NOTES ON HEART ATTACK AND PREPARING FOR RETIREMENT BY Adewale Adeoye

1)Ekiti has lost another vibrant young man who had wanted to contest for the post of the Governor. I know him. He gave up without any previous ailment.Heart attack was suspected. Many are dying daily.  Heart attack is a silent and LOUD killer. The signs are always there but very few take note. It’s like your car. It gives you warning signals through the dashboard or through the unusual sounds you hear from the car.

2) Everything made by man is a poor imitation of everything already made by God. For instance the car engine is an imitation of the human heart just as man made Aeroplanes from the flying and perching of birds; marines from whales; telephone from astral travels; computers from the brain and memory of mankind.

3) When the car engine is overheated, the gaskets  burn at over 120 temperature which is also the maximum you need for systolic gauge for heart pressure.

4) You are your own best doctor. Believe me. If you have the habit of checking your BP, do it bearing in mind you are your own best doctor. Your can get a wrong BP guage leading to wrong prescriptions from doctors that are in a hurry or impatient; one with faulty machine; one that does not ask you to take a rest for at least 30 minutes before using the machine or one that allows you to talk or have any electronic gadget by your side while checking your BP. When you check your BP, do a triple cross-check.

 5) No single cause of BP. It could be by inheritance, food habit, stress, lack of sleep; lack of enough water; excess beer and red wine,  but most importantly lifestyle is key.

6) The best antidote to high BP are: Learn to walk briskly daily. Don’t JOG. It will affect your joints. My good friends Dr Kenedy Ononaeke and Deji Ososona will tell you that your NO can be controlled through lifestyle. They are among some of the best humanist doctors  I have met.  Dont get hooked to your car. WALK. Take water first thing in the morning and last thing in the night; More water in the morning and little in the night. When you are over 30, avoid too much of starchy food like pounded yam, eba, rice and in short avoid excess carbohydrate. Avoid oily food and fast food. Reduce salt intake. Take  lots of vegetables and eat a lot of fruits. But some fruits like ripe pineapples and ripe pawpaw may harm you because of sugar.  Eat nuts and bitter cola. They say RED WINE is good for the heart, I warn you to be careful. Check the alcohol content. Red wine can be very dangerous and even worst than beer. Totally avoid cow (red meat). Even Fulani who produce cows do not eat them.

7) Never, ever eat late. Take your dinner light and ensure it comes before 6 or latest 6.30. Just plan for it. It is possible.

8) Avoid psychological trauma arising from worries. The solution to worry is to imagine one thing: ONE DAY YOU WILL DIE, SO WHY WORRY ABOUT A PROBLEM THAT HAS NO CHANCE TO CHASE YOU FOR EVER? Push aside situations you cannot control. You may also not know that anger can affect your BP and break down your heart.

8) This may sound ridiculous, but very important. If you happen to receive too many calls and you pick all calls, stress is on its way. Learn to create moments of silence that you will ignore calls and even learn to off your phone when you want to sleep in the night. There is no phone call more important than your being alive. Getting stuck and addicted to  whazzap  and emails are catastrophic. Don’t forget we once lived without them.

9) Reduce your weight. People will mock and deride you, that you are ill, but the lighter you are, the better.

10) Learn to pray and strengthen yourself through fasting which in itself is also healthy. Fasting helps you to do away with toxins. Water fasting is excellent. You fast and take only water. There is no medicine or doctor more important in your own life than YOURSELF. You can wean the BP drugs easily if you change your lifestyle. It also needs a lot of discipline.