It’s amazing the technology that we have at our fingertips (literally).
I can remember having a blood test done years ago, and as is the routine my cholesterol levels were included. I reported back to the GP, with her saying, “Your Cholesterol is high, you have to go on to medication to lower your cholesterol.”
Thank goodness I know a bit about how the body reacts and works in different situations. My response to her was “I am currently under a fair bit of stress. Naturally my body will increase the amount of cholesterol in circulation to allow it to function naturally for what I am going through.”
Her response blew me away. Instead of her asking what was happening, she mentioned “That might just be the case, but I am going to give you this script for medication anyway.”
Needless to say, I did not fill the script.
That was over 5 years ago, and my life has been a bit of a roller coaster ride emotionally over the past 5 – 7 years. Around the same time, I upgraded some of my equipment in the practice and invested in a Heart Rate Variability machine known as a Pulse Wave Profiler. It measures (in a nutshell) how well your body adapts to the external environment and how you are coping with day to day life and everything that life throws at you. In other words, how you are coping with stress.
The first time I plugged myself into the machine I looked at the result then redid the test again. I thought that there was something wrong with the machine. I had never seen a result so bad.
Over the months and years, I did it again and again, along with having my bloods done (they are regularly done to monitor medication levels for epilepsy). They all showed similar results. High cholesterol, low HRV. Not good results.
My journey to change these results and in effect my health had begun. I changed my form of exercise and how I exercised; I changed my diet; I meditated; I did a lot of ‘headspace’ work. I would chop and change what I was doing, reassess and then reset my compass. I wanted to improve my health and wellbeing so much. It was my lifestyle and how I was responding to the events happening around me that was creating these negative health related effects.
The change, however does not occur overnight.
Through my journey, I had been told by a second GP to go onto blood pressure medication. With both I had explained what was going on in my life and what I was doing to try and change my lifestyle and hence these blood pressure indicators. I then ran through the physiology of the stress response. On both occasions the only advice from them was medication. To tell you the truth I was more concerned about the HRV results and I knew the long-term effect of these result
s upon my body.
Fast forward to February 2019. It was time to have my medication levels monitored again. My cholesterol has dropped significantly. I thought that I should then redo my HRV. For the first time in 5 years it has jumped up. Not yet where I would like it to be, but it is headed in the correct direction. The way in which my body copes with the external environment and my congruence with what I am doing has had a huge effect.
My wife asked me what has turned it around, and to tell you the truth there is not one thing that I have done but a multitude. I am more at peace within myself, letting things go easier. Controlling what I can control and letting go of what I can not. I have changed my exercise regime completely, and again found solace in the surf. My diet is now wholefoods, nothing processed (apart from chocolate – and I do cheat occasionally) and I feel more aligned with my values in life.
Throughout the whole process though has been my chiropractic care. Helping me to get through the tough times and guiding and rebuilding my body now when it is now able.
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