So the big job/promotion and huge pay-raise came through at 38…I became a hospital chief nursing officer, with the chance to soon add COO to my title…and add MORE salary, work hours, and STRESS!

 

 

Of course there had been a long buildup to being eligible for such a prize…let’s just say years of hard work, mega-stress and personal sacrifice. To earn the prize with a growing family of five this former athlete ‘had’ fallen victim to a past decade of very long days, fancy lunches/dinners out complete with fine wines and desserts, and let’s just say, a fast-track intense lifestyle…whose family-man home schedule allowed no time for personal exercise work-outs or healthy food/stress management.

 

 

Ridiculously, it seemed becoming 40-45 lbs overweight, and finding myself physically ‘deconditioned’ and chronically stressed out, seemed to happen overnight! At least that’s what I told myself as a couple of my loving employees one day took my blood pressure (~220/125) and then snuck me over to the closest competitor-hospital’s ER (friends decades later to this day - thanks ColleenT and ChrisB for helping me barely avoid a stroke and/or heart attack!

 

 

The short story: The ER Doc was a no-nonsense trusted close friend who immediately controlled my BP and did the $1M ER workup…telling me that I had bad cardiovascular disease and had been the luckiest walking-stroke candidate he ever met.

 

 

And so the brisk walking/jogging and great diet self-imposed rehab was to begin the next day…but chest pain suddenly appeared, and I could barely take 10 slow jog-paced steps before the pain and being out of breath made me stop. The good news was that I had avoided a stroke…the bad news was learning a heart attack could be around the next corner. I realized the journey back to good/great health would be a challenging and long one! But as a former hard-core athlete, ICU staff, and now a CNO nurse-practitioner clinical specialist with a great family, I had top motivation, good support and could research my way through best-practice rehab…which is exactly what I did, once I finally broke through my denial and minimization re: my condition, and accepted some help to completely change my lifestyle (I’m thinking those 3 near death experiences along the way, including a couple of miraculous resuscitations, may have helped…and yes indeed, I literally saw 'that' light).

 

 

Fast-forwarding two decades+, that COO/CNO promotion happened, my family grew to seven, I added on a psychotherapy practice, and had become a clinical scientist focused on the emerging medical/health science of ‘Epigenetics’.

 

Fortunately, I had kept off that 45lbs, reversed my cardiovascular disease (as well as other related illnesses), and returned to my former hard-core athlete shape, thanks to exercise, strength-training, top nutrition, mindfulness and several other fun wellness best-practices! Today, shape-wise I am in the top 1-2% of athletes my age, a far cry from where I thought I would, or could ever be, before literally ‘seeing that white light’.

 

 

I inserted this page to let those I may be blessed to consult with, coach, and educate about our proprietary BBM-PE application of Epigenetics’ longevity, anti-aging, and life-saving medical science, learn one important thing about me: I have personally been there and done that!

 

 

I am a true long-term living example of how, without medications, the ‘Body’ illness of cardiovascular disease can be reversed and sustained over time…such that last summer I routinely jogged in Florida’s 95+ degree heat (not ever recommended for anyone - but to point out how customized epigenetic bio/sci-hacking from a trained/experienced scientist-coach can deliver peak body performance for a once significantly diseased person). And yes, my genetic testing finds I have THE bad gene for cardiovascular disease…well, so much for that! I should mention I did experience one major ‘side effect’…that being BBM-PE also produced/sustained neuro-cognitive peak performance!

 

 

My personal Brain/Body/Mind ‘recovery’ served as a key motivation for my team to develop and unveil our first epigenetic BBM-PE prototype at a Mayo Clinic International Brain Injury Summit in front of leading neuro-scientists…and then write a 20 Chapter best-selling book to help improve and save the brains/bodies/minds of youth/teens with sports head injuries…and then chance doing a proof of concept study with Seniors that got our innovation internationally published and recognized by peer brain-scientist world experts (ISSTART).

 

 

As some of you readers may well know, when you are lucky X3 to be alive, then you are lucky enough…and that, is a ‘wake-up call’ message to help others if you can…especially if you have been blessed enough by others to have learned how. In complete 'personal' transparency, let me share that my mother's life was cut short from a combination of Alzheimer's Disease and Vascular Dementia - thus doing the work we do is indeed most personal.

 

 

In closing, I am forever grateful to all those folks who helped me/us along the way with kindly gifts of faith, support, knowledge, and friendship!