The mentality of people who beat Cirrhosis and other health conditions

After speaking to people with cirrhosis (and their caretakers) for about a year, I am starting to see some patterns between the people who seem to get great results, and the people who get so-so results. Please know that I am not saying every person with a strong mindset is able to beat a life threatening health condition... but I do think your mindset can play a strong part in a person's recovery. 

A few weeks ago I was looking up cures for cancer, and watched some videos with Jason Vale, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I watched this video, below, and found it interesting how he was describing his thoughts after he was diagnosed. While his parents were crying, it was like he didn't even flinch. His first thought was, basically, I'm going to be fine, I just need to figure out how to beat this.

Jason Vale was a champion arm wrestler, who was used to beating many of his opponents. He ranked number four in the WORLD in the lightweight division of professional arm wrestling.

When doctors told him his cancer had a 100% mortality rate, it was almost as if he seemed to look at the cancer as his opponent, that he was going to beat. I actually got goosebumps when I watched this video (below), because it occurred to me that I have that same mentality about things. If I'm going to enter a competition... I want to kick some ass! 

When I was 13, I ran the fastest mile out of all the girls in the 8th grade at my school, at a year end track competition. And it wasn't by accident - I trained for it. I spent a lot of time running up and down a steep hill to improve my lung capacity and strength, and because I did this, I even beat a girl who was a lot taller than me. I have always had a very competitive nature. So when my husband got diagnosed, I thought, how can we kick this thing in the butt???

Ricky's nature

I asked Ricky, who got incredible results in reducing his edema in just 2 1/2 weeks, if he played sports in his youth, and he said yes, but I think the thing that seemed to work for him the most was that he was determined. Ricky has done a lot of research on how to beat Hep C and cirrhosis. He is always looking for new things. When he drank the water, he didn't just half-ass it. He drank the amount that is recommended for people with serious health conditions, which is your body weight in ounces. He is the first person who actually told me they did this. It takes real work to drink your body weight in ounces, but Ricky did it anyway (while so many people just want to sip it and drink it casually, or when they feel like it).

Even though I give people the same instructions (by a doctor who recommends hydrating yourself with your body weight in ounces if you have a serious health condition), a lot of times I see people just drink half their body weight in ounces. I guess I don't totally blame them because to be honest, that's what I do (but I don't have a life-threatening health condition... if I did, I'd probably be drinking even more than my body weight in ounces, I'm so OCD). My husband drinks a little more than half his body weight (though his MELD score was already down to an 8, or possibly even a 6, before he drank the water).  Sometimes I hear people just "drink it when they can." 

Ricky was determined, and took the water very seriously and put the work in, and he managed to get rid of his edema (almost all of it) in record time. If you haven't already seen the pics of his results, you can see them here. True, he was doing other things, but he does believe the water was the most important factor. 

Working smart vs. working hard

I have a very good friend who has more health conditions than anyone I know. She spends more time in hospitals and at doctor's appointments, than anyone I know. While on one hand, she does look into supplements and likes to research things, sometimes when it comes down to it, she just doesn't want to do the thing that really needs to be done... like eating more vegetables instead of starches. Sometimes I think she would rather talk about stuff, than actually get to work.

By the way, I'm not trying to insult my friend because she is very smart, and extremely hard working in a lot of ways, and she does a lot of research on things, and she's shared some health tips with me that made an incredible difference in my life. I just really wish she'd cut straight to the chase and do the thing that would matter the most!

When I first learned about the NutriBullet, I was so excited about it. I invited her over and we sat in my living room and cut up a ton of vegetables, and she kept talking about how much she loooved vegetables, and what a beautiful thing they are, and isn't it great that God gave us all the nutrients and things we need, to be healthy?

And yet... she didn't actually eat the damn veggies. We split them up into two ziploc bags, and I went through all of mine, but she told me she barely touched hers, and then a few days later she was trying to get me to take some of hers so they wouldn't go to waste. We are such good friends, we're almost more like sisters. So instead of being "the polite friend," I was like, eat your own damn vegetables, I'm not going to take yours, you're the one who needs them!

I can't tell you how many times I heard her telling me about how much her health conditions had limited her, and how much it frustrated her... yet, it was clear to me that there was a reason why she was where she was... she wasn't focusing on the things that mattered the most. It was like she'd rather talk about it, than actually do the thing that's hard. I had to actually ask her to please stop talking about her health conditions in front of me, because it was driving me nuts when it was clear to me she wasn't willing to do the things that would make the BIGGEST difference.

Some people interpret "hard work" as "doing lots and lots of the thing you feel comfortable with." I think in my friends' mind, she sees herself as working soo hard, because she's always looking things up online, and she takes a whole bunch of supplements, and always going to doctors.  But in my mind, that's not doing "what's hard." In my mind, doing what's truly hard, is doing the thing you don't want to do, but you know it needs to be done, so you do it anyway... even if it's not fun or it feels slightly uncomfortable. 

When I was in my 20s, I went vegetarian, partly because I was going through a time where I strongly felt I needed to do something disciplined, that was hard, in order to have a better life. I was used to pretty much cruising my way through life, and I felt like I was getting nowhere, and I was sick of it. Somehow I just really felt like the thing that was going to make me feel better, and bring good things into my life, was doing something that was hard... for me.

I knew vegetarianism would be hard for me, and I anticipated it would be hard.... but it changed my life dramatically. My cystic acne cleared up, I could think more clearly, and all the weight I'd been trying to lose for 11 years, just dripped off my body. From then on, I realized there is a big difference between doing the thing that's hard, that takes effort and feels slightly uncomfortable, vs. doing lots and lots and lots of the thing that is way more time consuming, so it feels like you're working a lot harder than you actually are.

When I was trying to lose weight, I expended a lot of energy in the battle of the bulge. And because that crap was mentally exhausting and taking up way too much of my time, I felt like I was working hard. I tried diet pills, I exercised, went running, did situps, leg lifts, drank diet shakes, listened to self hypnosis, did workout videos, read different books... omg I could go on. But now I realized, it was all just a big freekin DISTRACTION. I bought into that bullshit mentality that is force fed to women, to make us feel that we should be thinking about our weight, all the time. To me, doing all that crap wasn't hard. It was in my nature to try lots and lots of new things (new things are always fun). 

It's always easy to add more and more stuff to your life. I am the kind of person who tends to put in a lot of hours of unpaid overtime at a day job. For me, working 60 hours a week is not hard. It's in my nature to work long, marathon hours. What's hard, for me, is leaving on time, which can be just as important, because it keeps you from burning out (I'm kind of the queen of burnout when it comes to working in an office).

This friend of mine, with the health conditions, spends sooo much time going to doctor's visits, and spends sooo much time on the phone, battling with insurance companies, trying to get things covered, because she is always so sick. I am sure she feels like she's putting a lot of effort into staying on top of things and getting better. But in my opinion, she is wasting a lot of time. She would be getting way better results if she'd just work smart, not hard. And my putting pressure on her to do anything when it comes to her health, is not going to help matters. She is the kind of person (like me) who has to feel like she's figured things out on her own. She doesn't like being told what to do, and she doesn't like pressure (who does)? So I just have to keep my lips zipped, when it comes to my opinion on what would work. But it takes every bit of my energy to just SHUT UP, because I so badly just want her to get better!!!

What's hard is doing the thing that's disciplined, and not fun. What's not fun is giving up something you like, and yes, I liked meat. I'm not one of those vegetarians who smells a burger and goes, oh that smells disgusting. I don't know if it's because my blood type is O+ or what, but... I have never lost my cravings for meat. But I absolutely will not buy it because I don't think it's right to eat something you wouldn't have the balls to kill yourself, and the way animals are tortured in factory farms is something I can no longer look past.

Amy's mindset

I asked Amy (who helped her sister get her sister's MELD score down in record time) if she played sports. She said no, but she told me she has an adversarial attitude about a lot of things (I can relate). From what I know about Amy, it's clear: The girl plays to win. She told me that although she didn't do competitive sports, she was always cast as the lead in high school plays, and made the varsity cheerleading squad as a freshman.

She said she finds peoples' psychology very interesting... what makes some people do one thing, while others do another. I am fascinated by that, too (there were classes I didn't do well in, in school, but psychology was always one of my best subjects). She told the story of how, when the World Trade Center was going down, many people were told to stay. Amy said she imagines that if she and her Mom and sister had been in the building, her sister and Mom would have obeyed authority, and stayed, while she would have gotten the hell out of there! I probably would headed for the stairs with Amy!!

I tend not to trust other people with my life. Even when I'm driving, as I enter an intersection, I always look both ways, even if I have the green light, in case some idiot who's texting or drunk or not paying attention, suddenly runs the red. I wouldn't say I'm paranoid. I like to think of myself as cautious. I've heard WAY too many stories of people who died when someone ran a red light going in the opposite direction, and a lot of times, the innocent passengers were killed as well. Wouldn't it have been worth it for the driver to take an extra second, to check and make sure it was safe to enter the intersection? Just because the light says "Go" doesn't mean it's 100% safe! Just like how, if a doctor says "A transplant is your best option" doesn't mean it's true OR safe!

The people who are supposed to be in the know, aren't always in the know

There are sooo many times I find that people really just do not know what they're talking about, even though they try to make you think that they do. If I walk into a store and ask a clerk, "Can you tell me where to find the ___________" (fill in the blank), and the clerk says "We don't have that," I usually go look for it anyway, because about a third of the time, I find it (I only ask them in the hopes they can speed up my search for it).

Few things irritate me more than people who are unable to admit, they just don't frigging know something. If you don't know, just say, you don't know! Nobody's going to think you're an idiot except you (in my opinion, you look like way more of an idiot when you make like you know something you don't, and someone proves you wrong... now you either look like a dummy, a liar, or a lazyass... or all three). Not knowing something just means you haven't taken the time to educate yourself about it... that's all!

As you can imagine, doctors who pull power trips and insist that they have the only answers, do not sit very well with me. But in a way I guess I should thank them, because if it wasn't for two doctors telling me that there was no way to reverse cirrhosis, on the day my husband left the hospital in December 2013, I'm not sure I would have had such a determined, fierce attitude about trying to figure out how to reverse cirrhosis... and then tell as many people as possible!!!

Some people just don't have that "competitive spirit" by nature. I once had a boyfriend, whom I'll call Matt, who just didn't seem to have a competitive bone in his body. Although I am a Democrat, I have always had sort of a Republican mentality of, if you're willing to work really hard, you deserve to make a lot more money than someone who wants a free ride. But Matt was more of a socialist. He felt that the rich shouldn't be so rich, and there should be a lot more benefits for the poor, even if they didn't work as hard. I firmly disagreed with him, and still do to an extent. But after a few years of dating Matt, I started to realize, he really just was not born with a competitive spirit, like I was... and that wasn't a bad thing, and it wasn't his fault. He was the most non-competitive guy I'd ever met. Neither of my sisters are competitive by nature. Lord only knows why I turned out to be so damn competitive.  But I am grateful for it! Since dating Matt, I have become a little more empathetic towards people who just aren't competitive by nature. 

Also, to say that Matt wasn't competitive doesn't mean I'm saying he wasn't smart. He was a very good researcher, actually, and it was largely thanks to him that I learned about how the body really does want to heal itself.  In fact, this blog may not even exist, had it not been for Matt's influence on me. When I met him, I was a firm believer in pharmaceutical drugs, and felt that they were almost always a person's best option. After all, wouldn't it make sense that something that cost a lot of money would be the best thing you could use to treat an ailment? How could it even be possible that something could cost a lot of money, and not be the best? Matt was THE person who turned me around, and got me to see that "natural remedies" can be the most powerful, and I will always be extremely grateful for that.

Matt was very into alternative supplements (maybe part of his socialist nature... we should all have the power to heal ourselves, not just the rich people). Now I feel the same way. He took me to see Dr. Andrew Weil speak, and that was the first time I really started thinking that the body really does want to heal itself. If you haven't had a chance to read the book, "Spontaneous Healing," I highly suggest you check it out, because seeing him speak really did change my life.

So I guess I sort of took Matt's ideas and then applied my own competitive spirit to them : )

Again, I want to thank Amy and Ricky for sharing their stories and testimonials with me. I do think their attitudes and willingness to focus and work hard had a lot to do with their success. A person's mindset and attitude (whether they're the patient or the caretaker) can make a huge difference in how well, and how quickly, they can recover from a health condition. I realize that having a competitive or super-focused nature is not always absolutely necessary, nor am I saying that having this mindset is any kind of guarantee that a person will be able to completely turn their condition around...  but I do firmly believe a strong mindset can help a LOT (as long as it doesn't cause you stress).

I've learned a lot from Amy, Ricky, and Jason Vale, and I hope you might be able to, as well.

Ellie