Retired in 2006 after two decades as home hospice care giver here in Santa Fe NM, married since 1995, vegan since 1999, excellent health, BS 1964 MIT physics and history, MA 1967 Boston University Graduate School psychology, two daughters, 4 grandkids, counterculture lifestyle as mystic, interested in all sciences, active on Net providing mainstream research summaries re mercury and aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity, enhanced images from Hubble Ultra Deep Field, cold fusion research, Holocene comet fragment impacts, modern nonduality -- I always give full contact info.

Age 43 in fall, 1995, living a year in a small mobile home (formaldehyde source), drinking a liter
of aspartame Crystal Light soda monthly -- aspartame is 11% methanol, which the ADH enzyme turns
into formaldehyde right on the cortex, making microlesions -- my neck became very stiff until I couldn't
turn it to the left while driving -- then at 10 PM my right arm became very painfully frozen stuck at the
shoulder joint, pretty much raised above my head -- at 3 AM I got multiple over the counter pain meds
at WalGreens, and early in morning meditated and later had a massage and chiropractic treatment, 
so the arm was freed and its pain released.
 
mom, born 1909, oldest of 10 kids, alcoholic parents -- tobacco addiction, migraines, constipation,
difficult periods, anxiety, double pneumonia, hysterectomy, mild emphysema (so finally quit tobacco),
thin, never used alcohol, needed afternoon naps -- loved reading history -- died at noon in a town spa
outdoor hot tub 76 1986.

dad, born 1912, youngest of 5 kids, alcoholic father, bright married sister alcoholic died of stroke 1964,
single sister librarian depressed died 1978 of cancer and stroke, married farmer brother
died of heart attack,  married sister depressed and obese -- seizure from overwork stress
in 1945 led to lifelong phenylbarbitol, never drank, gave up tobacco about 30 -- shoulder bursitis,
mildly overweight -- chemist, widely read, played Bach on our piano -- died 49 1962
sudden ventricular fibrillation.

Oldest brother, university math teacher, married, 2 kids, chronic depression, taciturn, Asperger's?,
basal cell carcinoma about 1994, mild heart attack about 2000, positive air pressure for sleep apnea,
no alcohol or tobacco, broke arm twice as kid.

Second brother, married, 2 kids, dropped out of VP in banks career at age 38, no contact
with family since 1997, alcohol use -- chronic allergies and sinus problems.

Younger sister normal sociable sunny, loves mothering, married, infertile so adopted 2 kids, then had
her own son (who as teen drank and used drugs and was depressed divorced, remarried well,
taught school -- no tobacco or alcohol, normal weight.

I had a rapid delivery, and was breast fed about 6 months -- mom wrote I was bright, active, and sweet,
while stubborn -- talked in a language of my own until overgrown adenoids and tonsils were removed at
age 5 -- we 3 boys all had measles, whooping cough, and mumps at once in 1945 -- I remember strange
nightmarish dreams from high fever -- usual foods -- while living in a small new house, probably
a strong lead and formaldehyde source, along with new paint, carpet, drapes, and furniture in hot climate.

We all had mercury amalgam dental fillings -- and exposed to mom's pack a day cigarette habit
(another formaldehyde source) -- mom typed with her usual lightning speed a 4-page essay
on her worries about my irritability, lack of sociability, lack of interest in play, clumsiness,
headaches (especially after movies and long reading sessions -- would get pale and weak and feel better
after vomiting -- I recall loving to suck a pack of Neccos, dyed sugar wafers, a potent source of chemicals,
during movies and reading), a few weeks before a bicycle accident concussion knocked me out, vomiting a
few hours later, with two weeks in the hospital, along with a spinal tap X-ray -- missed about two months
of 5th grade.

I loved reading, especially science and science fiction after age 9, and did very well in school without
paying much attention -- had ear yeast infections several times in junior high school. 
I had sunburns many times.

I couldn't play instruments in the first grade, and was switched from trumpet to tenor saxophone in 1954 --
I had no feel for playing instruments.

Acne was a constant problem from 1956 on -- in summer, 1960 I worked in the heat scrapping lead paint 
on metal walls at the refinery, before taking a bus to MIT.   Excessive study was drudgery, with acute time
and competitive pressure.  Headaches were monthly. I was very poorly coordinated at sports like ice
skating or fencing, but on my own relaxed and explored with long walks and bicycle rides.

I was good at writing emphatic essays in one draft on erasable typing paper, a godsend as my rate of
typos is still over 1 per sentence. 

Dad died suddenly August 4, 1962 --  I was strangely calm both with his death and with the Cuban Missile
Crisis in October.

I tried getting drunk 3 times, and, noticing the mild hangovers, avoided alcohol.

In 1967 I changed a lot by smoking pot and going to human relations training groups. LSD a few times
yearly after 1968 was always good, and so was Transcendental Meditation.  Health was good.
I recall a few hours of hangover after painting a small bathroom.
The fabulous Arica Training in 1972-3 featured a very high protein diet, which I just didn't
know was dangerous, while life in Manhattan meant air pollution --
I soon noticed my first spring allergies in spring, 1972.

Odd jobs sustained an exploratory lifestyle in Santa Fe -- I started vitamins, and was introduced to the
idea of positive thinking.  I used pot twice a week until 1980 playfully to expand awareness.

I noticed I got ill and irritable when I spent hours making candles, or if I had too much sugar. I slowly
became aware that my libedo was low, and I was often partially impotent. I had poor memory for details,
don't recall conversations, songs, or poetry, couldn't learn a second language, and couldn't follow math
textbooks.  I felt subtly handicapped socially, especially in fast-moving lively situations. If someone
spoke to me when I was on the phone, then I couldn't hear the voice on the phone.  Yet I could
concentrate on reading or a task, and be deaf to interruptions for hours.  Over the decades, I pondered
subclinical brain damage from fevers, concussion, and toxins (smoked tobacco from 1974 to 1984,
gave up pot in 1980), ADD, Asperger's, dyslexia, hypoglycemia, genetics.

I had 7 large dental amalgams removed in 1984, losing a metallic taste in my mouth, with improved
skin on my face and fewer headaches -- started zeroxing articles on mercury toxicity in
medical libraries.

In January 1999, I started the John McDougal diet -- drmcdougall.com --
organic, low processed, low fat, low protein, high complex starch vegan diet -- 2000 gave up all
diary -- 2001 all city water -- with moderate vitamins and low caffeine, and also no aspartame,
MSG, drugs or chemicals, low salt, no trans fats, little sugar.

In Nov 2008 I had a 2 cm basal cell carcinoma removed from the top of my nose, which had evolved
from a tiny impacted blackhead in 1995 -- I've always wore long-sleeved shirts in summer,
and now always wear a hat -- take 2 gm vitamin D daily.

My rate of hair loss is now very slow, with white beard and sideburns, while my hair is soft and brown,
receded 2 inches.

Weight steady at 135 lb, 5' 11", waist 30.

Dupuytren's Contracture, common in Celtic genetics, has locked my R little finger 45 deg and next finger
30 deg in recent years.

In Jan 2009, started oxygen  2 L/min at night for sleep apnea, and in May started air pressure
ventilation in addition, which prevents apnea and snoring, using a simple nose mask -- putting the noisy
oxygen concentrator outside my house.

In 2010 and 2011, I've had three blue light therapy sessions to remove many tiny precancerous spots
all at once.

A few times a year, I have leg and foot cramps, which may be from a transient mineral imbalance.

Decades of loose stools has evolved the last decade into normal stools.

Daily coffee makes me slowly more irritable with poorer handwriting.

MSG causes fatigue and mild headache.

Have many teeth extracted, and a few porcelin crowns -- avoid metal -- clean teeth with tooth powder
with a brush and then a vibrating electric brush, both with a bit of hydrogen peroxide.

After having mild hemorrhoids once, I always wipe clean with soybean oil on the paper.

My oldest daughter, born 1968, married, home schooling 4 kids, got very weak for months in late 2008,
with advanced celiac disease, with impaired digestion of iron -- so she is fine now, avoiding wheat, rye,
and barley -- I had my blood tested, showing a vulnerability, so I avoid celiac foods, while not noticing
any symptoms from eating them -- eat 2 slices rice bread with peanut butter, beans, and miso for many
suppers -- have brown rice and oatmeal with almonds, walnuts, water, dried cranberries, raisins,
cinnamon for power breakfast -- lunch often is precooked potato and yam with black beans, chopped
cabbage, garlic, cumin, chili powder, vinegar, soy sauce, black pepper -- drink black and herbal teas with
distilled water, stevia, and cinnamon -- I love what I eat -- delicious, low cost, easy to cook, easy to clean.

My younger daughter, born 1974, single, a new lawyer, working at home full time -- two toes partly fused
at birth, low thyroid function, deaf until operation to put drainage tube in eardrums at age 10 -- active in
Alanon -- mild excess weight.