M and M

In medicine we have M and M conferences. Often we'd have preferred that this meant we sat around and ate M and M's, since the subject matter was morbidity (serious illness) and mortality (death) in patients under our or our colleagues' care. The purpose was to understand what went wrong and what we could have done to prevent it.

Much of medical science revolves around the same theme: cause and prevention of death and disease. Eleven years ago, around the time of my 66th birthday, reading and study made it obvious to me that much M and M was due to changeable lifestyle and that modern medical practice paid little heed to this while emphasizing drugs and procedures for patient care. My wife Deb and I changed our own diets since this was by far the major cause of M and M. We had no health problems at the time but felt that we wanted to share this information and couldn't preach what we didn't practice. If you've read many of my prior blogs you know that the dietary change was to cut out or minimize animal products, refined oils, refined carbohydrates and added salt, effectively eliminating most processed foods.

I've recently swapped emails with a high school classmate whose wife has dementia. His observation  that many older people in his retirement community have poor quality of life in their "golden years" led him to muse that perhaps early death was a better option. But what if you can have both low M(ortality) and low M(orbidity)? Several excellent large epidemiological studies make it clear that this is so. Not only do you live longer with good diet but the quality of your last years is much better. It is very reasonable to dread final years with dementia or taking drug after drug for cancer, advanced heart disease, diabetes. Life in a hospital, extended care facility or making regular rounds of doctors' offices is no one's choice for the golden years, but that is the path made very likely by ignoring sound dietary guidelines. Another friend of mine died earlier this year after several miserable years of chasing health from doctor to doctor. A few months before he died he said, "Jack, I sure wished I had taken your advice about diet years ago."