The soft sofa became a prison. Food, TV, cigarettes and alcohol made up Bob's life, but none of them brought any pleasure. He tried to be cheerful. "I haven't one shred of ego left," Bob said. "I really don't think I'll live much longer. I'm already past the age when my father and brother died." The story of Bob and Theresa Anderson is recorded in the book Take Charge of Your Health. Bob and Theresa enrolled in the Coronary Heart Improvement Programme (Chip). Their story is one of several that would inspire you as you read this simple but profound book. They needed to make some tough lifestyle decisions. They had the conviction that the happy life consisted of smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages, consuming meat and dairy products, salt and an overdose of sugar.
Now Bob knew that he had arthritis. In fact, he quit his job because pains in his back were killing him. He was in a prison and needed a quick rescue mission. Lifestyle changes were urgently required. He was on the brink of giving up. Bob did not know that he had high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. The wife was also speeding to the undertaker. Both of them could be diagnosed as obese. If they were to survive, changes in their diet were required. To achieve the miracle, they needed drastic changes. They needed a positive approach to a new lifestyle and they had to believe that it was possible. The Chip programme provided the motivation for the Andersons. With 24 hours, he boarded the cold-turkey vehicle. They were dying, but they wanted to live. They knew that the future was in their hands. As tough as it appeared, they decided to stop drinking and smoking. They decided not to yield to negative peer pressure. Junk food and caffeine were eliminated from their diet.
But it was just not eliminating certain habits that saved them. They were excited by some life-enhancing and sustaining alternatives. As they rejected the poisons, Operation Resurrection became a reality. Within a few months he developed a passion for cycling. Within a year he had lost 32 pounds. Could you imagine this man who was dying developing a dream of biking 300 miles? Not a mile, not three miles, not 30 miles, but 300 miles. Believe it or not, after three and a half days, he had crossed the Rocky Mountains and arrived in Calgary. He was following the advice contained in the movie The Sound of Music. He was climbing every mountain and following every dream. One year later Bob travelled 3,000 miles across Canada in 60 days to promote health. (Can we organise a similar programme in the Caribbean to promote health?)
As Bob went from city to city, he cited four Chip principles:
1. Eat simple diet of foods as grown.
2. Burn holes into the soles of your shoes, not the tyres of your car.
3. Avoid harmful substances, such as tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, and other drugs.
4. Develop an attitude of gratitude. God didn't waste time making nobodies.
Bob Anderson is now in his 80s, is still active, still excited about life. We have to motivate our youth and parents to be positive, dynamic role models. This would be the most potent weapon against crime and violence. It would be the most potent weapon against promiscuous behaviour. It would be the most potent weapon against abuse. It would be the most potent weapon against the collapse of families. Another story that is recorded in Take Charge of Your Health is the experience of chain smoker Ned Walker. It was Mark Twain who said that the easiest thing to do was to stop tobacco smoking. He claimed that he did it a thousand times. People laugh and get excited as they smoke and drink. Millions blow the toxic smoke in the faces of their friends and family members. But some do not know that this practice is a tragic combination of suicide and murder. They are killing themselves as well as their friends. The impact of second hand smoke has been thoroughly researched and scientifically documented.
Ned Walker claimed he had tried to stop smoking 20 times and failed miserably. He started at 18 and became an addict within three weeks. He claimed that he needed two packs a day to quench the addictive hunger. A substantial portion of the 1.2 billion smokers in the world underestimate the damage that nicotine and the rest of the poisons in the tobacco smoke inflict upon the brain, heart, liver and other organs of the body. Many of these smokers are also drinkers. Alcohol provides no relief. In fact, it compounds the damage. Tobacco and alcohol produce an explosive, nuclear mixture that makes the undertakers smile. And the Hollywood industry is adding insult to injury using the catalyst called deception. According to the Liz Szabo USA Today article captioned "Report: Just one cigarette is bad-every exposure can damage your DNA," the US Surgeon General's new report on tobacco reveals why cigarettes are so addictive. They are designed to "deliver nicotine more quickly and more efficiently than cigarettes did decades ago."
The report goes on to state that "every exposure to tobacco, from occasional smoking or secondhand smoke, can damage DNA in ways that lead to cancer." US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin declares that "tobacco smoke dam- ages almost every organ of the body. In someone with underlying heart disease, one cigarette can cause a heart attack."
Benjamin goes on to identify changes that increase the addictive capacity of cigarettes:
Ammonia added to tobacco, which converts nicotine into a form that gets to the brain faster.
Filter holes that allow people to inhale smoke more deeply into the lungs.
Sugar and moisture enhan-cers to reduce the burning sensation of smoking, making it more pleasant, especially for new cigarette users.
Let us return to the story of Ned Walker. At the health centre, Nurse Larry Green gave him some fantastic life-saving advice. Ned asked Larry when he was supposed to stop the cigarettes. Larry told him, "Right now." Later tests revealed that he had "coronary heart disease with a disabling amount of angina." Six years before, he had quit alcohol, but tobacco appeared to be the insurmountable mountain. By the grace of God, a positive lifestyle including a change of diet, hydrotherapy, a positive environment, exercise and prayer, he has won the battle against the addiction. The news is great: the tobacco/alcohol nuclear mixture can be conquered.