Do you realize that 80% of your immune system is located in your digestive system? No really. I always think this is common knowledge, but if you look around you and ever pay attention to what people are putting into their bodies on a daily basis...it is obviously not. I would even take this one step further and say, if you have great nutrition, you likely don't get sick as often, or likely have any major health issues. The top three leading causes of death in the U.S. are as follows according to the CDC for 2015:
#1 Heart Disease with 614,348 deaths each year
#2 Cancer with 591,699 deaths each year
#3 Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases with 147,101 deaths each year
(chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthma)
The #1 & #2 spots are pretty close together with the number of lives they take each year, with #3 being significantly less. This would naturally pose the question...why are so many people dying from these diseases? Everyone knows someone, a family member maybe, or is separated by one degree from SOMEONE who has either has/had cancer, heart disease, or some form of chronic lower respiratory disease.
Let's take these one at a time and break them down.
When considering CLRD- asthma has far fewer deaths associated with it, the big contenders are really chronic bronchitis & emphysema. Chronic bronchitis often precedes emphysema. The major contributor to both of these diseases is tobacco use & cigarette smoke, at a whopping 80%! Why people are still putting this garbage into their body is beyond me! Especially when tobacco use is a leading cause of lung cancer as well, and that's the #2 killer, there is literally NOTHING good that comes out of smoking cigarette's...yet I'm sure you know at LEAST 1-3 people that smoke. The other underlying issue whenever you have a chronic disease, is low level inflammation. One of the most effective ways to help control inflammation is with your nutrition, what you eat! Our food breaks down into tiny nutrients that our bodies can use to either help heal us, or feed the disease. Everyone could benefit from an anti-inflammatory diet, but most significantly those that are diagnosed with any sort of chronic disease.
Cancer- the sinister villain most prevalent in the world of disease. What is cancer? You likely know at least 1 person who has had cancer in some form, but what is it? As defined by the American Cancer Society: cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth & spread of abnormal cells. If the spread is not controlled it can result in death. IS cancer preventable? A substantial proportion of cancers could be prevented according to the ACS. ALL cancers produced by tobacco use & heavy alcohol consumption could be completely preventable- that accounts for roughly 31% of all cancers according to a recent study done by the ACS. In addition, another 20% of the diagnosed cancers in the US are related to body fatness, physical inactivity, excess alcohol use, and/or poor nutrition, and therefore, could also be prevented. So, just those few things could wipe out roughly 51% of the cancer population...did you know that? This information is coming straight from the American Cancer Society studies and data by the way, I'm not just making stuff up. They go on to say that a lot of the cancers that are caused by external factors such as infections & exposure, tanning beds etc. could also be avoided by behavioral changes, and treating infections. Only a small proportion of cancers are strongly hereditary...and even then environmental and exposure factors play a role on gene expression. SO, the HUGE takeaway from this information is: you are not doomed to suffer from cancer...but you HAVE to take care of yourself on the front end! This is the hard part for most people.
(*disclaimer: I'm merely looking at statistics here, that's not to say that you don't know someone who outwardly seemed like the healthiest person you knew and they still got cancer, there are ALWAYS exceptions!)
And lastly, heart disease...the term 'heart disease' refers to several types of heart conditions, the most common type in the U.S. is coronary artery disease which affects blood flow to the heart...and can cause a heart attack. Several health conditions, your lifestyle, age, & family history can increase your risk for heart disease. There are three key risk factors: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, & smoking. About half of all Americans have at least one of these three factors. Do you realize you can control these factors by living a healthy lifestyle? Having good nutrition habits, maintaining a healthy weight, physical activity, not smoking, and limiting your alcohol are all of the suggested habits. Wait...so you're saying the #1 cause of death in the U.S. is preventable? That's exactly what I'm saying. We are lazy as a society, and we love to blame people or circumstances for our problems instead of taking responsibility for them. Why? Because it's much easier to blame someone than it is to look in the mirror and face our problems head on. Just because your family has a history of heart disease does NOT mean you are doomed. It means you are more susceptible to the disease, if you never get educated on how to properly care for your body, or you learn but never put that knowledge into action, then yes, your risk factors sky rocket because the lifestyle & environment you have been exposed to, will likely lead down that same path. It has less to do with your genetic predisposition at that point, and more to do with your lifestyle & environmental factors however. The great thing is, YOU are in control of your health, so YOU get to choose how you want to live, healthy or unhealthy.
So, it goes hand in hand with my topic today, taking care of your body, your immune system (which is designed specifically to keep your body healthy & fight disease) has SO much more to do with our overall health than anyone lets on. YET, great nutrition is one of the most under utilized forms of treatment for HEALTH! Sadly our society relies heavily on trips to the emergency room & urgent care for 'sick visits', we do very little in the form of 'health visits', or true HEALTH care. We live in a world where quick fixes, a pill for everything, and overnight success is actually an expected outcome instead of realizing that the small actions we take every day eventually add up to either good or bad health overall. So if 80% of our immune system is in our gut, and we eat fast food regularly, rarely visit a vegetable or fruit, and don't drink water, it makes a lot of sense that we cannot sustain health for very long. It also makes sense as to why the top three causes of death in the U.S. that are largely preventable, are killing us off at such a high rate.
I labeled this blog entry gut check for two reasons, obviously because it's pun-ny, but also because truly we don't educate or put enough emphasis on proper nutrition of the body to become or remain healthy. That old saying goes 'you are what you eat' and it has so much more truth to it than it's given credit. Garbage in garbage out- people are sick and dying in our wonderful country because either people are knowingly eating
It is my mission and my moral obligation as an educated person, a doctor, which comes from the Latin word teacher to do my part in helping people get HEALTHY. I am passionate about helping people get well, and I want to reach and help as many people as I can. If you already have this knowledge and you don't practice it, this gut check is for you, what do you want for yourself? Look around you, we only have one body to live in, and we are surrounded everyday with choices that can either help us take care of it, or will lead to it's ultimate destruction. If you've ever been through cancer, heart disease, or CLRD with a family member or loved one, you know how much these people suffer, and how hard it is to watch them go through that. If we all just made a few better decisions each day to take care of ourselves, there would be a heck of a lot healthier people in the world, and less people dying from unnecessary causes. If you don't know how to start to get healthy, contact me, I would love to help you.
No comments:
Post a Comment