Epilepsy v. Good Old Days

It makes me somewhat angry when I hear people talk about the "good old days" ... as if it was somehow a mystical time of bliss ... and maybe it was - for healthy people. Without modern medicine & sterile surgery techniques, I would have died at age 11 from Appendicitis... on the off chance that I would have made it through that, my epilepsy would probably have killed me by now. One can only fall down and smash their head so many times. Imagine me in the "good old days" - 1600 A.D. No doubt that while washing my deer-skin cloak by the stream, I would have had gran-mal seizure and fallen into the creek, smashed my head on a rock and drowned. (hmmm... maybe it isn't modern medicine, but the top loading washing machine that has saved me...)

In any case, the good old days, would not have been so good for me... or anyone else that needs meds & surgery to survive. This is of course assuming that a lot of the medical issues facing us are not a direct result of modern technology. Such as "fast food". An epilepsy blogger from Croatia, Jurica, recently found some research indicating that a diet high in vegetables can reduce seizures (imagine that). He has been trying out this high vegetable diet and documenting it in his blog, Epilepsy Cronicles. Even after only a few days, he has cited improvement.

I may give this diet a shot, I'm sure it would be good for me, but I won't go vegitarian, I've got to have an ocassional ribeye steak from good-old American corn-fed cattle. And maybe a rack of pork-ribs, and a pizza piled high with cheese & pepperoni... ug ... vegetables...