Hello,
If you are an Adult living in the US, chances are, you have a chronic disease.
This is because the CDC estimates that Six in ten adults in the US have a chronic disease and four in ten adults have two or more.
Chronic diseases are defined broadly as conditions that last 1 year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living or both.
The following is a list of Chronic Diseases :
- Heart Disease and Stroke (810,000 deaths per year)
- Cancer (1.7 million new cases per year, 600,000 deaths per year)
- Diabetes (29 million Americans have diabetes, and another 86 million adults in the United States have a condition called pre-diabetes)
- Obesity ( affects almost 1 in 5 children and 1 in 3 adults, putting people at risk for other chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers)
- Arthritis (affects 54.4 million adults in the United States, which is more than 1 in 4 adults)
- Alzheimer's Disease (a type of dementia, is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that affects about 5.7 million Americans)
- Epilepsy ( In the United States, about 3 million adults and 470,000 children and teens younger than 18 have active epilepsy)
- Tooth Decay ( Cavities are one of the most common chronic conditions in the United States)
If you currently do not have a chronic disease, research has shown that chronic diseases can be prevented by lifestyle choices.
The good news is that most chronic disease have a very small genetic component. For example, in cancer, only 5 to 10 % of your risks come from your genes.
Researchers estimate that 30 to 40 % of cancers are preventable.
If you are already suffering from a chronic disease, the good news is that most chronic diseases can be arrested and in some cases even reversed.
For example, Dr. Dean Ornish of UCSF, has successfully reversed the progress of some Cardio Vascular Diseases.
Other researchers have shown that Type 2 diabetes can be cured by lifestyle choices.
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP)