Page 10 - Summer 2019 Journal

change my diet into a healthy one, and I also stopped the medication since it was expensive and it wasn’t helping anymore. I must be honest: I thought a dietary change would only help a little bit, but I had nothing to lose.
First, I tried an almost vegetar- ian diet: the results of avoiding ultra- processed foods, vegetable oils for cooking, industrial salt and the indus- trial chicken I used to eat so regularly were immense and immediate. In only two weeks I was doing things again! I was feeling energetic when I woke up, I would go upstairs with a lot less dif- ficulty, I lost weight and I returned to gardening. Also, many little ailments (by that time I had assumed them to just be normal) started disappearing—only by switching my diet. The only problem was I thought I needed to avoid animal products—since “vegetarianism” had cured me—so I couldn’t eat my favor- ite foods, those I grew up eating, but I couldn’t complain since I was feeling so much better.
It wasn’t until the Weston A. Price Foundation came to my city in Perú that I realized it was not vegetarianism that had cured me but the fact that I had left out all the industrial modern foods (and I had included good dairy, good eggs and coconut oil). Could I feel even bet- ter eating all the nutrient-dense foods they were telling me about? I wanted to try for sure!
I did and it worked! My health has definitely improved even more since including pig trotters and red meat, in- creasing the amount of egg yolks, using lard and having bone broths. Now I’m able to enjoy again the traditional foods of Perú which include lots of shellfish
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and organ meats. I thank the WAPF for showing me how to enjoy food and be well-nourished and healthy at the same time! I now know that being an elderly woman doesn’t have to mean being sick or weak!
Sonia Obando Lima, Perú
COQ10 FOR BLOOD PRESSURE
I was livid but relieved to discover the statement below and then spent twelve hours reading every journal article about it that I could get my eyes on. I’m relieved that though this infor- mation wasn’t, until yesterday, in my purview—at last, I have it. And I will
be reading a lot about it.
Here’s the statement: “CoQ10’s ef-
fectiveness in lowering blood pressure has been known since the 1970s.”
I know a ton about biochemistry, biology, chemistry, human physiology, cell biology, nutrition and pathology, but when it comes to healthful low- side-effects, effective supplements, the waters are highly muddied and very confusing even for one such as me who is always on the active hunt.
Hypertension is dangerous. But putting someone on medication for life with no plan to suss out the source or cause, with no plan to make adjust- ments and lower or get off the med—is not right! Unfortunately, treatment with meds is the paradigm now.
Maybe if the blood pressure meds I’ve been on for the last seven years worked, they might have helped me. But they haven’t. And now I just learned that a supplement could help (which no doctor ever mentioned trying and then titrating up the CoQ10 and down the
meds!)—learning this, I have the op- portunity to take my life in my hands, beanN=1,andtestitout.
This is not the Holy Grail of supplements, but though it is a bit more pricey than some supplements I’ve tried, it fills the other bills I’ve been searching for. Effective, safe, no or nearly no side effects, easily tolerated long-term, mechanistically plausible, population-wide and tolerated well.
Here’s more, from the abstract: “These findings indicate that treat- ment with coenzyme Q10 decreases blood pressure, possibly by decreasing oxidative stress and insulin response in patients with known hypertension re- ceiving conventional antihypertensive drugs.”
Also, in two journal articles from the 1990s, we learn that CoQ10 helps congestive heart failure (CHF). My dad had CHF but no one ever recommended he be on CoQ10 supplements.
I want to believe that our doctors mean well but that they had no knowl- edge of this information. Our for-profit “health care” system is so messed up!
Here’s an abstract: “Effect of hydrosoluble coenzyme Q10 on blood pressures and insulin resistance in hypertensive patients with coronary artery disease.”
From the abstract: “In a ran- domised, double-blind trial among pa- tients receiving antihypertensive medi- cation, the effects of the oral treatment with coenzyme Q10 (60 mg twice daily) were compared for 8 weeks in 30 (coen- zyme Q10: group A) and 29 (B vitamin complex: group B) patients known to have essential hypertension and pre- senting with coronary artery disease
Wise Traditions
SUMMER2019