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J. P. Dwyer's avatar

Morning Y’all,

One of the realizations of getting older is one discovers how slap-happy one has been with one’s own health while growing older. Then, sadly, you discover that there are often no do-overs. But unless you deny reality, you can try. Here’s my vegan conversion tale.

In 2015, a cardiologist discovered that I had five serious blockages in my heart. The docs wanted to begin bypass surgery the next day. I wanted some time to think about having my chest cut open and my heart plumbing rerouted. So, I read - a lot. I won’t bore you with what I read and who, but I postponed the bypass surgery for a long time, and in November 2015 following our last turkey dinner, I became a full fledged vegan. My wife committed to doing the same thing. Without her commitment and partnership, life together would have been close to impossible.

This conversion meant saying goodbye to meats, all fish products including our lovely Cedar Key oysters, crabs, and mullet. Gone were eggs, butter, milk, and all dairy products including cheeses and for my cardiac survival, all cooking oils. Try cooking without any oil for awhile and see what a challenge that can become. My goal was not to add anymore cholesterol to the walls of my vascular plumbing. I had already lost a lot of heart functioning from my ingestion of animal protein, so if I wanted any chance of surviving, I needed to take some drastic measures. No more food with a face.

I postponed interventional cardiac surgery until 2021, and when your non-interventional cardiologist tells you that you’ve done everything you could do to stop the progression of your coronary artery disease, but you were not able to reverse it, and gravely says, “Jeff, I can make you comfortable with the time you have left, or we can arrange for quintuple cardiac by-pass surgery.” For me, that was an easy decision. They cracked open my chest at the Shapiro Cardiac Care Hospital at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, and twelve days later, I walked out of intensive care unit under my own power with my heart restored to normal functioning. But, I was still and I remain today a confirmed vegan. There is no point of return. I only eat plants based products.

Do I miss Stilton cheese, steak tartar, duck confit, a rare rib-eye, an omelette, a grilled cheese sandwich, fried oysters and mullet, fried clams, wonderful butter rich desert pies and cakes? Of course, I do? I’d be more of a bullshitter if I didn’t admit this. But strangely the cravings for animal protein went away in a few months much like I’m told the craving for tobacco and alcohol can if you have the will power to not use those products. It is much easier when you know that not to stop will kill you. That fact focuses your decision making quickly.

We became more interested in the welfare of animals bred to be killed and eaten. We became advocates against factory farming and farm animal welfare. We began donating money to the groups trying to reduce factory farming and supporting those groups’ efforts to stop killing animals in order to eat them. We didn’t join PETA because I dislike their incessant fund raising. They become pests even if their cause is righteous. I read recipes and pass them along to my wife. She’ll say, “Hey, didn’t you see the butter, eggs and oil in that recipe?” I have to admit that I didn’t read the recipe closely.

Is it harder socializing with friends and attending their dinner parties? Yes. Often, we’re the skunks at the dinner party. So, we host more than attending dinners as guests if we want to see our friends. Have we converted many friends into become vegans? A few. We gave away probably a hundred copies of Dr. Michael Greger’s book, HOW NOT TO DIE as our way of supporting his efforts when a friend tells us about needing to take statins.

Nothing about doing the difficult things for yourself and the environment is easy. If it was, everybody would do it without question. There isn’t any money to be made by Big Potato, but a lot of money is made by the meat, dairy, poultry and fishing industry and their lobbyists. Capitalism infects everything. It has infected the medical industry. Democracy isn’t easy to maintain, and capitalism is a product of democracy that requires oversight. But that is another subject for another day.

Thus ends today’s rant. Try a plant based diet and give your vascular system a rest.

Jeff

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J. P. Dwyer's avatar

Oh, as a by the way, if anyone has any doubts, we recommend getting a CT calcium scan of your heart. That is where you start. A CT calcium scan is not usually covered by health insurance, but it should not cost more than $150-$200 out-of-pocket. If anyplace wants you to pay more than that, look someplace else. Elizabeth had a calcium scan, and she had moderate calcium build-up. She paid $200 at Brigham & Women’s hospital in Boston. If the results of the calcium scan are reduced flows and possibly moderate to severe blockages, then it’s time for an more invasive investigation. This is the best advice that our cardiologist ever gave us. This is a test that should be done before you are placed on a statin drug. We both take a statin to minimize our cholesterol build-up on our vascular walls.

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