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Medical question #2. Ovarian cysts. Part2
Polycystic ovarian syndrome is a little bit different animal actually. Here is some genetic predisposition. Classically: an overweight young female presents with oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea, anovulation, acne, hirsutism, and or infertility. ...
Oral Chelation – What Can It Do For You? (Part 2)
Intravenous chelation therapy was more popular than oral chelation initially. It involved the injection of EDTA (ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid) that is an effective and widely studied chelating agent. But gradually, oral chelation scored over...
Side Effects of The Ephedra Product - Dangerous or Not?
Ephedra has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. However, in the last decade, ephedra products have been thrust into the media spotlight given to high profile lawsuits, the FDA all encompassing ban, and the recent ban...
The Importance of Physical Activity
Regular activity, fitness and exercise, are critical for the health and well being of people of all ages. Research shows that everyone , young or old can benefit from regular exercise, either vigourous or moderate. Even very old adults can...
The Miraculous Claims of the Zone Diet
One way of recognizing a fad diet is said to be the promise of multiple miraculous effects upon health. And Zone diet promises a lot.
"Why is the Zone diet so controversial?"
"Beats me!"
Extract from an interview with Dr. Barry Sears,...
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My Big Fat Miracle - Physician Steps On The Scales And Takes A Swing At Weight Loss
After a long day of seeing patients at the community health clinic, Dr. Nick Yphantides liked to reward himself by driving through his favorite fast-food joint, In-N-Out Burger, and ordering a “4 by 4,” large fries, and a Coke.
The “4 by 4”—four hamburgers and four slices of American cheese stacked in a hamburger bun with all the sauce and trimmings, plus the deep-fried fries and 16-ounce Coke—contained 1,400 calories and 100 grams of fat, but that didn’t bother Dr. Nick a twit. In his mind, the drive-thru forays were just a snack, something to eat before dinner.
He was hungry—and fat. Dr. Nick had been gaining mounds of weight ever since medical school, when he fortified his late-night study sessions with Ding-Dongs and heaping bowls of Rocky Road ice cream. During interminable forty-hour shifts as an intern, he kept up his energy by raiding the hospital canteen, where someone had set out a plate of sweets to be shared by the attending staff.
When he entered the public health arena as a family physician, he could be best described as “corpulent.” He couldn’t tell you how much he weighed, though, because he had stopped weighing himself. His expanding girth actually turned into an occupational blessing: his patients viewed Nick as a larger-than-life advocate for the poor, the big man with a big heart who cared for his community in a big way.
Overweight patients loved Dr. Nick because they knew they would receive tea and sympathy from someone who also shopped at Mr. Big and Tall. From a doctor’s perspective, he was always gracious with people who struggled with their weight. More than a few times, he looked a heavyset woman or fat fellow in the eye and said with a smile, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Shortly after he turned 30 years of age, however, Dr. Nick began experiencing declining health and a host of unusual symptoms that led him to a doctor’s examination room. A week later, he learned the bad news: he had testicular cancer.
The surgical excision of the right testes and aggressive radiation over 12 weeks saved his life—and caused some soul-searching. The way Nick saw it, he had dodged the cancer bullet, but there was another round in the chamber: his gargantuan weight had to be causing incredible amounts of stress on his organs—heart, lung and liver, as well as his skeletal frame. He wondered how much stress he was putting on his knees, which were bearing such a severe load.
One day, Nick stood on two scales—one for each foot. Each needle came to rest on “233 1/2.” A fourth-grader could do the math: Dr. Nick Yphantides, the jolly doc with the Santa Claus-like image, weighed in at a hefty 467 pounds. Nick was scared. His cancer had forced him to face his mortality, and now he was sure that each bite of an In-N-Out 4x4 brought him one swallow closer to the grave.
Something needed to be done. Nick was tired of dressing in XXXXL T-shirts and tent-sized gym pants, tired of booking uncrowded red-eye flights so that he wouldn’t have to buy a second seat, tired of gawkers staring at his monstrous midsection in restaurants. Ahead of him was a future filled with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and debilitating diabetes—unless he made a radical lifestyle change and lost a ton of weight. Well, maybe not a ton, but 200 pounds would be a good start, he figured.
In April 2000, Nick gave a one-year notice that he would be stepping down and leaving the Escondido Community Health Center. Then he began formulating a game plan. Since he wasn’t going to work, he needed something to do—a diversion to keep his mind off being so hungry. That’s it! Nick loved baseball (or was it those ballpark franks?), so he decided to drive around the country and visit all 30 major league ballparks and watch baseball games. He calculated that he had been consuming 5,600 calories a day to maintain his weight. To lose weight slowly but surely, he would embark on a liquid fast—drinking a protein supplement offering just 800 calories a day.
On April 1, 2001, Nick sailed off in a used RV—a vehicle he christened the USS Spirit of Reduction—with the intention of becoming half the man he used to be. His father rode shotgun. Going cold turkey from food gave Nick the shakes, just like any junkie coming down off a high. “I was so hungry that I would have eaten a cigarette butt dipped in mustard,” he said.
Two cities known for their gastronomical delights were particularly painful to visit: Kansas City, for its butter-fried steaks; and New Orleans, for its Cajun-style fish and shrimp. At times the only thing that kept him going, he said, was knowing that hundreds of people back home had pledged varying amounts of money for every pound he lost—money that would go to the Escondido Community Healthy Center and the California Center for the Arts. That unique accountability contributed toward
helping Nick accomplish the goal he set out for.
At first, the pounds melted off Dr. Nick like a snowman standing in the Sahara desert—seventeen pounds in the first week. After that initial surge of encouragement, his weight loss went from a gusher to a steady drip-drip as he continued to drink protein shakes flavored with diet root beers and diet Orange Crush soft drinks. In Seattle on July 2, he had his weekly weigh-in under a doctor’s supervision. That day, he learned that he had lost 103 pounds in three months, or an average of 1.1 pounds per day.
While that was a lot of weight, it didn’t feel like much to him. When he looked in a mirror, he couldn’t even detect a difference in his appearance. He was still wearing the same “Dr. Nick” T-shirts that he wore Opening Day at Dodger Stadium. He had to admit they were a bit looser, but all he saw in the mirror was the same old mound of human flesh. Nick fell into a funk.
On July 4, he found himself in Sitka, Alaska, where he had planned a daylong fishing trip with his brother John and two friends. He woke up at 4:30 a.m. feeling sorry for himself. He resented skinny people. Why were they thin and he was fat? What had he done to deserve his fate? Why did he feel such despair?
With a dark cloud following him, Nick and his brothers boarded a fishing boat at dawn to fish for salmon and halibut. After catching their limits of salmon inside the bay, the boat motored into deeper waters to catch the really big fish—Alaskan halibut. Leaving the safety of the bay, Nick thought that day, was a metaphor for what he was going through with his weight-loss odyssey. His weight had become such a monumental dilemma in his life that he had to leave the comfort of the bay and drive toward deep, choppy waters to seek the big catch of a healthy existence.
No one caught a big one until late in the afternoon, when . . . Nick had a strike! His rod bounced off the railing, but he held on tight. He yanked with all his strength and cranked the reel as fast as he could. For the next forty-five minutes, he kept dipping the rod and reeling, dipping and reeling.
Finally, the captain gaffed the monster halibut and helped Nick pull it onto the boat. Nick, his last reserves of energy spent, leaned against the rail, wowed by the excitement of catching a fish that size.
The captain weighed the fish, which was nearly as tall as Nick—59 inches. “It’s 103 pounds,” he announced. Nick was stunned. “What did you say?” “One hundred and three pounds.”
The weight of that Alaskan halibut—103 pounds—exactly matched the weight Dr. Nick had lost since April 1. Everything came together for him at that moment because something unspeakable had occurred. To Nick, it was a confirmation that he was on the right track, that he was right where he needed to be in his weight-loss journey.
As pictures were snapped, he felt the same sense of awe that he felt when he stood in front of Michelangelo’s David and the Sistine Chapel on a trip to Italy. He couldn’t even articulate what was going through his mind, but it was a jumble of bewilderment, love, confirmation and validation. He knew he had been lifted from the depths of despair. This experience became the deciding moment of his trip, but more than that, the defining moment of his life.
When Nick returned home in time for Thanksgiving, his mother was shocked by his appearance. Some of his nieces and nephews didn’t even recognize him. Nick, now weighing 269 pounds, had shed nearly 200 pounds. He ate his first solid food in nearly eight months on Thanksgiving Day: some vegetables and a baked potato.
He continued to lose weight as he returned to solid food and his medical practice. Nick reached his low-water mark the following summer, when he weighed a svelte 197. The end of his long weight-loss trip was just a beginning, Nick learned. Now he would have to work at keeping the pounds off.
Today, Nick weighs 220 pounds, and he has remained steady at that weight for three years. Everywhere he goes to tell his story, people clamor for advice how they can lose weight as well. In response, Dr. Nick wrote a book and tells his story in detail and has developed seven bedrock principles to help others enjoy the same success.
About the Author: Dr. Nick is an advocate for those in his community who need it the most. In 2001, he temporarily retired from his medical practice to address his own personal health needs. He drove across America and become less then half the man he used to be. His book 'My Big Fat Greek Diet' was released in Sept 2004. Learn more at http://www.HealthSteward.com
Source: www.isnare.com
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American Diabetes Association Home Page |
Their mission is to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by this disease. Available in English and Spanish. |
www.diabetes.org |
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Diabetes Information - American Diabetes Association |
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Diabetes UK home page - Diabetes UK |
Diabetes UK is the largest organisation in the UK working for people with diabetes, funding research, campaigning and helping people live with the ... |
www.diabetes.org.uk |
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Canadian Diabetes Association |
To promote the health of Canadians through diabetes research, education, service, and advocacy. |
www.diabetes.ca |
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Diabetes information including treating type 2 diabetes at ... |
Offers dietary recommendations, including recipes and tips on managing blood sugar levels. From GlaxoSmithKline. |
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Diabetes |
Web site for Diabetes. ... publishes Diabetes. Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press ® assists in the publication of Diabetes Online ... |
diabetes.diabetesjournals.org |
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CDC Diabetes Public Health Resource |
The diabetes information homepage of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provided by the CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation. |
www.cdc.gov |
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CDC - Health Topic: Diabetes |
Diabetes · Diabetes and Research Diagnostics · Diabetes Surveillance Report · FAQ's on Diabetes · Physical Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon ... |
www.cdc.gov |
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National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse |
Provides educational materials to increase knowledge and understanding about diabetes among patients, health care professionals, and the general public. |
diabetes.niddk.nih.gov |
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Diabetes mellitus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
For diabetes mellitus in pets, see diabetes in cats and dogs. ... Type 1 diabetes mellitus - formerly known as insulin-dependent diabetes (IDDM), ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
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MedlinePlus: Diabetes |
(National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) - Links to PDF ... Select services and providers for Diabetes in your area. ... |
www.nlm.nih.gov |
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MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: Diabetes |
Diabetes affects about 18 million Americans. There are many risk factors for ... These levels are considered to be risk factors for type 2 diabetes and its ... |
www.nlm.nih.gov |
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Diabetes |
What to expect from your diabetes diagnosis? Get up-to-the-minute information about medications, insulin, blood sugar management, nutrition requirements, ... |
diabetes.about.com |
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WebMD Diabetes Health Center - Information on Type 1 and Type 2 ... |
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www.webmd.com |
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WebMD Health - 404 Error |
Allergies|Anxiety Disorders|Arthritis|Asthma|Back Pain|Bipolar Disorder|Cancer|Children's Health|Cholesterol|Depression| Diabetes|Diet & Nutrition|Erectile ... |
www.webmd.com |
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Diabetes Overview |
Defines diabetes, including the various types and treatments. Provides information on the impact and cost of the disease, its increasing prevalence, ... |
www.niddk.nih.gov |
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Diabetes News - The New York Times |
A free collection of articles about diabetes published in The New York Times. |
topics.nytimes.com |
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children with DIABETES Online Community |
An online community for kids, families, and adults with diabetes, featuring message boards, chat rooms, and questions/answers from medical professionals. |
www.childrenwithdiabetes.com |
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International Diabetes Institute - Diabetes Research, Education ... |
The International Diabetes Institute is the leading national and international centre for diabetes research, diabetes education and diabetes care. |
www.diabetes.com.au |
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Diabetes New Zealand |
Educates and informs people about diabetes, its treatment, prevention, and cure of diabetes. |
www.diabetes.org.nz |
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