The Self Care Revolution

 We are facing a health crisis due to the increasing burden of chronic disease. Currently, chronic diseases are responsible for 70% of deaths. Over 60% of us live with at least one chronic illness and 42% have 2 or more. People who suffer from chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and arthritis experience limitations in function, health, activity, and work, affecting the quality of their lives as well as the lives of their families.

 According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), treating people with chronic diseases accounts form 86% of our health care costs. Nearly 70% of our population are on some type of prescription medication, with an average of nearly 17 per person.

 From reading the preceding paragraph you might surmise that I am talking only about the United States, but these same figures (or very close) apply globally.

Chronic Disease a Global Health Crisis

Although the United States currently leads the world in almost every disease and chronic condition, this is not just a problem here in the U.S., it is global. Fifty percent of adults worldwide have at least one chronic disease while one in three suffer from multiple chronic conditions. Disease rates from these conditions are accelerating globally and advancing across every region and pervading all socioeconomic classes. Chronic disease is responsible for 70% of deaths globally and pharmaceutical consumption continues to increase globally driven by a growing demand for drugs to treat chronic diseases, according to the World Health Organization. Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, are by far the leading cause of mortality in Europe, representing 77% of the total disease burden and 86% of all deaths.

Chronic diseases are interrelated, have common risk factors and are largely preventable. Yet, in Europe, 9 people out of 10 die of a chronic disease. Ninety-seven percent of health expenses are currently spent on treatment, with only 3% is invested in prevention.

If there was ever a time for a Self Care Awakening it is NOW

Some 20 years ago, I came to an awakening regarding my own health and well-being. This journey has led to the information we discuss in the Self Care Awakening. It is about a few very simple concepts. It is about Being Healthy by Choice and not by Chance. The reality is, if we leave our health to chance, chances are that we are not going to be healthy. The major impetus for the Self Care Awakening is to bring this and other aspects of good health to light.  To do so we first need to become aware of the problem or what are the reasons that so many of us are plagued with so many different chronic issues. This is a relatively new problem and maybe it is one that we have created ourselves.

In the early 1900’s the major cause of death was communicable diseases (infectious diseases). The top three were pneumonia and flu, tuberculosis, and gastrointestinal infections.  In 2012 the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a retrospective look at causes of death from 1900 to 2010. Deaths from infectious diseases have decreased dramatically, while the proportion of people dying from cancer has more than tripled. If we look at current trends, cancer rates are going up, heart disease and stroke are increasing, Type2 diabetes is nearly epidemic and a host of other chronic issues that contribute to our mortality. 

The first question to ask is why? What has changed in the last 100 years? Have we changed much biologically, or have we altered everything else around us? I think the latter is the more logical answer. The world we live in today is much different than that of the 1900’s.

In a span of a little over a 100 years chronic disease has become the number one killer worldwide accounting for 70% of all deaths. Chronic diseases and conditions—such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and arthritis—are among the most common, costly, and the most preventable of all health problems.

Americans currently fill 5.8 billion prescriptions per year. In 1993 the average prescription per American was seven, currently it is over 17 per person in the U.S Per capita pharmaceutical use is highest in the U.S., followed by Canada, Germany, and France according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The National Health Service recently reported that the UK has experienced a 47% increase in drugs dispensed over the last decade with over one billion prescriptions being filled every year. Medication has reached a shocking level of 15 per individual with half of Britons taking prescription medications.

Let’s face it, we are taught our entire lives to be consumers of modern medicine, especially pharmaceutical medicine. When we were young and had a headache, our moms gave us baby aspirin. They didn’t ask when we last drank some water. This behavior continued as we grew. If we think that there’s a pill for everything that ails us (and many do), we have missed the whole point of prevention and self care.  We are taught to treat rather than prevent, to react rather than be proactive about our health.

The Self Care Awakening series was designed to bring back common sense and some sanity to what I consider to be an insane notion that chronic disease is a normal part of life. It's not, but if we look at it statistically most our population have chronic health issues.

We think being healthy is difficult when it's pretty simple if we make some of the right choices. Our health, good or bad, is about our personal choices.  Knowing this I think it’s safe to say that we would all prefer to be healthy. Our tag line Be Healthy by Choice, not by Chance is a simple but very empowering statement.

Within the Self Care Awakening we look at four vital areas that lead to a healthier life and are the factors either individually or in conjunction are the causation for chronic conditions.  

1.     Water Matters discusses the importance of hydration and what happens if we don’t drink enough water. This Impetus also talks about different choices for healthy water that we consume and bathe in.

2.     Sleep Matters addresses the fact that many of us walk around every day sleep deficient. Sleep is considered by many of us to be an unproductive endeavor, when it is our most productive physiological activity.

3.     Weight Matters concerns itself with excess sugar consumption and what we can do to limit our intake by simple easy choices and achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

4.     Environmental toxicity and our body burden “the pollution in people” and what we can do personally to limit our toxic exposures and reduce our body burden of toxic chemicals.

Although these four concepts are simple and easy to understand they are vital for our health, unfortunately most of us don’t pay much attention to them. It is vital that we stay hydrated, get 8 hours of sleep, reduce our sugar intake to a healthy level and take steps to decrease our body burden of toxic chemicals.

Regrettably most everyone reading this article has experienced chronic disease in their lives, either personally, a family member or people they care about. It is our purpose and our passion to change this and empower everyone to Be Heathy by Choice and not leave their Health to Chance.