Archive for the ‘medicine’ Category

Diet Update: Entering Phase 2

Posted: November 23, 2025 by datechguy in medicine, personal
Tags: ,
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I thought you might be interested in an update on the status of my diet:

There are two critical updates the first is the round of blood tests that the Doctor ordered after three months of it being in place: These tests were all drawn 2 1/2 weeks ago.

Test Progress

  • My A1C is out of the Diabetic range and now in the pre-diabetic range
  • My glucose is down but still not in the “normal” zone but I’ve moved half the distance to the goal
  • Bun is now in normal range lowest in 10 years
  • My total cholesterol is now only a single point above normal the lowest since they started checking 12 years ago
  • Triglycerides are now deep into normal better than half of before
  • Non HDL cholesterol down 15 points still over normal but the lowest ever measured in me

The big news is the A1C If I can drop it by half as much as I’ve already had I’ll actually be in the full “normal” range and given the history of heart attacks in my family the HDL number is a big deal.

These are all good signs. My next set of tests are scheduled for February, we’ll see where we are there.

Diet progress

At my last post I was at 280 on the nose. At my doctor’s appointment on the day of the tests I was at 273.4 Today I have broken the 270 barrier and am at 269.6. I’m at 63.2% of my goal under 20 lbs away (250).

This means my diet is now entering phase 2 which is what I call the adaptive phase.

Phase one was very strict. Here are the details again:

  • No fast food: McDonalds, Wendy’s Burger king OUT
  • No bread (I get two slices when I go out for breakfast that’s it) no Subs
  • No sausage (I had one piece a week ago) 1st since Aug 8th
  • No chocolate bars (had one since the 8th)
  • No candy, cake etc basically no deserts
  • No Ice Cream (I’ve had two servings since Aug 8th)
  • No potatoes (two servings since Aug 8th)
  • Salads with a meal whenever possible simple oil/vinegar dressings only
  • Soups when possible
  • Soda only if a restaurant has iffy water
  • Lots of peppers, onions & garlic
  • No Pasta (UPDATE forgot to include this in the list)
  • No snacks (chips , Cheetos etc forgot to include this on the original list but it’s been from the start)
  • NO SECOND HELPINGS NO EXCEPTIONS!

You’ll note some of these items are in bold that means they remain the same in phase 2 that is:

  • No fast food: McDonalds, Wendy’s Burger king OUT
  • No Subs (covered by ‘no bread’ but need to clarify here)
  • No Candy cakes, basically no deserts
  • Salads with a meal whenever possible simple oil/vinegar dressings only
  • Soups when possible
  • Soda only if a restaurant has iffy water (always diet)
  • Lots of peppers, onions & garlic
  • No Pasta (UPDATE forgot to include this in the list)
  • No snacks
  • NO SECOND HELPINGS NO EXCEPTIONS!

You’ll note some items are now in italics. That’s because we’re reached this point in under 4 months of the full year I have some flexibility so here is what will change

  • No bread at home, if I’m out and it comes with a meal one slice (Toast if I go out for breakfast)
  • Breakfast sausage once a week max if I cook at home or once a week out
  • One candy bar a week if I want it (think a Cadbury bar eaten over 3 days)
  • Ice cream if I go to Friendly’s (the mini cone trio) a taste of what’s at home a week if wanted
  • If at Friendly’s a burger & fries (no BBQ sauce or bacon) eat about 1/2 of the fries
  • An occasional Market Basket Donut (FAR superior to Dunkin’s) perhaps bi-weekly.

The idea is to slowly reintroduce foods to my diet that were once staples (sausage, burger & fries) and some deserts (ice cream, chocolate bars). This is to teach me to eat them in moderation and not to binge. If this means I get to 259 in January or Feb that’s fine. The idea is to learn moderation in foods I enjoy.

As before there are no “cheat” days but Birthdays, Holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas) are days when none of these restrictions apply.

Once I hit 259 we’ll begin phase 3. The home stretch. When I get there I’ll fill you in on the plan.

You might ask yourself: “Hey DaTechGuy? There are now drugs that will help you lose weight? Why bother with all this dieting?”

I say. The whole point of this exercise is to not have to take medications (pills and shots) to stay alive, not to take a different set of pills and shots.

Plus if you use the diet shots & pills then but don’t change your lifestyle once you stop all the problems return. Much better to do this myself and train myself to be sensible.

Wish me luck.

I haven’t really written about DaDiet on the Blog…

Posted: October 23, 2025 by datechguy in medicine, personal

…but so far it’s going pretty well.

Basically on Aug 4th I did something I hadn’t done in years, got a physical that included blood tests.

The tests didn’t come out very good to say the least and it looked like a lot of drugs and needles heading my way when the only medicine I have every been on was for blood pressure and that has only been for the last year or so.

I saw the results on MyChart and read them to my wife who gave me the bad news before the nurse-practitioner could call me. At that moment I resolved that I would try to take care of the problem myself, no shots, no pills, no cutting out half of my stomach.

I called the nurse-practitioner on the Feast of St. Myron of Crete (August 8th) and told the doctor that I was going to give myself one year from that date to get myself in better shape and if next year on that date my blood tests were still horrible I’d submit to whatever medication she would prescribe but I got myself into this problem so I want to try to get myself out of it.

On Aug 3rd I weighed in at 303.3

As of 15 minutes ago (Oct 23rd 6 am) I’m at 280 on the nose. My goal is 250. I choose 250 because all my old clothes will still fit me at 250 if I go below that weight I have to buy new stuff and nothing becomes more discouraging than losing weight, buying new clothes and then slowing growing to big for them again.

For those interested here is

DaTechguy’s Personal Diet

  • No fast food: McDonalds, Wendy’s Burger king OUT
  • No bread (I get two slices when I go out for breakfast that’s it)
  • No sausage (I had one piece a week ago) 1st since Aug 8th
  • No chocolate bars (had one since the 8th)
  • No candy, cake etc basically no deserts
  • No Ice Cream (I’ve had two servings since Aug 8th)
  • No potatoes (two servings since Aug 8th)
  • Salads with a mean whenever possible simple oil/vinegar dressings only
  • Soups when possible
  • Soda only if a restaurant has iffy water
  • Lots of peppers, onions & garlic
  • No Pasta (UPDATE forgot to include this in the list)
  • NO SECOND HELPINGS NO EXCEPTIONS!

I don’t have “cheat days” but what I do have is a rule that if there is a birthday or a holiday (Christmas, Thanksgiving) all these rules are suspended for the day but I don’t go nuts.

That and I’ve added walking when possible and the elliptical twice a week when It’s not.

I’m on track to hit my goal by Valentines day but I do have till aug 8th so It’s looking good and the NP has scheduled a blood test next month to check on the progress.

Wish me luck

CNN Discovers Pot Can Be Bad For You? Who Knew…except for anybody with a Brain & Memory

Posted: May 31, 2025 by datechguy in culture, medicine

Ben Franklin: Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other.

Many years ago my wife was a school nurse and once in a while I’d visit her at her school, usually when something had to be dropped off, a forgotten lunch or set of keys or occasionally flowers etc.

On the wall of her office were two charts. One was for alcohol and one was for pot. Each one had pointers to parts of the body that it’s use had a bad effect upon and stated those effects.

That chart stuck with me even as during the Obama years the best and brightest decided to push for legalization of pot all over the nation, pushing the myth that it is basically harmless and suggesting that it would be a cash cow for states. What was really amazing to me was the number of connected people who suddenly seemed to find themselves with licenses for the stuff.

What really interesting is that if you do any kind of web search there is no shortage of sites referencing government studies that confirm all of the problems that were still known 20 years ago before the woke crowd successful push on the subject. To quote a government site:

Marijuana use can have negative and long-term effects:

Brain iconBrain health: Marijuana can cause permanent IQ loss of as much as 8 points when people start using it at a young age. These IQ points do not come back, even after quitting marijuana.

Gears iconMental health: Studies link marijuana use to depression, anxiety, suicide planning, and psychotic episodes. It is not known, however, if marijuana use is the cause of these conditions.

Bicycle iconAthletic Performance: Research shows that marijuana affects timing, movement, and coordination, which can harm athletic performance.

Driving signDriving: People who drive under the influence of marijuana can experience dangerous effects: slower reactions, lane weaving, decreased coordination, and difficulty reacting to signals and sounds on the road.

Baby carriage iconBaby’s health and development: Marijuana use during pregnancy may cause fetal growth restriction, premature birth, stillbirth, and problems with brain development, resulting in hyperactivity and poor cognitive function. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other chemicals from marijuana can also be passed from a mother to her baby through breast milk, further impacting a child’s healthy development.

Arrow iconDaily life: Using marijuana can affect performance and how well people do in life. Research shows that people who use marijuana are more likely to have relationship problems, worse educational outcomes, lower career achievement, and reduced life satisfaction.

So when I saw this CNN/Yahoo story at Instapundit I almost laughed out loud:

Healthy people who regularly smoked marijuana or consumed THC-laced edibles showed signs of early cardiovascular disease similar to tobacco smokers, a new small study found.

“To my knowledge, it’s the first study looking at THC’s impact on vascular function in humans,” said senior study author Matthew Springer, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

“We’re looking at a window in the future, showing the early changes that may explain why smoking marijuana has been linked to later heart disease,” Springer said. “It appears the act of smoking and the THC itself both contribute to those changes in different ways.”

This has to be almost as big a shock to them as the news the Joe Biden wasn’t 100%!

Given that we had 12 of the previous 16 years with government by:

  • A corrupt Chicago leftist pol
  • An even more corrupt Washington pol
  • Whoever paid either one

I find the end results of all of this completely unsurprising and emphasizes why the culture war was worth fighting.

But the satisfaction of being right pales before the damage done to our country and the displeasure of being unable to drive through large parts of my city with the smell of Pot all around me.

I’d just as soon have been wrong and have things be OK.

Young Sheldon, George Cooper and the Ivermectin Irony

Posted: May 10, 2024 by datechguy in covid, entertainment, media, medicine
Tags: , , , ,

CBS’ popular series Young Sheldon has been trending on twitter/X last night because the character of George Cooper, Sheldon’s Dad excellently played by Lane Smith was killed off by a heart attack.

It was very realistic in the sense there wasn’t a lot of “drama” involved. No big scene with him, nobody else around, he left for work that morning heading for his job in the knowledge that he had just achieved what has to be the dream of every high school football coach in Texas, being recruited to coach at the college level and just like that he was gone, all of his plans and the plans of his family eliminated in an instant.

All over twitter all kinds of users were in mourning even though it had been established by the parent series “The Big Bang Theory” that Sheldon’s dad died when he was 14. Everyone knew it was coming, although perhaps they figured it was coming next week or they and the fictitious Cooper would get a chance to say goodbye. The series writer Chuck Lorre who has a history of leaving endcards at the end of his shows left this one:

In case you can’t read the print:

Eighteen years ago , when we were writing and producing The Big Bang Theory, it seemed like a good idea to imagine that Sheldon’s childhood was deeply disrupted by the loss of his father. No one could have thought that someday we would regret that decision. That someday is now.

There were a lot of tears on stage when this episode’s last scene was shot. A reminder that we had all fallen in love with a fictional character Which is itself, a reminder to love the characters in our live who are real. To do otherwise is to live with regret

While I agree with the sentiment I found it rather ironic considering this story from a few days ago concerning Chris Cuomo late of CNN, apparently having nasty side effects from the COVID Vaccine and is taking ivermectin daily, the same drug that the administration along with practically the entire media and entertainment industry and CNN insisted was only for horses and urged the public to avoid.

His admissions drew a nasty rebuke from Gino Carano one of the many people tarred as “anti-vaxers” over questioning the shots, an excerpt:

You were a part of one the most powerful news organizations in the world and you bullied and shamed the genuine questions from the public that you were supposed to be offering unbiased news to. Instead, you all called them “anti vaxxers” and “alt right extremists”. Don’t try and change the story now. Show some humility. People weren’t allowed to sit next to their loved ones as they died because of the propaganda you spread! This phase in major news media history will go down as one of the most embarrassing, destructive moments that cost people’s lives and careers, broke up families and destroyed our economy. You don’t look like a hero now, you look arrogant with no idea how deep this goes for the people this destroyed.

What’s even more ironic, news that Astra Zenica has withdrawn its COVID vaccine from the market insisting it has nothing to do with any side effects. Perish the thought!

I bring this up because the grief of the cooper family that so many are commenting on and sharing is the same grief that the families of the 1483 young athletes who had sudden heart attacks and died after receiving the COVID vaccine and of thousands and thousands of others who have “died suddenly” since the push for the vaccine and the push against ivermectin.

Now for the record Mr. Lorre while supporting Joe Biden, did not attack people who didn’t take the vaccine (putting up a single vanity card making a joke about side vaccine side effects) and I can’t find a single entry in his cards containing the word: “ivermectin”

But I DO wonder how many people in mourning over George Cooper online were part of the crowd that pressured people into taking the COVID vaccines, who went after people who recommend ivermectin, who were part of the crowd who tired to cancel Joe Rogan for speaking the truth about this subject?

I wonder how many of them were hiring managers who would not let people work if they didn’t get the vax, I wonder how many of them were people involved in decision making that penalized and ostracized folks in the medical profession who spoke out about the safety of Ivermectin and how many if they were not part of that decision making crowd, merely added their voices online in support of the treatment of any who dared strayed from the orthodoxly of the message pushed every day by the media, the administration and the left?

I wonder if such people have any grief for all those families whose suffering and grief are real and question, even for a tiny moment, if they had any the slightest part in enabling that suffering and reflect on it.

I suspect such number are few but for those who are self aware enough, particularly those who had the power over others and made decisions that cost lives, be aware forgiveness for these acts is a single sacramental confession away.

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