculty of medicine and a cancer researcher at the Terry Fox Cancer Centre (name might be wrong). He was a fantastic speaker and did a great job of trying to explain some complicated cell biochemistry etc. He started out by clearly stating that his experiments have only been with mice and that he can't say that he would get the same results in humans.

In his experiments he fed one group of mice a typical North American diet. The second group was fed a diet with only 15% carbohydrates. He then injects both groups with a quick-growing tumour. It is interesting that the low-carbohydrate group had a markedly higher length of survival. He hypothesizes that a low-carbohydrate diet is the best diet for staving off cancer or slowing tumour growth. He explained the scientific rationale but I am unable to regurgitate it.

Monica and I were quite excited by the talk and have definitely decided to eat a low-carbohydrate diet even if we are unable to maintain a restricted ketogenic diet . (Dr. Crystal could not comment on the Ketogenic diet because he structured his experiments in such a way that a high fat diet was not tested.).

I would recommend attending any talk by Dr. Crystal if you have an opportunity (you can google him for more information).

2. Monica had another physio session on November 29th. She was taught some more exercises to try.

3.December 6 was another physio session. More practice with the exercises and teaching me how to help her.

4. December 7th we had an hour and a half session with the nutritionist from InspireHealth. She was not familiar with the ketogenic diet. However, she went through our eating plans with us quite thoroughly and gave us some suggestions for diet etc. She also gave us some good advice about things to watch for when you are experimenting with your diet to ensure that you are not causing any problems. Primarily she wants us to eat whole, healthy foods and to avoid extreme supplements etc. The impression which I got was that we will be relatively safe as long as we get enough nutrients through eating good food.

We will meet with the Dr. at  InspireHealth next week and I plan on confirming this advice and ensuring that the supplements and vitamins which Monica is taking are in order.

Othewise, the current plan is for us to get Monica on a restricted ketogenic diet in the next couple of weeks while I eat a low-carb diet.  We have been eating low-carb for the past couple of weeks and are starting to get the hang of it. So far, it has been quite easy to follow. Monica has a great ability to use self-discipline so I think that she will be able to do it.

5. December 8- We hosted the SBMC annual Xmas reception. I had a busy day of cleaning and decoratin etc. Monica (God Bless Her!) did a lot of work too.

6.  December 9 - We went with my late sister's family (16 people)  to a Xmas play put on by the Vagabond Players in New Westminster. Everyone then came back to our house (which was conveniently cleaned the day before) for a lasgana supper (Monica and I had salad and shrimp). The play was quite good and Monica and I enjoyed seeing Del's family all together.

7.December 10, 2012 - This was our 29th wedding anniversary. Monica (God Bless Her Again!) cooked a nice pork tenderloin for supper and we went to Oma's where we had a real nice visit.