The facts are telling us loud and clear that the United States of America has some serious health problems. And what’s more, most of them are preventable. Let’s consider the following.
Heart disease and stroke are the number 1 and number 3 causes of mortality respectively in the U.S. These, and other cardiovascular diseases, claimed 864,480 lives in 2005 and it was estimated that approx. 80 million people in the U.S. in 2006 had one or more forms of cardiovascular disease (1). The good news is that the mortality rate is presently falling but it’s expected to rise again because the incidence of diabetes is increasing and diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
The prevalence of diabetes increased 6-fold from 1950 to 1993 and it’s still going up. It’s estimated to double between 2005 and 2050 unless there is a significant transition to a healthier diet and more energetic lifestyle. According to the American Diabetes Association (2), currently 23.6 million adults and children in the United States have diabetes. Of these, approx. 17.9 million have already been diagnosed and an estimated 5.7 million are unaware that they have the disease. In addition, there are 57 million more Americans who are pre-diabetic with elevated blood glucose levels that are under the threshold for full-blown diabetes. Kidney disease is also on the rise and it’s estimated that kidney failure rates will increase by 60% between 2001 and 2010.
Another major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke is high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, which affects over 72 million people in the U.S. It is thought to be associated with high salt consumption. Genetic factors may also play a role because the incidence of hypertension is greater among African Americans than among Caucasians or Asians.
Cancer is the number 2 cause of mortality in the U.S. after cardiovascular disease, claiming an estimated 565,650 lives in 2008 (3). Based on data from 2001 through 2003, a study by the National Cancer Institute has estimated that cancer will affect 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women during their lifetime and that the number of new cases will nearly double from 1.36 million in 2000 to almost 3 million by 2050 because of aging and population growth (4).
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted in 2003-2004 and repeated in 2005-2006 revealed that over 66% of adults in the U.S. aged 20 and over are overweight and nearly half of these are clinically obese (33.3% of men and 35.5% of women). These include 4.7% of American adults who are morbidly obese (5).
Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive and fatal form of senile dementia, is attracting growing public attention. It is now estimated that there as many as 5.3 million people in the United States living with Alzheimer’s disease and it’s tripling healthcare costs for Americans aged 65 and older (6). Alzheimer’s disease is now the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.
These are collectively appalling statistics and there is growing evidence to suggest that a great many of these health problems and their expensive consequences can be prevented. How then could such a sorry state of affairs be permitted to occur in arguably the most advanced nation on the planet? It is a national tragedy and one shared by many developed countries. So how can it be turned around?
Drs. Dean Ornish (7), Caldwell Esselstyn (8), and Joel Fuhrman (9), and others have shown that it is possible to lower blood pressure and significantly reverse coronary artery disease through dietary change. Symptoms of angina progressively disappear during the first few months of adopting a low-salt, low-fat, vegan diet and the incidence of future cardiac events is greatly reduced by this intervention. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that if such a diet had been followed in the first place, the symptoms of disease would never have appeared.
Drs. Neal Barnard, Joel Fuhrman, and others have demonstrated that the majority of their Type II diabetic patients can discontinue their insulin medication within the first month of adopting the new diet. Dr. Barnard has written a book on reversing Type II diabetes (10). Again, it is reasonable to suggest that if the therapeutic diet had been followed in the first place, then Type II diabetes would never have occurred.
More than 80 percent of Dr. Fuhrman’s chronic headache and migraine sufferers have recovered without medication when they have changed to the new diet. He also reports that many of his patients with autoimmune diseases such as asthma, hyperthyroidism, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis were able to recover and renounce their medications once they changed to the new diet (9).
These findings are very important because they indicate that dietary change is not only clinically effective if it is maintained, but it is also very cost-effective by eliminating medication, surgical intervention and the emotional and economic costs associated with disease and disability. Most important of all, it saves lives.
Dr. Alan Goldhamer (10,11) has demonstrated that over 90% of his patients with high blood pressure achieved completely normal readings by means of a physician-supervised, water-only fast. Blood pressure levels remained low after the fast, once the new diet was adopted.
Adherence to a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes and whole grains coupled with exercise has been shown to be effective in promoting weight loss. It is known that obesity is a major risk factor for Type II diabetes, high blood pressure, certain cancers, osteoarthritis and other medical conditions including abdominal hernias, gall bladder disease, gout, liver malfunction, respiratory problems, sleep apnea and varicose veins.
The evidence with respect to reversing cancer is much less clear because of legal constraints on pursuing alternative solutions when there is a possibility that the patient’s life can be saved with conventional therapies. However, one exception is prostate cancer, where the benefits of early conventional treatment are questionable. Many men decide to adopt a wait-and-see approach because the treatment often makes them incontinent and impotent. This was a perfect model for Dr. Dean Ornish and his colleagues to examine (13 – 15). His research team studied 93 men with biopsy-confirmed prostate cancer who had elected not to undergo conventional treatment. The participants were randomly divided into two groups; one of which was asked to make comprehensive changes in diet and lifestyle and another group, which was not.
After one year, the researchers found that prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein marker for prostate cancer, had decreased in men in the group who made the comprehensive lifestyle changes, but had increased in the comparison group. If PSA levels increase, the disease is probably getting worse. There was a direct correlation between the degree of lifestyle change and the changes observed in PSA. Also, it was found that serum from participants in the lifestyle-change group inhibited in vitro prostate tumor growth by 70 percent, whereas serum from the control group only had a 9% inhibitory effect. Again, there was a direct correlation between the degree of lifestyle change and the inhibition of prostate tumor growth. Patients who made comprehensive changes in their lifestyle also reported significant improvements in their quality of life, including better functioning and reduced feelings of anxiety and stress.
With respect to breast cancer, several studies involving pre-and post-menopausal women have suggested that regular exercise may reduce the incidence of the disease by 20-40%. (Spectrum, p.233). For those who are diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, a recently reported study of 1,500 women found that if they walked at least 30 minutes each day for 6 days each week and ate at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, their risk of mortality was reduced by half and this reduction was seen in both obese and non-obese women (Spectrum, p.231).
The writing is clearly on the wall. If we don’t take effective action to eat a healthy, essentially vegan diet, low in fat and salt, to exercise regularly and get enough sleep, we run the risk of serious disease and premature mortality with all the emotional and economic costs that they entail.
References
1) http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4478
2) http://www.diabetes.org/about-diabetes.jsp
3) http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/2008CAFFfinalsecured.pdf. American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2008. Atlanta: 80 pp.
4) Hayat, M. J. et al. (2007) Cancer Statistics, Trends, and Multiple Primary Cancer Analyses from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. The Oncologist 12, 20-37.
5) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Information Sheet, August 2008 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/infosheets/infosheet_nhanes.htm
6) http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_facts_figures.asp
7) Ornish, D. (1991) Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease. Ballantine Books, New York, 672 pp.
8) Esselstyn, C. B. (2007) Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Avery, New York, 308 pp.
9) Fuhrman, J. (2003) Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss. Little, Brown and Co., New York, 292 pp.
10) Barnard, N. (2007) Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes without Drugs. Random House, New York, 466 pp.
11) Fuhrman, J. (1995) Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor’s Program for Conquering Disease. St. Martin’s Griffin, New York, 255 pp.
12) Goldhamer, A. (2001) Medically supervised water-only fasting in the treatment of hypertension. J. Manipulative Physiol. Ther. 24, 335 – 339.
13) Ornish, D. (2007) The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better, Live Longer, Lose Weight, and Gain Health. Ballantine Books, New York, 386 pp.
14) Ornish, D. et al. (2005) Intensive Lifestyle Changes may affect the Progression of Prostate Cancer. J. Urol. 174, 1065-1069.
15) Daubenmier, J.J. et al. (2006) Lifestyle and Health-Related Quality of Life of Men with Prostate Cancer managed with Active Surveillance. Urology 67, 125-130.
© Christopher J. Jones, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Adventist Health Ministry,
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677, U.S.A.
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Thanks for this information.
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