"It Runs In The Family, And I'm Under Stress"
High blood pressure and diabetes "run" in her family. This 29-year old account processor for The AEtna first saw me when she was two months pregnant. Her weight was 176½ pounds and BP 110/60. 11 months later, her weight at 5'4" is 159 pounds" and her BP is 150/100. Her explanation for her blood pressure was "it runs in the family, and I'm under stress." The truth is, that the genetic tendency to develop high blood pressure and diabetes does run in her family, but these diseases occur if, and only if, her family did what was necessary to cause the expression of those tendencies.
This is similar to why blonde and blue-eyed Scandinavians who love to lie in the sun at the beach develop skin cancer. Because their light skin with little sun protecting pigment "runs in the family," their genetic lack of pigment is associated with the development of skin cancer if, and only if, they lay in the sun. So, too, does high blood pressure run in a family if, and only if, members of that family eat or drink in a certain way and/or are overweight.
She didn't like the music, and wanted to blame the stress of her work as well as her family history for her high blood pressure, but the truth is that it is her intake of meat/chicken/salt/gravy/cheese/eggs/butter/margarine/salt pork or ham hocks in her collard greens that are the very causes of the diabetes and high blood pressure which "run" in her family and herself, now.
The message is clear: You and I don't have to eat brown rice-vegetables-beans. We can eat what we like, but then we will get the diseases that we deserve. You must "give" up some things you like in order to "get" freedom from disease, diabetes/high blood pressure/cancer/surgery/etc.
These are not my rules; this is the way the human body is designed. You are free to choose, but you will be paid appropriately for what you have done. This is not criticism or intimidation; it is no more than the truth that we all know.
It is not necessary to be perfect, and in a fashion of speaking like Jesse Jackson, "This is not about perfection, it is about moving in a direction." Less of the bad stuff, more of the good stuff. Do not buy and bring home what you should not eat. Start cooking organic brown rice and beans. Let beans be your "meat" and eat lots of 3-20 minute soft cooked vegetables, boiled or steamed.
H. Robert Silverstein, MD
Hartford, CT