To actually go to a doctor's appointment and NOT have to wait more than 15 minutes in the lobby, more than 10 minutes in the examination room, and talk about the pros and cons of various diets; their strengths, weaknesses, and the anthropological sense they make, RATHER than "you gotta do this, Mr. Ashley, and that; take this, take that..." Instead, he says as he shakes my hand before leaving, "Always a pleasure, Eric, you're doing great!"

My high blood pressure is normal, WITHOUT medication, why? Because of my diet. Imagine that! It's actually true! Blood pressure CAN be controlled with diet alone. And imagine also, diabetes CAN be controlled with diet alone! [I'm not taking the meds everyday, but rather 1 day on, 2 days off (though I didn't tell the Doc that!)]

All my personal research is bearing fruit in terms of my personal successes. And I'm even losing weight. For the second visit in a row, the Doc has seen my weight drop in significant numbers... in spite of medication that inhibits weight loss!

All this simply goes to show, with Doctor Johnson voicing his own agreement, that modern medicine, in America, focuses too much of managing symptoms rather than addressing the underlying cause of symptoms. One thing he said stands out: As an student in med-school and in residency, young doctors soon discover that in adults disease is overwhelmingly something they have done to themselves through lifestyle, whereas in children it is predominately because of something they contracted from someone or something else.

The healthiest peoples tend to be those whose diets more closely resemble that of pre-industrialized societies. The closer to natural one consumes his food, the better the overall health of the body. Modern medicine is very good in terms of surgical techniques and procedures, but it's crippled by its inability to recognize the importance of diet in the health of patients.

Too many people blindly eat whatever the manufacturers put on the store shelves. With all the chemicals and additives in America's food supply it's no wonder we are such a sick nation; what with deadly excitotoxins, hormones, and chemicals added to the food supply to make it look better, taste better, and last longer. And it's no wonder-- to me, at least --that the net result is a populace that DOESN'T look better, doesn't FEEL better, nor LAST longer. The only reason life-expectancy is greater today than it once was is our ability to manipulate body chemistry through "creative" chemistries, primarily, and our advancements in medical technology. But QUALITY of life is actually worse than it once was, when you factor diet related illnesses such as Alzheimer's and Diabetes.

I've said it before, and I'm saying it again: YOU are ultimately responsible for your own health. YOU! Not your doctor, not your HMO, not your federal government. Want to drive healthcare costs down? Begin an aggressive reeducation of children in the hows and whys of good, natural, nutrition. All these fast food joints going to non-transfat frying, like KFC and McDonalds, do not address the problem at all. It's simply not enough. We should, as a nation, conduct a ruthless Pogrom on chemical additives, steroids, and hormones in the production of ALL foods. Food was certainly meant to taste good, but something is seriously wrong when what is IN the food addicts the consumer TO the food. Food it its natural state is hardly addictive. Our food was simply not meant to taste so good that we gorge on it, after all when was the last time you heard of anyone gorging themselves on a bag of apples because they just couldn't stop until the bag was empty? I've NEVER heard that one. But I HAVE heard of the guy who once ate an entire box of Cap'n Crunch in one sitting, with milk!

That guy was me.

I hate going to doctors, but today actually surprised me. Energized me, in fact. I feel good, because I know I'm on the right track, and I'm eating some pretty darn good stuff. But let me be clear on something. An admission, if you will: I DO on occasion eat at the bad places. In today's America it's virtually impossible not to, especially working two jobs. Three, if you count the time and effort I put into exercise and hygiene.

The best thing about today's visit? I can wait three months before returning for another! And that has NEVER happened since the diabetes... never so long between visits. Which can only mean, I am doing a lot of things right.

Have a good day everyone. I am.