Well I went to my doctor for my checkup, I thought I was going to get a talk about watching my weight, excercizing, etc.. just the usual doctor talk. Well, after they checked my vitals, the doctor came in and what he had to say was more than I expected.

Instead of a pat on the back, I got a realistic assesment of where my body was headed, and what I should expect. The years of heart damage is not reversable but manageable, the liver damage still leaves enough function to keep me alive, the nerve damage is something I have to bear, the eye damage can be corrected with glasses, the kidney damage they have machines that will keep me alive. But the pancreas, my doctor said was burning out and would fail, and eventually the complication, or combination (I kind of lost track at that point) would lead to Congestive Heart Failure or some event that would end my existance on earth.

So I am living on 'borrowed time', no one event caused it, just what was passed on to me from my parents and the preceding generations. Yes, I could have ate better, taken better care of my body, avoided some things that werent good for me, but here I am.

But as I thought about it, we all are on 'borrowed time'. Some have a little more, others less, but eventually the time runs out on our bodies and unless you put your life in Gods hands, it really will run out, forever.

We must not let anything hold us back or make us hesitate, but go forward in faith and put our lives in the hands of God, accept Christ, and pray that the Holy Spirit bring us closer to Christ, as our life expectancy sometimes is less than what we think, and the time to decide can end before we expected it to.....

Richard, breaking the laws of health is as much a sin as breaking one of the ten commandments. Health reform is more than a life and death decision - it impacts our eternal destiny. I'm glad the doctor gave you hope. Please take hold of your "borrowed time" and imporve upon it. Make choices that lead to eternal life. Obey His word. Live in harmony with it. Be a good example. The grace of God is sufficient.

Learning the purpose of the Adventist Health message is something a lot of people miss when they read 'dont eat this' and 'dont do that', but its so you can live fully, and have the strength and mind to share and understand truth, fellowship and love God and your fellow man.

Only Gods grace can substain me as the doctors know the medicines can only do so much and eventually the body stops responding to them and they lose any affect. Improving on 'borrowed time' will be the most hardest challenge in my life for me to tackle as it means strictly following a regimen that would test the even the hardiest.

Just try to imagine never again being able to eat or drink anything with flavor, take out sugar, salt, sauces, pizza, soda, and no the sugar substitutes arent much better, so no diet soda, sugar free ice cream, nada nada!. We dont even want to get into white bread, pasta, potatoes, or anything that your body turns quickly into sugar...Never to taste hot chocolate on a cold night, watch as your friends eat cherry pie or pumpkin and you cant have even a sliver, sit at a Thanskgiving Day meal and not be able to enjoy whats on the table...thats a hard lesson to swallow...

A person debating against EGW and the Adventist health message once asked me why God cared about living healthy, and why the Adventist health message mattered as it didnt keep you from being brought closer to Christ and salvation. Well my answer was, how can you hear or be guided by the Spirit when you are in a catatonic state from the affects of your lifestyle....

I'm a Weimar Graduate, and while attending school it was my privilege to meet and visit with people from all over the world whose health was failing to do hereditary factors and lifestyle choices. The doctors at Weimar prescribed a therapuetic diet, which was incredibly lean, until their health began to improve. Then they switched them to a maintainence diet that was far less strictive. I tried both diets and thought both were good. However, having to avoid oil and sugar would become tedious after awhile. God bless, brother, as you deal with these issues. The grace of God is sufficient. Thank you, Jesus.

You will live a longer but possibly poorer life.
If someone came to you and offered you a 100 years more to live from now, but added the condition that you will not be able to enjoy living those years, would you accept? Sounds like it could be a working definition of hell...

Thomas, is money necessary to enjoy life and living? I assume if they are able to actually live an additional 100 years, that it means the basics of life are available (food, water, shelter, warmth, and clothing). So, if these things are available, is it possible to live another 100 years and enjoy it? If not, why not?

I was thinking in terms of making the infamous deal of selling your soul to the devil, in this case for a 100 years of extended life... Entierly metaphorically of course since the devil isn't in life buisness.

The problem as described by Richard wasn't lack of any of the necessities of life you mention above but that the food would be bland (possibly the drink aswell depending on what he is used to drinking). There is no denying that good food is one of the enjoyments of life and if one is deprived of it, surely you would agree that the individuals life is poorer because of that?

Well as a vegetarian that kept me away from fatty meats, and luckily I dont have a sweet tooth so I rarely ate sweets, and eating healthy kept it at bay. The doctors could not find anything on the tests but as you age the body starts to run less efficiently, and working behind a desk you dont get as much excercise as you should. Finally after many years what runs in both sides of my family showed itself sufficiently that it was recognized, and with diet and excersise was brought under control much like Mountain Man describes. But years of damage had its affects and how do you get a way to restore you to perfect and new before the destruction began, not from the doctors, so I will have to wait for the master Physician to heal this body...

Richard, yes, if you are old enough that the 8 natural laws of health are not enough to stay back the inevitable, and if the modern medicines are not enough to restore your health to youthfulness - then you've got what you've got. And you seem to have a great attitude about it. God is good.

Thomas, I agree with you if food never tasted good life would be poorer.