EXERCISING YOUR IMMUNE: FROM GRUMBLER TO ENTHUSIAST

Mr. Green learned how beneficial walking can be when he flew in from Georgia for evaluation and treatment. He was suffering from heart trouble, weakness, fatigue, depression and general aches and pains. Since it would take about two weeks to give him a very thorough examination and design and implement a program for him, he and his wife checked into the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, a few blocks away from my office.

The first time he came to my office he leaned heavily on his cane, grumbling about having to “walk so far from the parking lot” next door. I examined him and determined that walking would be safe and beneficial. He laughed. “Walk? I can’t walk from my bed to the bathroom!”

I put my foot down, figuratively speaking, and insisted that he walk from my office to the corner and back before he got in his car—a distance of about 50 yards. It took five minutes and a great deal of effort to cover the short distance, but he finally made it.

“I’ll do it again tomorrow,” he grumbled to me as he and his wife got into their rented car and drove off.

I don’t know why he walked to the corner and back again the next day; he seemed to hate making the effort. But he did it, twice. The following day he insisted I join him for a walk around the block during lunch. “I practiced last night,” he said with a grin. As we walked, I noticed he was leaning on his cane only lightly.

Mr. Green became quite enthusiastic about his walking. He wound up staying a full month at the Beverly Wilshire, coming to my office every day so I could monitor his progress and we could walk together. Soon he was taking four walks a day. As he shifted away from the Standard American Diet to one based on Super Foods, and continued to exercise, he began to feel increasingly better.

The Super Foods were very important, of course, but I think that exercise was the most important part of his treatment program; not because exercise is more important than diet, but because he was a businessman who liked to deal with things he could measure, and walking was a measureable and tangible achievement for him. Every day he told me proudly how many blocks he had walked the day before and what the running total was. By the end of the month he was able to walk 20 minutes without stopping, and without his cane. Before he left, he told me that learning that he could walk again had convinced him that he wasn’t a helpless old man.

I hear from Mr. Green occasionally. He now walks briskly for 25 minutes every morning. “Just like the doctor ordered,” he says.