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IFBB Pro Flex Lewis has invited IFBB Pro Fouad Abiad for an interview. They discuss a variety of topics, but Fouad explains how his health is not in the best shape due to his kidneys. Fouad expressed they are damaged from bodybuilding and being over 300+lbs. He explains that he is going to be trying stem cells to hopefully slow down the degeneration of his kidneys.

 

Fouad opens up and explains why he actually needs to get stem cells done to his kidneys, and why he can’t fix it by taking supplements, getting a better diet, or fixing his health overall. What Fouad talks about are real life issues that can happen to anyone, but when you’re a bodybuilder these things can happen in a snap of a finger. At 30 years of age is where Fouad got his first red flag that something was going on with his kidneys. He had high blood pressure and he continued to bodybuild for eight more years at 300+ lbs.

 

The main reason Fouad retired was because of this and he mentions that it was very hard for him to retire.  Most bodybuilders are forced into retirement and we usually don’t see a bodybuilder walk away when they are at their healthiest. 

 

For me at 30 years old, I could have kept going in bodybuilding. I wasn’t unhealthy or at the brink of death. However, after my first pro show and aggressively bodybuilding for 15-18 years, never coming off of steroids, I knew there was going to be repercussions if I continued to do it. I took a year off to get healthy and got excessive blood work done.I then assessed all the bad things and realized if I continue it would get much worse if I went much further.

 

They continue to discuss blood pressure issues. There’s a lot of positives and negatives about blood pressure medicine. The only way to fix the problem is to fix the reason why he has high blood pressure and not to take a pill to just mask it. That’s not fixing anything. The pros of medication are decreasing risks of complication, protecting the kidneys, decreases stroke risk, and decreases heart attack risks. The cons are making your heart work a lot harder than it is supposed to which iIncreases the risk of a heart arrhythmia.

 

For any bodybuilder or athlete that retires, it’s very hard for them to just replace it with something else. That stage of your life was probably the best years of your life, but now you need to evolve and move on to the next thing in life. Fouad is really doing well with this after retiring as a bodybuilder and finding his next big thing to do, which was talking about the sport he loves, having his own supplement company, and having his own clothing brand.

Watch the full video below !

https://youtu.be/uZlbTy_gLs0