Buried deep within an article in today’s New York Times about the supposed developing rift between President Bush and Vice President Cheney was the following paragraph:
Friends describe Mr. Cheney as subdued…and they say they are concerned about his weight, which appears to be up again after his recent years of keeping it under control. Mr. Cheney, 64, has had four heart attacks, and in September had surgery to repair aneurysms in arteries behind both his knees.
It’s obvious that Mr. Cheney has pretty severe vascular disease, and you can bet that he’s under the care of the “best” doctors money can buy, which translates to the most mainstream, academic physicians around. I can guarantee you that his doctors have the Vice President on a low-fat diet, which, of course, means a high-carbohydrate diet. It’s a sure bet that Mr. Cheney is getting a lot more sugar than the one teaspoon he needs to keep his blood sugar normal, and, consequently, his blood sugar levels are elevated a good portion of his day. A mountain of studies have shown that elevated blood sugar plays hell with the vascular system, the very system Mr. Cheney’s doctors are attempting to treat.
All this is, I suppose, good news for those who hate Mr. Cheney, bad news for those who don’t, and a cautionary tale for us all.