Chronic disease can cost you your retirement.
In 1950, obesity affected approximately 100 million world wide, primarily in wealthy nations. These statistics have changed dramatically over the past six decades as the industrialization of agriculture has become the norm.
By 2010, the number of obese citizens ballooned to 500 million. Four years later, 641 million people were obese, and estimates suggest that by 2030, more than 1 billion people worldwide will fall into this obesity category.
This would not be happening were it not for the adoption and spread of processed foods as dietary staples. Processed food as dietary staples, who would have thought.
Now comes the skyrocketing growth and costs of Chronic Illnesses.
Along with excess body weight comes a wide range of other health problems and associated health care costs. In the U.S., just 8 obesity-related diseases account for 75 percent of health care costs. That is staggering!
These diseases include:
- Type 2 Diabetes, (what we used to call Adult Onset Diabetes) which now affects nearly 1 in 11 adults worldwide
- Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
- Heart disease
- Cancer
- Alzheimer’s (which has been called type 3 Diabetes).
In fact, 1 in 5 American deaths are now associated with obesity and the chronic illness effects of it.
The ramifications of poor diet and toxic exposures from food are perhaps most notable in the U.S., where for the first time in two decades, life expectancy has actually declined.
Remarkably, half of all Americans now struggle with some kind of chronic illness, and the cost of health care in the U.S. accounts for 17 percent of the gross domestic product.
The direct and indirect annual cost of diseases attributed to obesity alone tops $1.4 trillion. Again, staggering.
All of these statistics tie back to our food supply, starting with how food is grown. On the whole, there’s really no way to reverse these disease rates without addressing agriculture and food production. Our very lives depend on it.
These statistics can also be tied to the amount of toxins we are exposed to on a daily basis.
Let’s just talk about toxins that have Xeno-estrogen effects within the body. Xeno-estrogens like plastic, pesticides, and many paraben chemicals that are added to personal-care items and cosmetics.
Xeno-estrogens have the ability to stimulate the estrogen receptors in both males and females. They are known as Endocrine Disruptors. Think of all the Hormone Issues that you hear about today. Especially in young people.
Toxins, if levels become too high in the body, are usually sequestered by the body in fatty tissue and with dilution by fluid. That is why toxic people feel, ‘fat and bloated’. Which raises the question, “Are you fat or are you toxic?”
Healthcare clearly has emerged as the greatest financial burden faced by retirees. The incidence of expensive chronic diseases is higher for today’s retiring baby boomers than it was for their parents.
Longevity gains have added years to average life spans, but these extra years may seem more a curse than blessing if they are spent dealing with serious illness and unaffordable medical bills.
That’s just the financial burden. The personal burden on family and relationships can also come with a cost.
With lists of medications for older individuals approaching 12-15 for some people, you start to wonder if you are treating the illness or the side effects of the meds.
It is daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Learn to manage your health, not your disease. By managing and learning new skills to address your own health you can save 10’s of thousands of dollars that could be spent on fun things to do when retired rather than budgeting for the medications that you need in order to manage the chronic illnesses.
My oldest patient that I ever treated was 94, she was spry and sharp mentally. She came in with low back pain because she had fallen off of her ladder while she was painting her house. Wow!
I asked her what her secret was to not only her longevity, but her ability to stay so strong both in body and mind.
She told me that she never ate that “junk” food, as she called it, and she was always active. Her day started first thing in the morning and she was productive until the end of the day.
She said that it started with a list of things to accomplish each day. Notice that she said productive and not busy. I think we need to feel productive, always.
By the way, her medication list was all of, one. It was a blood pressure medication that she was put on 20 years ago. She said her doctor tried to put her on cholesterol medication 15 years ago, but she told him to, “stick it in his ear”. I had to laugh, because I believed her.
Finding and utilizing a Functional Medicine Practitioner can give you a plan for better health and more money in your retirement, because you learned how to ‘Manage your Health, not your Disease’.
Start your journey today.