MOSTLY RAW & VEGETARIAN

It's hard to decide if this information should be blogged on my life story or on what I have learned that wasn't in the book. So at the suggestion of one of my Facebook friends, I have decided to create a third blog which will be about my journey and self-education in the nutrition and creation of raw food meals. Fortunately I have decided to go on this journey at a time when Google and Youtube can find a recipe and nutritional information for almost any type of cooked food that one may enjoy. And there are also numerous newsletters and websites and blogs packed with helpful information. My new blog, Toward a Rawer Greener Longer Life, will contain information that I find exploring the net as I proceed down this path. Here goes!!

STITCHES

At the request of one of my patients (who just got four stitches in his eyebrow) and his mother, I will try to document my frequent claim that I have had 100 stitches in my life.

My first stitches that I know of "historically" occurred in my Grandmother Edward's front yard at about the age of 3. I was reportedly playing train and arranged a couple of folding wooden lawn chairs in a row and somehow managed to catch the end of my left middle finger in one of the chairs as it collapsed. Looking at the scar and the lack of importance of plastic surgery in the late 40s, I probably got 2 stitches on my first go.

My next adventure was running in my cousin, Charlene's, cowgirl boots (which were too large for me) in their home in Lansing, Kansas (where my uncle was the assistant warden at the state penitentiary) and slamming into the corner of a wall and knocking my mid-forehead open. As the story goes, it knocked me out and they sewed my back together while I was out. (I'm not sure that I really would have been out that long, but that' the story.) I would estimate that I probably got 4 stitches, since it was on my face.

I had my tonsils removed in Columbus, Ohio at approximately 4 years, presumable 4 stitches total since it was in the days long before electro-cautery.

I returned a year later to Columbus Children's Hospital to have my left inguinal hernia repaired and that would have probably needed at least 6 stitches outside and probably 6 more inside because there was no laparoscopic surgery then and I have a long scar.

Somewhere around 10 or 11 I was taken to the hospital by my pediatrician (who made a house call because my father was out of town and my mother was in bed with the chicken pox) to have my appendix out. Again it is a rather large scar so I would estimate 8 stitches outside and probably 12 inside.

During my senior year highschool in Portales, New Mexico, my brother and I were cruising one sunny day in my '53 Chevy 4-door and saw a cool "chopped" Mercury go by and we took off in pursuit to get a closer look. In Portales and lots of New Mexico towns, the streets are made of a combination of gravel and oil, and in intersections there is often an accumulation of loose gravel.

When we caught up with the Mercury, I started to pass them to get a good look. The mistake I made was that I was passing in an intersection (still a no no) and as I started to pass, the Mercury started to turn left. I swerved to avoid collision and slid in the gravel into a 3 foot concrete retaining wall.

The impact threw my head into the "horn ring" and I cut my chin and rebroke my nose (which had just been repaired the previous year. (My parents were initially worried about my bloody face, but later not too happy about having to have surgery again) From this wound I claim 6 more stitches. And remembering that I had two nasal surgeries, there were probably 30 more stitches involved with them.

My next injury was as a medical student at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. I was helping my wife in her tissue culture lab and trying to get a pestle-like device out of a test tube (mortar) in which she was crushing some kind of tissue and I ran the pestle into my left hand (I guess right-handed people injure left hands more!) and had to go to the emergency floor and get 4 more stitches.

I have another scar on the base of my left palm but cannot remember when in childhood or why, but probably another 3 stitches there. This brings the total to 87 which is closer to 100 than I thought it would be when I actually started counting.

I also have two other wounds, one on my knee and one on the back of my "left" hand where Crisco actually did a better job than sutures could have but I could easily have had 13 more stitches for these two wounds and then my claim would actually be correct which we first children like to be!!

LIFE IS SPINNING A LITTLE FAST

It seems like a year ago blogging was easier - there was more time!

Then came the Swine Panic of 09, then came Vitamin D and then losing a pound per year of age and Raw Food. All these projects have consumed immense amounts of time, but they have added immense amounts of information that I hope with good nutrition will remain retrievable for the last third of my life (that would take me to 99). I recently realized that if I am to see my grandchildren get married (considering the fact that successful young people these days don't seem to reproduce till mid 30s), I have to last that long. So that is my intention!

I am not spending as much time on the influenza these days, but the CDC has just recommended that everyone from 6 months to the grave get a flu shot. And they are recommending that all people over 65 hurry and get it even earlier this year (even though they have good evidence that it really doesn't change the number of older people who get the flu!). So the propaganda continues and can you imagine how much money the vaccine companies will make giving every person in the U.S. over 6 months old a flu shot?

Vitamin D continues to be important news and the number of physicians who are measuring levels in their patients continues to grow.

The important level to attain is somewhere close to 60 to be preventative against "late-onset" illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, etc.

The ability to reach a protective level is related to where you live, how much time you spend outside between 10a.m. and 2p.m. without sunscreen (blocks Vitamin D) and the amount of pigment in your skin by genetic origin.

Even in sunny California, 1/3 of my five year-olds have had insufficient vitamin D levels!

Vitamin D testing is now available on the internet to anyone who wishes to know their level. The Vitamin D Council has made an arrangement with ZRT labs to provide testing for as little as $55 per test (group of 4 price).

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/deficiency/am-i-vitamin-d-deficient.shtml

We can get Vitamin D by sun exposure (without sunscreen) or by supplementation. The amount of Vitamin D in adult and prenatal vitamins is only 400iu, which is enough for a new baby. As Dr. Reinhold Vieth from Toronto says, "Do the math!" And the amount of Vitamin D in our food is very insignificant.

Regarding Raw, I have achieved half my goal of losing a pound per age and am finding that I feel much better, I am discarding clothes by the week and I am delaying getting my new Droid phone until I reach 210 lbs which will be 40 lbs off and almost 2/3 of the way! If anyone would like raw food information, I have tons.