Sure I drink a lot of green tea, and a lot of red wine, but I’m not really convinced they have been effective in holding my MCL at bay. There just isn’t any scientific evidence proving their efficacy. I am hopeful, and believe that in moderation, taking only what can be obtained naturally, can’t do any harm. I won’t take and EGCG or Reservatrol supplements.

There are however, some practices I follow which I believe have been effective in extending my longevity, i.e. restricting caloric intake, and intense exercise, but I haven’t seen any scientific evidence to prove the effectiveness of those practices either, although there is this one anectdotal study on the restriction of caloric intake by Arthur B. Robinson, which seems plausible to me.

So despite everything I continue to do, I don’t have any illusions that there is a magic bullet out there. Principally, I believe it is just the luck of the draw, that has allowed me to last this long [without treatment], and the fact I likely received my MCL diagnosis earlier than most people.

Of course that doesn’t mean I won’t keep looking for that magic bullet either, nor do I plan to stop riding my bike, or drinking green tea and red wine.

When I was diagnosed with MCL over 7 years ago, I said I would be happy if I could just get 5 good years. Well, I’ve far exceeded that goal, and now have come to realize, that another 5 years won’t be good enough. 

And why should it? I’m not feeling significantly different than when I was first diagnosed. Sure I’m 7 years older, and I’ve slowed down a little, but who doesn’t once they get over 50?

The only real problem is always dealing with the fact of an incurable disease hanging over your head, and never really knowing when the shoe is going to drop, and things start to get worse. [Fortunately I've got a good support group close by to help me with that.]

But at least for now, everything is the same. My latest blood work is in, and everything is still stable, essentially the same as it has been for the past 18 months. My platelets and LDH were even slightly improved over last months, which is good, but I attribute that more to lab variation than anything more profound happening.

So happy birthday to me!

The hardest part about getting older is realizing how profoundly everything changes, and this mornings bike ride just seemed to emphasize that point way too much.

Now while I’ve only been a member of this bicycle club for the past two years, I’ve been riding with them regularly for at least the past 5 years. Still as I surveyed the parking lot of riders this morning, I realized a few of the usual riders, ones I have come to enjoy socializing and riding with, were missing, and this wasn’t the first time.

Plus it’s not just Saturday’s ride, but the Wednesday ride, has changed, as well, with new riders participating, regulars not, and even going to a different destination. Admittedly, the Wednesday rides have mostly gone back to the ride I’ve grown accustomed to, but this past Wednesday, none of the usual riders, who push the pace, showed up, so it was slower than it has been. Plus one of the regular riders wasn’t feeling good, and didn’t go to the coffee shop.

Then there’s the fact that since I’m doing more hills, and I’ve lost some weight (which has helped me in the hills), I’ve lost some speed, making it harder to keep up on Wednesday’s and Saturday’s.

Oh well, it’s just been one of those weeks.

Hopefully things will change as summer approaches, the weather gets better (it rained today which may have helped contribute to this feeling of malaise), and all the teachers start participating more during the week, now that school is out.

I have to admit when I first received the email describing this event, I was skeptical. There was no way to know how big this event was going to be, nor were there specific description of the dinners, or wines that would be served, to really make an informed decision about the event.

Still, after considering the package included 2 nights at the Mandalay Bay, and 2 dinners at Aureole restaurant I didn’t think we could go too wrong by attending. Plus it just sounded like a good excuse to get out of town for the weekend.

So we decided to go, and headed out early Friday morning, as the first event, a pate preparation demonstration, was scheduled for 2:30 PM.

Well the only thing I can say is the event was definitely worth the price. In fact it was probably worth twice the price. Of course we might not have attended if it cost twice as much, but it still would have been worth it.

There were only 29 attendees at the event, making all the demonstrations and dinners very intimate, allowing everyone an opportunity to ask questions, and actually learn something. It was also great interacting with the chefs, the sommeliers and the entire restaurant staff, who were as friendly as anyone could ever expect.

And then there was the food and the wine, all of which were spectacular.

It would be hard to describe the food as other than near perfect, although Friday’s 7 course Lyonnaise inspired dinner was slightly better than Saturday’s American inspired dinner, but that would be expected as chef Vincent Pouessel is French. Still both dinners were excellent, and we got to taste everything from crayfish to bison.

And the wines. All I can say is WOW! They were way beyond anything I expected or could have even imagined. Some examples of the wines we tasted were

• 1984 Joseph Phelps ‘Eisele’ Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1976 Beaulieu Vineyards ‘Georges de Latour’ Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1970 Mayacamas Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1990 Jaboulet ‘La Chapelle’ Hermitage (Rhone)
• 1998 Guigal Hermitage

Just to name a few.

And contrary to what I have come to expect after tasting wines brought to parties by friends, that weren’t nearly as old as the wines we had this past weekend, these wines were all good. Some of these wines may have been past their prime, but despite that, they all had enough fruit and all of the character and balance you would expect from a quality, older wine, but just having the opportunity to taste these wines was an experience I will not soon forget.

In my opinion this was a once in a lifetime event, and Charlie Palmer’s Aureole restaurant will have a hard time topping it, but I plan on attending the next event, regardless of the price, that is assuming it is within reason.

And those aren’t the only things.

Over the past month, I’ve managed to lose 7 pounds.  That has helped my climbing prowess on the bike, but has resulted in a loss of speed on flat ground, so now I don’t know if I should continue to my goal of 145 pounds (another 6 pounds), or just maintain this weight, but train harder.

Then of course, there’s the switch to ‘real’ caffeinated green tea which may be having an effect. Now while I haven’t been experiencing any of the heart palpitations I was concerned about, I do think I am drinking a lot more of it, and maybe the caffeine is having some other side effect I can’t quantify.

And finally there are the changes that are just inevitable, that come because time doesn’t stop, people move on, for any number of reasons, and new people take their places. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes it isn’t, but regardless it’s change, and when you get to a certain point in life, most change is unwelcome.

Now I understand why advertisers focus on the 18 to 49 year old group.

Oh well, hopefully a weekend of over indulgence in Vegas [at the Mandalay Bay Aureole Wine Weekend] will help put a different perspective on things.

So instead today, while I sip a bit of green tea this morning, I thought I would discuss some of the things I’ve learned, during this past week or so, about drinking the good stuff, i.e “real” green tea, not the stuff from Trader Joe’s or Fresh and Easy, but the loose leaf variety, that actually looks green after brewing.

The best thing I’ve discovered so far is the extra caffeine, I’ve been getting, hasn’t resulted in any heart palpitations, and I’ve drank over 40 cups this week.

But more importantly I think I’ve finally come up with the perfect brewing technique to optimize flavor and EGCG intake.

• I use two (2) grams of tea for every eight (8) oz of water, and I don’t reuse the tea leaves.
• I use only filtered water. (The Brita water dispenser works great for that purpose.)
• I heat the water to just below the boiling temperature, about 200°F. [Now boiling the water is supposed to optimize the extraction of EGCG, but for the best taste the water should be heated to between 175°F and 195°F, depending on the particular green tea you have chosen, so I decided to compromise.]
• Next, I brew the tea for 5 to 7 minutes. [This is also another compromise, since the optimum brewing time for taste is 1 to 2 minutes, but to optimize EGCG extraction, brewing time should be 5 to 10 minutes. So to make up for the lower water temperature, I go a little longer on the brewing time, which seems about right, and I feel comfortable I'm getting the most EGCG, without compromising taste.]
• And finally, I discovered it is important to use a good filtering (infusing) system for brewing the tea. [Contrary to the review I read, the ingenuiTEA (by Adaigio) just doesn't do the trick. The loose leaves clog up the filtering system, resulting in slow drainage into the cup, and lots of loose leaves entering into the cup as well (which results in a bitter taste after a while). So I went and bought two of these infuser cups (one for work and one for home), which were recommended by some one I consider very knowledgeable on the subject of brewing green tea.]

Ok, hopefully that was informative for everyone.

Now I can go have breakfast, and start gettiing ready for my morning bike ride, confident in the knowledge I have performed my self imposed requirement to post at least weekly to my blog, no matter how benign the post may be.

Now whether it has been the green tea I have been drinking for the past 6+ years, my heavy exercise routine, or just pure chance that has kept my MCL stable, or at least [very] slow progressing, for the past 7+ years is certainly open to debate, but based on past research, I have chosen to believe green tea has at least helped to some degree.

So what has given me this new found enthusiasm?

Well, a friend of mine, and cycling buddy, was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer, and knowing my daily regimen called to ask my advice on green tea. He had already done a lot of research on the subject, so when I told him my obsession with green tea consisted principally of drinking the least expensive, decaffeinated green tea available (Trader Joe’s brand of 18 tea bags for $3, and more recently Fresh & Easy’s brand of 40 tea bags for $2), I felt like a neophyte on the subject.

So in collaboration with my friend, and the help of the internet, I managed to do sufficient research, and learn just enough more information on the subject of green tea to be dangerous, some of which follows:

• Japanese green tea has the highest content of the cancer fighting agent Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), even more than Chinese green tea
• Decaffeinate green tea has about a third of the EGCG of regular tea, and
• loose leaf teas are far superior to tea in bags

And with the help of another friend, who knows her way around the local Japanese communities here in LA, we went and purchased a few selections of regular [non-decaffeinated] loose leaf green tea to try. I decided to at least try regular green tea, because my research also indicated,

• green tea has about 1/4 the amount of caffeine as coffee, and
• if I select a tea picked later in the harvest season (e.g. Sensha), the caffeine content is less than teas picked early in the season (e.g. Gyokura)

I’m hoping that small amount of green tea won’t cause any problems, but should it, I can always start adding in decaf green tea to the point I don’t experience any palpitations.

Another thing I’ve learned is making and brewing green tea is not that simple. In order to optimize flavor, the temperature of the water and the brewing time need to be accurately controlled. Depending on the particular green tea selected, the temperature needs to be controlled between 175°F and 195°F, and brewing time should only be 1.5 to 2 minutes, so despite my research also revealing boiling water, and brewing for 5 to 10 minutes optimizes the extraction of EGCG, I still decided to purchase a new temperature controlled tea kettle, and a new pot for steeping the tea.

Now I feel like a kid again with a new toy. The electric kettle and brewing pot arrived today, and I can barely hold back my enthusiasm till tomorrow morning, when I can make myself some tea.

Last week was Digital Process Data (DPD) training week at work. Now for those who don’t know what DPD is, basically it’s the computer data (software) fed into numerical controlled (NC) lathes used to machine parts into complicated configurations. It’s also used in the design and inspection of those parts.

Now that, in and of itself, isn’t difficult to understand or deal with (at least it’s no more difficult to understand than all the computer graphics we are subject to on TV and in the movies now a days), but without going into any great detail of everything else involved, i.e. controlling, disseminating and validating the software, suffice it to say it’s a lot more complicated than it sounds. And it’s especially more complicated when you can remember what it was like only a few short years ago.

It reminds me of a saying by Eric Hoffer,

In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

And what I came to realize this past week was, the world is changing [rapidly], and I’m just not sure how interested I am in trying to keep up with it any more.

Maybe that’s why I like riding my bike so much!

Not only that, but I just received the results of todays blood work, and my absolute lymphocyte count dropped to 81 thou/cumm (ref 4-11). That’s down 20%, and hasn’t been that low since February 2007.

Of course, one test does not a trend make, and as you may surmise there is also some bad news. My hemoglobin dropped slightly again to 11.6 g/dL (ref 14-18), platelets to 187 thou/mcl (ref 130-400), and my LDH increased to 147 IU/L (ref 91-180).

Now I’ve seen all those numbers before, and with the exception of my hemoglobin those results are within the normal range, so I’m not overly concerned just yet, plus I know I don’t feel as bad as those numbers may suggest.

For someone with an 11.6 g/dL hemoglobin, I think I’m still in pretty good shape. I managed to stay in the pack for the entire race (one hour) last night (albeit in the back of the pack), plus I managed to stay with some much stronger [and younger] riders for the vast majority of this mornings ride.

Now if only knew Becky would be coming back to work a lot sooner than in 8 weeks, I might start feeling even better.

Two notably good things were the HINI [swine] flu is not dominating the news anymore, and Morris is finally warming up to Chloe. I guess Morris has finally come to the realization that we still love him, and Chloe is here to stay.

Oh, if that were the only two things I had to deal with, life would be good, but that just isn’t the case.

First off, gasoline prices have jumped 10% [maybe closer to 15%], and that’s just after deciding I didn’t need to replace my Toyota Camry (34 mpg), after cracking the transmission, and deciding I would start driving the Lexus (23 mpg) from now on.

Secondly is the difficulty getting back in decent cycling form, and hurting my knee trying to do a little too much a little too soon. The knee felt good today, but I’m still afraid to push it too hard for fear it will starting to hurt again.

But the worst thing was discovering Becky is having a hysterectomy a week from Tuesday, and could be off work up to 8 weeks. There are only a few people who know how much she does to make my life easier at work, for which I am very grateful, but having her off just one week tends to create undo stress for me. So can you imagine what 2, 3 or 8 weeks will do to me?

There are only a couple of things that could drive me to an early retirement, and 8 weeks without Becky is right there near the top of the list. I’m just hoping she won’t have to be off that long. It could put a serious damper on my current two day a week work schedule, not to mention my cycling form.

I may never go on vacation again!