I completed my 14-day water fast. Refeeding was a breeze - I just ate watermelon, and it was so easy that by the second day, I was eating proper dinners of moong beans + rice + yogurt.

Blood pressure, which was 145/100 before this fast (even after my previous 8-day fast), had dropped to an ideal 110/75, and stayed there for a week. For three days, I felt I had cured myself.

But since I had to speak at a conference, I ate the formal lunch there. It was mostly healthy - green salad. I ate some pasta, but not a lot.

But I had TWO cups of black, sugarless coffee. Just two, one after lunch and the other at 5 PM. This was the conference, and you have to network with people. Those two cups were the only coffee I had in the entire week.

Since that time, my BP is back to 145/100. The thing is, if the lower BP was so fragile that just a bit of black coffee destroys the entire fast benefit, then it was inevitable. Even if I subsisted another week on just watermelon, bananas, and greens, that still only delays the inevitable.

I can reduce coffee and beer/wine by 90-95%, but if the final unavoidable 5% restores BP to 145/100, then obviously this is not a structural cure.

Quite bummed. My MRI for my renal cyst is on Nov. 1, and I am not optimistic.