What Kind of Future are You Designing?
Have you heard? If you live in America, your chances of living long are high. But that is where the good news stops on the health front. The other side of the coin is that if you are a typical American, the last 30 years or so of that long life will be spent in decreasing health, increasing pain and more and more dependence upon others.
This is true statistically, but even without the stats to back it up, you know intuitively that it is true. Look around you. It is unusual for people in their 40’s and beyond to be free from the beginnings of chronic conditions, and by the age of 50, most people have disease already manifesting itself in significant ways.
Some of these conditions are silent, such as the upcreep of blood sugar levels which leads to diabetes. And some are already affecting the quality of life—such as that arthritic finger that acts up when it rains or geting winded when from climbing a couple of flights of stairs.
Let’s take a look at a few of these conditions, but let’s also focus on the fix. You can fix this, you know. You just have to want to.
The Battleground
Diabetes: Diabetes is a progressive, debilitating condition that causes kidney failure, blindness, amputations, high blood pressure, nervous system damage, heart disease and stroke. Not too many decades ago, this was a rare disease. Today, 11.3% of all people 20 years old and older have diabetes and 33% of people have pre-diabetes.1,2
Just because diabetes is on the rise, however, doesn’t mean that it has to affect you. And if you already have diabetes, there is much you can do to improve it. The recipe: get plenty of exercise, don’t carry around excess weight, and be sure eat a diet high in plant foods and super-low in sugars, white flour, white rice and processed foods.
Heart Disease: This is the number one killer of people in the United States, both men and women alike. In fact, even though women fear breast cancer more than heart disease, more women die from heart disease each year than from all types of cancer combined!
And here is the shocker: heart disease is nearly 95% preventable!
The solution? Stay at your ideal weight, get lots of exercise, reduce oils in your diet, increase the number of vegetables you eat and decrease the amount of processed foods you eat. (Sound familiar?)
Alzheimer’s Disease: This is a progressive disease that causes the cells of the brain to degenerate and die. The disease begins with forgetfulness but eventually leads to mood swings, profound confusion and death.
Many people fear Alzheimer’s disease more than they fear death. Its occurrence is rising, but you don’t have to get Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, there are places around the world where Alzheimer’s disease is rare.
If you are middle aged and overweight, your chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease is 80% higher. And in studies with mice which were bred to develop the brain plaque that is associated with Alzheimer’s disease, exercise decreased the buildup of this plaque by 50-80%!
Further, much of the dementia that plagues the elderly in our country is actually the result of tiny strokes that accumulate over decades. The cause of these strokes? Little “brain attacks” which are much like heart attacks. Keeping your arteries clean isn’t just good for your heart; it is good for your brain as well!
How to prevent Alzheimer’s disease? Reduce your fat intake, eat lots of plant foods (green vegetables, fruit, and whole grains), get your weight into a healthy range and exercise frequently and consistently.
Cancer: The only condition that kills more people than heart disease is cancer. More than 1,500 people die from cancer every day. But Yale University’s Dr. David Katz says that you can possibly decrease your risk of cancer between 36%-66% by having a healthy body weight, not smoking, exercising at least 3.5 hours weekly and eating a diet high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and low in meat.3
Surely you have noticed that the key to prevention of chronic illness is the same regardless of which condition we are focusing on. This is empowering, because it shows you that your health is largely in your own hands.
What kind of future do you want? You are creating it today with each decision that you make. Choose wisely and live well.
Sources:
1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES. National Diabetes Statistics, 2011. 22 March 2012. http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/DM/PUBS/statistics/#fast
2. http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/DiabetesReportCard.pdf
3. 8 Earl S. Ford, MD, MPH; Manuela M. Bergmann, PhD; Janine Kröger; Anja Schienkiewitz, PhD, MPH; Cornelia Weikert, MD, MPH; and Heiner Boeing, PhD, MSPH. Healthy Living Is the Best Revenge. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2009; Volume 169, Issue 15. Pages 1355-1362. http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/169/15/1355
