Conventional Medicine: Too little too late?

We live longer. This is a fact. Life expectancy has been increasing constantly since the 1950s. In 1900, we were still dying of infectious diseases: The top three killers were lung infections, tuberculosis and gastrointestinal infections.

Obviously, medical science has advanced considerably in the last century. With improved sanitary systems, personal hygiene and truly amazing medicine such as antibiotics and antivirals, infections no longer kill as many people as it did. As a result, we can expect to live much longer lives.

But we don’t necessary live better. What do I mean by this: We have gained life quantity, but not quality when it comes to the last decades of life. Because chronic diseases are killing us today chronic diseases. They develop early, progress slowly and cause suffering over a longer period of time.

The top 3 causes of death.

In 2020, heart disease killed more than 19 million people. Cancer killed 10 million people.
And neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease account for the third leading cause of death.

Conventional medicine steps in too late.

In conventional medicine, i.e. the health care system, diseases are treated once they are diagnosed. So once you have received your diabetes diagnoses you will get medicine that will allow you to „gain“ some years to your life despite your illness.

But please note: This happens, when your health is already compromised, when you’re already sick and when you have already lost some quality of life. So ye, you get to delay death, but without improving your quality of life.

Chronic disease begins much earlier than we recognize.

We usually connect chronic disease to old age. And sure, while the prevalence of chronic diseases increase sharply with age, they typically begin much earlier than we recognize. They just take a very long time to kill you.
Someone, who „suddenly“ drops dead of a heart attack did not just get sick at that very moment.

The disease has been working inside them for decades. In fact, 50% of men and one third of the women who are going to have cardiac event in their life will have it before the age of 65. That shows that not only old people are affected. About one third of these first events are fatal. Those who survive require a longer period of care, reducing their quality of life further.

To summarize: Cardiovascular-disease prevention starts at 55 to 60, but almost half of all infarcts and strokes occur before the age of 60!

Did you know that you don’t have to have high blood pressure or be obese to die of a heart attack?

Heart attacks are caused by atherosclerosis. This means the presence of cholesterol that has been dumped in your artery wall. We know, that this process starts in the first three decades of your life. And in the fourth decade one starts to develop the types of lesions that can actually precipitate a clinical event.

Cancer doesn’t really care about treatment.

Remember, cancer is a leading cause of death that kills about 10 million people per year. And death rates from cancer have hardly decreased in the past 50 years, despite of hundreds of billions of dollars that have been spent for cancer research.

The best way to prevent dying from cancer is to not get cancer in the first place. Remember the Marlboro Man? None of the treatments for lung-cancer has reduced mortality by nearly as much as the worldwide reduction in smoking.

Yet, preventative efforts are just a foot note in the system.

Reducing the risk for neurodegenerative diseases.

Neurodegenerative diseases include dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other processes such as Parkinson’s. And there is a reasonable likelihood that they will affect you or a loved one at some point in your life.

Clinical data strongly suggests that metabolic syndrome and an untreated high risk for atherosclerotic disease play a role in developing neurodegenerative disease. That starts 20-40 years before first cognitive issues or tremors will present!

Metabolic syndrome is also the path to developing Type 2 Diabetes.

Diabetes related deaths have increased by 70% since 2000.

Diabetes is also responsible for the largest rise in male deaths. 40% of adults worldwide are considered overweight of obese. Metabolic health issues are linked to low testosterone, menstrual irregularities or infertility, and yet these issues are treated completely independent of each other.

The impact of aging hits midlife.

This is when we start to lose a bit of our youthful strength and stamina. We occasionally forget the names of people we’ve met. Our peers suddenly develop cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes. We start losing friends to cancer.

And now imagine, that this doesn’t happen until you’re in your late 70s or even 80s.

That is, what prevention can do. By adapting your lifestyle you can take responsibility to stay healthier for longer. Adding quality to the final years of your life.