I've been studying biology, health, and sickness for the better part of my adult life. I've studied western medicine and alternative medicine. I've had the opportunity to meet leaders in both professions that have differing opinions on what health is and how to get and stay healthy. The one thing that both leaders can agree on is that we are facing a health crisis. Currently 50% of Americans have a chronic disease. There's a not a day that goes by that I don't read an article or watch a news story that relates to the obesity crisis, the diabetes pandemic, the tragedy of heart disease, the list goes on and on. In fact I would wager everything that I own that everyone reading this knows someone who has been afflicted with heart disease, cancer, stroke, or diabetes. And most certainly you know someone who is obese. This is great news for the pharmaceutical world and terrible news for the American public. I think the former U.S. Surgeon General, Richard H. Carmona says it best in The 2008 Almanac for Chronic Disease (yes we now have an almanac for chronic disease):
"The United States is experiencing an unsustainable disease burden – 130 million people today suffer from chronic diseases– taking a tremendous toll on individuals, families, and communities. In addition to lives lost and quality of life lost, we are also a nation in crisis – an economic crisis. We spend over $2 trillion a year – about 16 percent of our gross domestic product – on health care. Seventy-five cents of every health care dollar we spend is on treatment of chronic disease, most of which is preventable. If we do not reverse this trend, chronic disease will continue to devastate Americans’ health, lead to millions more preventable deaths and will ultimately bankrupt our health care system. The reality is that the United States spends more money on health care than any other nation in the world, yet nearly half of Americans suffer from a chronic disease, and the vast majority of our health care dollars are spent treating chronic disease. In the chapters ahead, you will see how chronic disease impacts our nation’s businesses and our economy, reducing productivity and placing an unsustainable burden on all sectors of society. With unprecedented increases in childhood obesity, the youngest generations of Americans will struggle with chronic health problems even more than did their parents and grandparents – and they will do so at younger ages. We can prevent this from happening."
But how do we prevent chronic disease? And why is it that we keep studying sick people? As my mentor James Chesnut once said to me, "success leaves clues." So why aren't we studying healthy people? Were there ever healthy people that weren't afflicted with the now common place "chronic diseases"? Yes and there is research to prove it! What did these people eat? What were their movement patterns? How did these people think? This blog is dedicated to providing you with the knowledge that I have gained studying the clues that healthy people have left behind and current literature that relates to staying healthy. At the end of the day it will become very clear that if we have any hope of changing the health of America we need to change how we eat, move and think.
