I'll Never Forget That Day...
The doctor cleared his throat.
"I'm sorry, but I have bad news."
He paused, then looked at my father.
"You have cancer."
In high school, my dad was a star athlete, an All-American football player.
Now he was sick. Very sick.
He struggled to breathe and was put on oxygen.
For the next eight years, a machine kept him alive, day and night.
He could no longer work.
Even walking to the bathroom became a struggle.
Eventually, he couldn't climb the stairs.
He slept on the couch in the den.
Later, the couch was replaced by a hospital bed.
A hospice nurse was there now too.
One afternoon, my mom was in the kitchen when she heard him gasping for air.
She ran in and saw him staring at the ceiling.
"Breathe, Paul! Breathe!"
But it was too late.
That evening, the phone rang.
"I guess you know why I'm calling," my mom said.
"Why?" I replied, though I already knew the answer.
"Your father has passed away."
"I Don't Want To End Up Like That"
After watching my dad suffer for eight years, I said to myself, "I don't want to end up like that."
So I continued learning about health and nutrition.
What I found shocked me.
Seven out of ten people will die from heart disease, cancer or stroke.
You might be one of them.
Will you beat the odds?
Can You Afford to Be Sick?
Here's something most people don't realize.
Half of all U.S. bankruptcies come from medical bills.
According to a study published in Health Affairs, the people most affected were middle-class, well-educated homeowners with health insurance.
"Our study is frightening," said Dr. David Himmelstein of Harvard Medical School. "You're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy."
In other words, you better not get sick.
Protect Your Health
Mickey Mantle, the Hall of Fame center fielder for the New York Yankees, once said, "If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."
We don't know how long we'll live, but we can do something about the quality of those years.
The decisions you make today can shape how you feel, move, and live tomorrow.
But what if we could rethink aging itself?
I have a good friend named Janice Gravely. By all rights, she should be pushing up daisies.
By the time she was 75 years old, Mrs. Gravely had several diseases that often come with old age.
In fact, her health was so bad, her family thought about getting a full-time nurse.
Then one day a friend educated her about health and nutrition.
Gradually, she turned her health around - and never did get that nurse.
Janice Gravely is a graduate of UCLA and an international speaker. She is the author of the book, "Won't Somebody Help Me!", a biography of how she miraculously crash landed, after her husband died at the controls of their airplane - one she did not know how to fly. Her story was heard on Paul Harvey and published in Reader's Digest, Guideposts, and numerous other publications.
On December 20, 2020, Janice Gravely peacefully passed away in her home.
In 1991, through a routine eye exam, my wife discovered she was nearsighted. She had to wear glasses to drive a car, go to a movie or watch a ball game.
A few years later, after we were married, Laura started taking BarleyLife and JustCarrots.
When she took off her glasses, to her surprise, she could perfectly see.
It’s been over twenty years now and she still does not need to wear glasses.
Do you believe the way you look and feel the last twenty years of your life, depends on your lifestyle, as well as the nutrition you consume throughout your entire life?
Mickey Mantle, the Hall of Fame center fielder for the New York Yankees, once said, "If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."
Are you going to survive or thrive in your older years?