The old days are definitely gone. Putting aside the coronavirus pandemic, the main causes of death are not as simple to see and target as they once were.
In days gone by, things like cancer, viruses, and common underlying health conditions, all the main causes of death, were obvious and could be attacked through developments in medicine.
However, chronic diseases through lifestyle choice is now an increasing trend amongst all age groups around the world. This is common for all age groups, genders, and ethnicities.
So it’s not a simple as trying to find a cure for cancer anymore. Although that’s a fantastic goal, it wouldn’t solve the massive deaths from chronic disease, but the simple measures we will talk about now will massively reduce it.
Why Chronic Disease Is Often Overlooked
Chronic disease is an illness that is not contagious, and usually many years in duration. Because of this slow progression, and because it happens to an individual quietly, then you just don’t see it from society, or even a medical, point of view until it is truly chronic.
It can be the result of genetics, poor lifestyle, or the environment. Often, it’s a combination of two of the three of those factors.
The only visible signs of chronic disease due to lifestyle are usually obesity, poor cognitive skills, and poor physical skills.
Chronic disease through lifestyle causes huge amounts of deaths. Way back in 1990, 57% of all deaths globally were linked to chronic disease fueled by lifestyle choices.
By 2016, 39 million people a year were dying from preventable chronic disease, that 72% of all global deaths. Now obviously, coronavirus has now skewed those figures, and it will be a couple of years before we can get back to settled figures that demonstrate if this is still increasing.
Maybe, coronavirus will help as a catalyst of people recognizing a change in lifestyle to have the better physical strength to fight disease is essential and might drive personal change.
But generally, chronic diseases overlooked because it’s insidious in nature, mostly hidden, and also there’s the self-denial. Look at obese people. Many of them claim it’s not a problem, even though deep down they know it is. So there is a mental health issue here as well that means preventable chronic diseases are overlooked until it’s too late.
The Main Global Causes Of Death Have Shifted Over The Decades
So what we have is a situation where altering risk factors are occurring in everyday life. No longer are physical death causes the main things to worry about because we have generally created a very safe world for humanity.
We are talking about the obvious things like red meat consumption. It’s been linked strongly with heart disease for many decades, and it’s no surprise that in countries where red meat consumption was very low but is now increasing, places like China and the Far East, heart disease is on the increase.
Not only is it things like consumption though, but it’s also far more complex than that now.
Modern lifestyles tend to be stressful. Even if some of that stress is created simply by the lifestyle we have created. Obesity, morbidity, sedentary and isolated lifestyles, all these create stress and anxiety which is linked to the long term breaking down of healthy body systems both physically and mentally.
Plus, when your mental health starts to fail, you have less desire to exercise or treat yourself with respect. So mental health linked to poor lifestyle is another key factor driving chronic disease that is highly preventable.
Put Simply: Lifestyle Is The Biggest Killer On Earth
The truth, as we all deep down now, is that our lifestyle is killing us.
Now there are degrees of that, and some people live healthily, only exposing themselves to minimal lifestyle risks.
But the majority of us don’t eat well all the time. We don’t exercise daily and have low levels of physical activity due to the sedentary nature of jobs and home life, fueled by the Internet. Back in the Stone Age we had no choice, but now we have choices, we are making poor ones.
This rise in chronic disease is a new plague, it’s like a new virus that slowly eating away at all of us. Putting aside vaccinations, sanitation improvements, antibiotics, increases in the quality of medical care, chronic disease through lifestyle is highly preventable, just by making better daily choices.
Lifestyle choices are partly linked to our income and socio-economic group. Low to middle-income groups in developed societies have higher levels of heart disease due to poor diet and lifestyle. However, that’s not the whole story and you can’t just blame people for being poor.
Across the world, about 2 billion adults (around 30% of the world’s population) are overweight. 1/3 of those are clinically obese.
That drives rising things like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and increases the likelihood of disease like cancer, as well as brain diseases and degenerative conditions.
Only through lifestyle changes, going to the gym, working out, taking supplements if our diet requires it, looking at improving our cardiovascular quality, all of these things can be important alongside diet changes.
If you’re still skeptical about this, look at China. A country that lived on rice and hard work. But now, it’s got the highest rate increase for chronic disease from lifestyle in the world. Although obesity only affects 5% of the Chinese population, that’s 250 million people who are overweight, of which 40 million are clinically obese. That’s completely unheard of in Chinese history, and it’s driving a massive increase in early death rates and hospital admissions.
Because China doesn’t have a culture of working out, gyms, running, as a leisure activity, it’s driving a faster increase as well.
Lifestyle Changes And Regular Exercise Are Key To Minimizing Chronic Disease
If we could get the world running and down the gym then we would get rid of 75% of the preventable chronic diseases that are killing people right now.
We would lower obesity, degenerative disease levels, unhealthy lifestyles, we would raise mental health and increase happiness.
Now, this is not advocating that everyone should get down to the gym and take SARMs or other supplements and push themselves to the limit. This is simply about leading a healthy lifestyle. Eating less and better quality, less alcohol, going to the gym more, more cardiovascular activity, and increasing your positive mental habits.
But what many people are also finding is that supplements can help. That’s why vitamin use has gone up massively, alongside some more specialist health and bodybuilding supplements. This trend is growing even faster due to coronavirus where it’s becoming obvious that healthy levels of many vitamins and minerals, alongside better health and strength, can really fight off serious illness.