A good question and one that readers’ might well be asking themselves of me. So enough of the peripheral stuff for the moment and let’s get into the nitty-gritty of my progress and general wellbeing.

My darling wife, Dorothy, is on the go constantly, preparing tasty, vegan style healthy foods, fruit and vegetable juices and tapping me on the shoulder every time it looks like I am being tardy with my tablet taking or water consumption. Almost daily she is visiting health food shops and talking to natural health people, seeking the latest advice or product. Her positive, loving attitude is paramount to my success and I make no bones about that. Left to my own devices I don’t think I would have had the fortitude, nor the desire, to even bother fighting. As previously mentioned, I am a realist, but in my more vulnerable moments, I am also tending towards fatalism. I can even understand how so many people, given the cancer verdict by their doctor, will submit themselves to the inevitability of events, going home simply to await the grim reaper’s visit.

I can honestly say that since starting on my campaign to beat this affliction of mine I have never felt better. Well, not for a year or two anyhow. My energy levels are way up, as is my stamina. I am feeling very positive about all of this and life itself is a breeze. Even my urine, in terms of flow pressure and consistency, has improved markedly. Regularity is now more than satisfactory and controlled by the quantity of liquids consumed, which of course, is eight plus glasses per day. By keeping my intake to a minimum during the late evening I have no need for pit stops overnight. However, taking less liquid then does tend to dehydrate me by 4 am but a class or two of water quickly sorts that out and I have no need of a toilet visit until I awaken around 7am.

My next visit to my urologist is on the 15th August, when I will have another blood test and PSA reading. My guess is that that will be when I get the first indication as to whether or not my holistic health project is having any success at all. Mind you, by then I will have only been fully engaged on my regimen for about eight weeks so the outcome will be by no means conclusive. My reading of holistic therapies material puts the required time before any positive results appear to be six months, with perhaps some early indicators, at three months, or so.

My high blood pressure is a bit of a concern, as it has been for the past twelve months or so. My doctor put me on Karvea 300mg tablets to control it but after a couple of months I started on my present natural remedies and decided to take myself off them. As to the cause of the high readings, well, that’s anyone’s guess and I’ll give some more thoughts on this later. But I did do a small analysis and came to the conclusion that a probable cause was environmental, as apposed to medical per se. Let me explain.

On the understanding that this problem would have to be carefully watched, particularly with my change of diet and with all the vitamin supplements I was taking, I recently purchased an automatic blood pressure monitor (OMRON 1A2 Model @ $125.99).

I subsequently took readings daily over a period of time, both on and off the Karvea tablets, whilst at home in Queensland and then, on a 10 day visit to Sydney.

I found that my average reading over each 10 day period was:

a) At home, off the tablets, Systolic 148 Diastolic 89
b) At home, on the tablets, Systolic 143. Diastolic 87
c) In Sydney, off the tablets, Systolic 140 Diastolic 85

Now I would call that an interesting analysis, wouldn’t you? It seems that the Karvea 300mg tablets did help to reduce my blood pressure whilst I was taking them but a few days away from home, in Sydney, dropped my pressure even further – and without those tablets.

Yet another interesting fact is that my pressure is usually lower after a 2km walk, which incidentally, I do at least once a day, than it is after a long sleep. Does that mean I am more relaxed walking than sleeping?

Mind you, a pleasant walk along the sea front opposite my home is enough to relax even the most stressed out person. The view stretches out across Moreton Bay, featuring the remarkable Glass House Mountains, a series of steep-sided volcanic plugs which dominate the landscape of the Sunshine Coast hinterland. They are formed of rhyolite and trachtyte, lavas which hardened inside the vents of tertiary volcanoes that have been greatly reduced by about 25 million years of erosion. They were named by the first European to see the mountains, Captain James Cook, on 17 May 1770.

The bird life too is really superb, with a good number of migratory species giving an ever changing mix of sea birds and coastal birds; Oystercatcher, Heron, Frigatebird, Cormorants, Egret, Tern, Snipe and many, many more, as well as our more familiar land based species; Parrots, Galahs, Cockatoos, Corella, Butcher birds, Wagtails, Honey Eaters, Magpies and Swifts, not forgetting our local scavenger, the Ibis.

Oftentimes, the cacophony of bird chatter is so shrill that I have to remove my hearing aid because of the high frequencies emitted by the bird calls. Wonderful stuff.>

Dorothy reckons that I spend far too much time at the computer and I must adhere to her wisdom – she is usually correct in these things. Looks like I’m going to have to change my daily habits. Admittedly, once I am at the computer I do tend to get well and truly engrossed in what I am doing, whatever it is at the time, and the hours simply fly by. I think my main problem is that with my inquisitive mind being what it is, equally obsessive; I get absorbed with technical issues I am neither qualified nor competent to attempt and then exacerbate the problem by refusing to accept defeat. Subsequently, I keep hitting dead ends and get awfully frustrated at being such a dunderhead. A likely source for my hypertension, wouldn’t you think?

The blood pressure figures mentioned above put me in the upper limits of what is unacceptable as you will see by the guidelines below. So I will have to take more note of the cause and affects associated with high pressures, and to more closely monitor my daily situation. Well, you would wouldn’t you?

In Australia, the guidelines appear to be as follows:

Low: Systolic is below 100 Diastolic 50-60,
Normal: is 110 to 135. 60-85
Upper limit is 135 to 160 85-95
High is 160 + 95+

If, on the other hand, the hypertension is somewhat indicative of my general environment it will require a more philosophical approach.

But to start with, I’m inclined to re-visit something I haven’t done for many a year, meditation. I know how valuable this can be in maintaining the overall health of both the body and spirit, so It is now back to the drawing board, as it were, to seek out and start on a suitable programme. The more I think about it, the more I am sure it is what I need most right now.

Besides my Homeopath told me to do it – so whom am I to argue with one so wise.