Keep a Healthy Weight so your Heart will be Healthy until you are 100 Years old

Mrs. Whynot was born in Boston of second-generation immigrants from Ireland. Her parents were very poor when they first came to Boston, Massachusetts. She did not finish high school because she had to work to help her parents at Dedham Farm. She got married at the age of 17 and settled in Westwood. Being of Irish descent, she loves her tea, which helps her stay alert and not feel hungry all the time because tea stabilizes the blood sugar. That is one of the reasons you can drink tea and thereby not eat food for many hours. This fact might have helped the Irish people to survive during extreme food deprivation in those hard times.

Mrs. Whynot had 8 children and loved eating sweets with her tea, such that, by age 40, her 5’2” frame weighed 170 pounds. She developed high blood pressure that fluctuated greatly and suffered from different kinds of allergies at the time. After taking blood pressure medications for many years, when she was close to 60, she suffered from very bad stomach problems and struggled with an acid reflex as do many menopausal women. She could hardly eat anything and lost more than 80 pounds. This weight loss stabilized her blood pressure and helped her allergies disappear so that despite her age, she was able to stop her blood pressure medication.

Mrs. Whynot always put sugar and milk powder in her tea, but she never was diagnosed with diabetes. This is because tea helps stabilize her sugar and suppress her craving for too much-processed food. She was never a big eater. Her husband, who drank alcohol moderately died in Newton Wellesley Hospital at the age of 70 because of heart issues. Mrs. Whynot remained living in her own house until she was 90 years old, cooking her own food and cleaning her own house. Her physical activity kept her mind and body quite strong until she was 90 years old. The cold weather in Boston compromised circulation to her brain and joints, and she started having joint pain, forcing less moving around and she fell many times. Eventually, her children decided to move her to an independent living facility in Newton.

With the reduced blood flow to her brain and 5 teaspoons of sugar in her tea, her memory started going down. Even at the age of 90, she did not take any medications and was still able to walk by herself. Once she moved to the independent living place, she stopped cooking and cleaning, her memory decline accelerated and her muscles atrophied because there was no need for her to continue physical work while living in the independent living facility. She was also afraid that she would fall if she walked by herself. With a lack of physical activities, her memory and muscles deteriorated faster, and she died of heart failure at the age of 98. Perhaps if she had eaten fewer sweets when she was younger and moved to Florida, she could have walked more and kept her good circulation to her heart and brain.

I think her quality of life would have been superior in Florida than remaining and suffering in the Boston cold for the 6 winter months, especially when she only weighed 90lbs.