Yesterday I had the first face-to-face meeting with the doc in four years – we usually communicate by phone. She was impressed with the progress made on the Fast Diet and pleased to hear I intended to stick with it ad infinitum.

This time I couldn’t escape the scales but was well chuffed when she announced that this was the lowest weight recorded for me since 1996. I’m still overweight but no longer obese.

Likewise, BP readings very good at 103 over 63, cholesterol down to 4.8, blood glucose reading normal despite 2 diabetic parents. One BP med was halved to 2.5 mg, the second one, now at 5 mg will follow suit in two or three months if I stay at the same level.

All very positive UNTIL she told me I would probably have to stay on medication FOR LIFE! Can this be true? OK I’m 73, but still in there pitching,remarried only 3 years ago, working freelance, back at uni part time doing a Master’s and pretty good on my feet, and hoping I’ll be around for a while yet. But on bloody pharmaceuticals till my dying day? I sincerely hope not.

Comments welcome.

fast for life, Beavergong and Couscous,

Thank you all for your words of wisdom. My doc is quite young – I’d guess late 30s or early 40s – and always seems on the ball, so I would have thought she might have some idea about the medical benefits of fasting in general and 5:2 in particular. Which is why I find it disappointing that she seems to subscribe to the ageist philosophy, namely “stuff little old ladies (and men) full of pills to keep them out of our hair”, that pervades the NHS in its efforts to keep boxes ticked and arses covered so as not to risk more accusations of negligence.

So I’ll stick to the pills and, of course, to the Fast Diet for a while longer and see how things progress. But for the rest of my life (the pills that, is not the Fast Diet)? I don’t think so!

Hi Vicki,

Nice to get support from Down Under. I agree, it might be an idea to change my doctor but on mature reflection it could be a mistake. Despite my whingeing, she’s probably in the top 15-20% of GPs.
She’s still fairly young but experienced, pleasant and easy to talk to and at least she credits me with being a well-informed human being of reasonable intelligence and doesn’t patronise me or avoid using technical words in case my aged brain can’t take it, nor does she waste precious consultation time lecturing me about not eating stuff I haven’t touched in donkey’s years. Neither does she put everything down to psychological problems and suggest I seek counselling, as did a now-retired female colleague of hers, who, she says, was famous for this, as well as for trying to bully women into taking HRT whether they wanted to or not. I take a LOT of persuading and politely told the old bat to shut up. This same woman nearly fell off her chair when I told her I was still sexually active AT 53, would you believe!!
In short, my present doc could be a hell of a lot worse. I suspect she has to mind her own Ps and Qs which might explain her reluctance let me stop pill-popping – any relapse would look bad for the practice. Plus a new doctor would mean starting all over again. Sure, I might get someone better, but then again I might get some nutter who would make my life a misery.
For now, I’ll hang on in there on a reduced dose of pills and hope that as the effects of Fast Dieting intensify, I’ll eventually win her over.

Hi anssies,

I know you are a health professional and therefore I’m prepared to listen to what you say. My blood pressure has been getting lower and lower over the years, and is now at a very healthy level. It just struck me as interesting that it reduced even further with a lower does of medication. The calcium channel blocker Felodipine was reduced from 10 to 5 several months ago. After my recent visit the doctor has halved the dose of the ACE inhibitor Lisinopril to 2.5 mg. Hopefully the Felodipine with be reduced further to 2.5 mg following another BP test in 6-8 weeks’time. BTW the high potassium figure we spoke of in earlier posts was only a tiny fraction above normal and I can also get that tested again in 6-8 weeks’time.

It’s just that I hate the idea of filling myself with pharmaceuticals for the rest of my life. I’m even more reluctant to continue with statins, albeit only 10 mg which could be a lot worse, when some research suggests they actually do more harm than good. With a cholesterol level of 4.8 I would like to try to control it through dietary means – I happen to like all the foods known to help reduce cholesterol, apart from nuts.