The Ultimate Example of Preventive Medicine

By Bill Weir, Nikki Battiste & C. Michael Kim | This Could Be Big – 18 hrs ago.. .

Few of us expect to be confronted with our own mortality during the course of your average workday, but that's exactly what happened to Bill Weir last Friday, January 13th.

The day before, Bill was in Las Vegas covering the Consumer Electronics Show for This Could Be Big. That afternoon he was on a flight to Los Angeles to interview Dr. David Agus, the author of the anticipated book, "The End of Illness", for what was supposed to be a routine assignment for Nightline.

In Los Angeles, Dr. Agus, a renowned cancer specialist and preventive medicine proponent, whose patients have included Lance Armstrong, Senator Ted Kennedy and Steve Jobs, put Bill under a battery of tests to show the Nightline audience the analytics behind Dr. Agus' approach. What Bill discovered was beyond anything he expected, and changed the entire course of the story he went to cover.

"The unfortunate truth is, you do have some heart disease now." That moment, when Dr. Agus spoke those words, was the moment this story became anything but routine. Even though Bill thought he was in fine health, it turns out he has a calcified lesion in a large artery going to his heart and it makes him prone to have a heart attack in the near term.

The first thing that went through his head after the diagnosis was his young daughter, crying on top of the mountain in Colorado where Bill spread his father's ashes only six years prior. "My kid's never been to a funeral" he thought, "and mine could be her first."

This was a real wake up call, a true splash of cold water to the face for someone who stills wears the same size suit he wore in college, who exercises daily and could eat and drink whatever he wanted without any noticeable impact to his health.

The good news, and really the whole point of the story in the first place, is that when disease like his are caught in time, they can be fixed. With minor modifications to his life, he can lead a long and healthy life.

The doctor's advice was simple, "Real food, regular schedule, live healthy. That's the key"

The Ultimate Example of Preventive Medicine | This Could Be Big - Yahoo! News