Mark Virkler's blog

Four days after leaving the hospital from my heart bypass surgery, I met for the first time with a nurse practitioner at the office of my “functional  medicine” MD, Dr. Jose Fernandez who was recommended to me by my chiropractor. She told us to purchase a $30 blood pressure monitor and check my blood pressure morning and evening. I did. You can also  purchase one from Amazon.

I saw it steadily going down, which concerned me. So I called the hospital where the surgery was performed and talked to the head nurse on the floor I was on. She informed me the first of the two numbers given in a blood pressure test is the number to be concerned about and it should not go below 90 (I was still at 92.) The first number (systolic) is your blood pressure when the heart beats and pressure is exerted in the arteries, and the second number (diastolic) is blood pressure between each heartbeat when the heart is at rest and not pumping blood into the arteries.

While in the hospital recovering from bypass surgery, I found the most effective prayers I prayed were those using imagery, where I saw the prayer need already met by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and we were celebrating together in a field. Since I grew up on a dairy farm, I LOVE open grassy fields. We were laughing and having fun!

(Much of the information below is my summary of the book, How God Changes Your Brain by Andrew Newberg M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman. I have added my own reflections to their ideas.)

My first choice is always prayer and nutrition. I believe that if you give your body the right tools to work with, it has been designed by God to heal itself. The right tools include great nutrition. I also believe that, in a crisis situation, pharmaceuticals can be a good stopgap measure.

The information contained in this blog has been drawn from The Great Cholesterol Myth. I highly recommend this book. It is down-to-earth and easy to read.