Reversing the Trend

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Looking at mortality rates is sobering. I was recently reminded that the number one killer in the US is heart disease; I guess everybody knows that. What was so sobering is that it claims an average of over 2,000 lives in the US, per DAY. Over 778,000 people in America die of major cardiovascular disease every year. When you add that over 570,000 Americans die of cancer every year, it makes me stumble back a step. I knew the numbers were large, but that's over 3,600 people per day who die of these two diseases.

If you're following the current Ebola outbreak, some 3,500 people have died of this highly contagious and deadly disease since this outbreak began. But that's in about 7 months (the first case was diagnosed in March 2014). I'm not downplaying what's happening with Ebola - it is scary and deadly, and it mostly finds its victims--they don't go looking for it. Contrast that with heart disease and cancers which are, for the most part, lifestyle diseases. We make choices of how we will live and eat and how active we will be, and consequences show up, good or bad.

Integrative and holistic medicine is proving, with strong evidence and repeatable clinical results, that top killers like heart disease and cancer are controllable and reversible, and even preventable, through an intentional wellness lifestyle. All the things that go into a power pantry lifestyle like whole foods, strong relationships and community, regular exercise, and even meditation, bring our bodies the health and healing they crave.

I think 100 years from now people will look back on these times as an unfortunate season of indulgent ignorance. We have literally millions of people living an unnecessarily deadly lifestyle which costs them quality of life and cost us all trillions of dollars.

So my encouragement is for each of us to continue on our own power pantry journey, and by that, do our part to reverse the trend. Maybe your spouse or a relative or coworker is longing to overcome weight issues, or aches and pains or lack of energy. Or maybe they know that heart disease and cancer lurk in their genes and they can see the fate they will suffer if they don't improve their lifestyle. Press on in your power pantry journey, and find someone to share it with today.

By the Way

Another reason that our industrialized, unhealthy food supply and lifestyle isn't sustainable is how much it costs. In the US, we're logging $2.8 trillion in healthcare spending per year--almost $3,000 per person, and more than any other industrialized nation. While I think we're blessed to have the best healthcare in the world, we use so many health services which are really lifestyle responses, that it isn't sustainable long-term. Eventually this cost will catch up to us and things will have to change.