The epidemic of chronic disease

Diseases aren’t things you catch anymore. Instead, they’re caused by a poor lifestyle, and soon they’ll account for most deaths around the world. Bryan Hubbard reports

We’re living longer—and we’ve never been so sick. One in three people around the world has a range of chronic health problems, such as asthma, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), diabetes or dementia.

The picture’s even worse in the US, with half of all adults suffering from a chronic disease. By 2030, this epidemic will cost governments around $47 trillion worldwide just to manage.

Diseases used to be something you’d probably catch from a virus or bacterial infection. But with the arrival of antibiotics and improved sanitation, these are no longer the main reasons people are getting sick.

“Sixty years ago, a new and dominating health problem emerged: chronic disease. It has now reached epidemic proportions, affecting 50 percent of the population and consuming 86 percent of health care expenditures,” says Halsted R Holman, a Stanford University researcher.¹

The crossover happened around 1950. In those optimistic days after the Second World War, ready-made processed food started to become the first choice for many families, and the emphasis shifted to labor-saving devices around the home that did the chores for you before everyone settled in front of the exciting new technology of television.

Medicine defines a chronic disease as anything lasting, or recurring repeatedly, for longer than three months—but in most cases, it lasts a lifetime and could eventually kill you. You don’t catch it; instead, it’s the result of a poor lifestyle characterized by features such as a sugary diet, smoking, a lack of exercise, environmental pollutants and stress, which also means it’s entirely preventable.

It’s getting worse—and it’s already been on the increase for years. By 2050, the World Health Organization estimates chronic diseases will account for 86 percent of all deaths.

Medicine still has the “acute disease” mindset and is poorly prepared to deal with chronic problems by shifting the emphasis from treatment to prevention. Until it does, we’ll get sicker and eventually bankrupt our economies as healthcare overtakes every other type of government spending.

The rise of chronic disease

Source: Tim Gray (TimBiohacker)

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