What Is Chronic Disease
If you have followed me for any time at all, you know my passion is helping people to live healthier lives and thereby reducing their risk for chronic disease. But what exactly is chronic disease?
A chronic disease is a long-lasting condition that persists over time. Unlike acute conditions, chronic diseases usually develop slowly over time and can last for years or the duration of a lifetime. Our understanding of them is growing and developing as we gain more insight from research and while we know they can be caused by genetics and environmental causes; more and more research seems to be pointing to lifestyle factors as the biggest influence on chronic disease. Examples of chronic diseases include high blood pressure (hypertension), heart disease, diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic kidney diseases, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, anxiety, and cancer.
These conditions often require on-going management just to control symptoms and prevent complications as they do not have a “cure”. In fact, there is not a medication on the market that cures any of these conditions. They all manage a condition. But what if I told you that some research has suggested that 80-98% of chronic disease is avoidable with lifestyle modification such as diet, exercise, sleep, stress reduction, and reduction in toxins? Sounds great, right? It’s true but it isn’t as straight forward as one might think.
Much of the research done is on medications and is funded largely by pharmaceutical companies with a product to test. There is not a lot of money to be made by telling you to do the right things simply and do them consistently. In actuality, the pharmaceutical industry makes approximately $430 billion in revenue each year and a large portion of that is from medications for chronic disease. Not exactly incentive for them or anyone they may fund financially to recommend you eat whole real food, exercise regularly and stop eating ultra processed food, and you know the food industry is not going to push this message.
According to the Commonwealth Fund, the United States has the highest chronic disease rate in the world and the CDC has published that 60% of Americans have at least one chronic disease and 40% have two or more. If that is not enough to blow your mind, the CDC also reports that 90% of the nation’s $4.1 trillion in annual health care expenditures are for chronic conditions.
So, with governmental guidelines that don’t seem to be helping anyone and healthcare providers who largely aren’t being trained in anything outside of medication management and surgical intervention, how can you reduce your risk with lifestyle modification?
The good news is that you can. You can significantly change your biomarkers (your health measurements and labs) in as little as just 3 months (and some of them with even less time) by implementing lifestyle modifications consistently. More and more research studies are showing that genetics is actually a very small percentage of cases of most chronic diseases and that with the correct and consistent lifestyle modifications, many of these conditions can be avoided, reduced, and even reversed such as in the case of type 2 diabetes.
Start by eliminating ultra processed foods from your diet and sticking to whole “real” food. This requires some food preparation and cooking but that doesn’t have to be hard or time consuming. Next, incorporate natural and intentional movement and activity into each day. Third, look for ways to reduce anything that creates a chronic stress and finally, ensure you are getting adequate, quality, and restful sleep each night. Make sure to discuss with your healthcare provider before discontinuing any medications as some may need to be continued and others may need to be tapered off. If you find yourself wanting to get healthier with lifestyle changes and not knowing exactly where to start or what things to do, or you just want to find a way to do them easier, follow me on Instagram or subscribe for free at the bottom of any of my website pages (https://thehealthandwellnessnp.com) to learn more about how you can upgrade your health - one step at a time.