On Being 80

By Carol Roberts, MD

One of the most important philosophers I have encountered in my life is a skinny boy named Bob Dylan. Recently I came upon a quote from him, now a skinny older man. Here’s what he is saying now:

“The best thing about being 80 is that you outlive the clocks that have been chasing you. It’s freedom from that lie that anything was ever under control. The worst thing about being 80 is that you still want to say yes to everything but the world moves without asking. The old fire in your heart still tells you to do this and that but your body says we already did it. You’ve run out of illusions. Nothing surprises you. The really worst part about being 80 is that you find, at last, you’ve got an understanding of something that might have altered everything in the past, had it come at a time when something could still be altered.”

 Far be it from me to argue with Bob Dylan, but a recent experience has me telling everyone that 80 is not the same for everyone! Two weeks ago I had surgery to return a wandering kidney to its assigned spot in my body. For years I had suffered from scary ups and (not that many) downs in blood pressure. For the first few years I sought the magic pill or pills that would control the only health issue I have really ever had, - labile hypertension. Being a physician myself, I was frustrated that nothing worked consistently. One day I was palpating my abdomen absentmindedly, as people do, and was surprised by a firm, smooth, roundish mass that I could push around in my belly. What in the world? It didn’t hurt, it didn’t feel like a growth, - what could it be?

A couple of ultrasounds later, I discovered that my kidney had come loose from its assigned confinement in the retroperitoneal space, and was flopping around below, kinking the renal artery and sending my blood pressure into stroke territory. This is the only surgically correctable cause of high blood pressure, and is quite rare.

After a year long search for the right way to handle this, I was recommended to a transplant surgeon, who would know all about how to position a kidney properly. Turns out he actually had seen one decades before, during his residency training. Not only that, but he was old school, and spent time actually palpating my abdomen, turning me from one side to another, questioning with his fingers, and came to the same conclusion. So three weeks ago I had the errant kidney fished out of the pelvis and tacked up where it belongs.

When the surgeon came to see me after the operation, he was full of praise for my blood work - everything was in normal range! That doesn’t happen often in most 80 year olds. “Well, it should be normal!” But it isn’t in the majority. Too many older people have a litany of problems and a laundry list of pills to take every day. It got me thinking, as a holistic doctor, what are some simple ways people can normalize their health, sail through challenges, and generally rejuvenate their octogenarian bodies.

It occurred to me that I have been offering therapies that do just that. There are four basic types of IV’s that I would have everyone do every year as they age.  Will list them here for your information. Finding an office that offers (any of) them might be a challenge, but if someone would like to fund such a company, I would be happy to be the medical director.

The therapies:

1- Nutritional IV’S - as people age, they tend to lose stomach acid, or take meds that suppress the production of stomach acid. As a result they lose the capacity to digest protein and absorb minerals and vitamins. A solid dose of nutrition given parenterally (outside the digestive system) can reboot energy. There are independent IV centers that offer “hydration” IV’s which generally are pretty skimpy on the nutrients. They are fine for young people with a hangover, but are insufficient to replenish an older body. My formulas will give a powerful push and get the body literally charged up again.

2- Chelation therapy - we are all expose to toxic heavy metals all of our lives. Lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium are all abundant in our air, food and water. Since the body has a hard time releasing these elements, a treatment (FDA approved since the 1940’s) was developed that acts like a chemical magnet to remove the buildup from the tissues. This is an excellent detoxification tool, and benefits anyone who does it.

3- Phosphatidyl choline - an important component of every cell membrane in the body. Through eating “bad” fats, our membranes become stiff and unresponsive. This lowers the electrical charge of every cell, especially neurons and heart muscle, which depend on a certain charge, as well as making hormone receptors less responsive.

4- Ozone blood therapy - works for chronic infections that take hold during an acute illness, and sometimes persist in the body for years, using precious energy resources to fight this smoldering infection(s). Some of the more common infections are Epstein-Barr virus, Hepatitis C, long COVID - from the infection and also from the vaccines, Lyme disease, and many others.

 Ten sessions of any of these therapies can make a huge difference, ten of each in a year can give you back 20 years of life, turning back the health clock.

“Prevention beats rescue, but rescue is good too!”.

Three weeks out from surgery, I’m back to the gym (no jumping for a while) and back to work. May all your surgeries be that easy. Also BP is coming down.