Can social media improve your health?

If you had sat in a coffee shop three years ago and told me  today I would be a health & wellness blogger writing about vegan/macrobiotic diets, I would have laughed and probably embarrassed myself by spraying your face with crumbs from a chocolate croissant. Back then it was inconceivable that my life could take the dramatic turn that would precipitate such a change.

The dramatic turn involved four cardiac catheterizations to place 5 stents in my lungs and the possibility of long term breathing difficulties with each surgery becoming technically more difficult than the last. This came out of nowhere in the space of a month or two in the summer of 2009.

After all the hospitalizations, I was beautifully patched up, but far from healthy. I started to investigate how to stay healthy using diet, as that was about the only thing I had control over.

Searching for Health

I searched for my disease online, a rare one called Takayasu Arteritis, and I came across the story of Virginia Harper who had resolved her takayasu’s and her Chrohn’s disease through macrobiotics 20 years ago. It sounded so good, I wanted some and I started to read. I also sent out one of my off-the-cuff tongue-in-cheek tweets along the lines of Read the rest of this entry »