According to Stephen Kopecky, MD, a preventive cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, “nutrition is now the number one cause of early death and early disease in our country and the world.” Moreover, he says that while having genes for disease will increase your risk by 30% to 40%, having a bad lifestyle for disease will increase your risk by 300% to 400%.
WebMD (March 7, 2023) – About 20 years ago, Kopecky says, the cause of death worldwide changed from infection to non-infection (like non-communicable diseases). “In those last 20 years, that’s grown in terms of what kills us and what gets us sick,” he says. “The three big non-communicable diseases are heart disease, cancer, and rapidly rising is Alzheimer’s. But there’s also diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure — all those things are also related to diet.”
Forty-eight-year-old James, of Fredericksburg, VA, knows this all too well. James asked that his last name not be printed, to protect his privacy. For the last 30 years, he’s been managing type 1 diabetes and complications of insulin resistance, along with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, thyroid disease, and low testosterone. As a former Division 1 college athlete, James exercised regularly and ate what he believed to be a responsible diet.
More than 55 million people worldwide are living with dementia, a neurological disorder that robs them of their memory and costs the world $1.3 trillion a year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
COMMENTARY:
Preventing Dementia by healthful living habits such as good sleep, diet and exercise would certainly save lots of misery and expense, by preventing dementia. These same habits would also go a long way in preventing auto immune disease, diabetes and chronic stress.
The COVID-19 mortality rate is falling around the world. We discuss the reasons behind this – the role of new drugs, the treatment strategies the have been learned, or re-learned, and the ever-present worry that these hard won victories could be undone by rising infection rates.
In this episode:
00:44 An increase in survival rates
The COVID-19 mortality rate is falling around the world. We discuss the reasons behind this – the role of new drugs, the treatment strategies the have been learned, or re-learned, and the ever-present worry that these hard won victories could be undone by rising infection rates.
This week, Moderna released preliminary results for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, the third positive indication from a string of vaccine announcements. Although the full data are yet to be published, do these results give us more reasons to feel hopeful?
The Journal Science recently reported on nearly 77,000 patients hospitalized with Covid 19. 29% were overweight and 48% were Obese. A total of 77% of admissions for Covid were overweight or worse.
Overweight was defined as BMI of 25-29.9 Kg. per Square Meter, and Obese was defined as BMI of 30 or greater. Another way of stating the data is giving the rate of Hospital admissions per 10,000 People.
Normal Weight, BMI 18.5-25 kg. Per square Meter—12%
Overweight, BMI 25-29.9 per square a Meter———-19%
Obese, BMI 30-34.9 per square Meter——————-23%
Severe Obesity, more than 35 per square meter——-42%
BMI calculators are everywhere to be found on the internet. Put in your weight and height, and find your BMI displayed.
These are striking figures, the more so because of the LARGE SAMPLE, and the LINEAR Relationship; the greater the overweight, the greater the hospitalization rate.
Every way you look at it, obesity is hazardous. More hip and knee replacements, harder to exercise, find comfortable seats, more difficult to do surgery, more diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, Hypertension, Sleep apnea, worse immunity, and now, confirming previous suspicions, clearly higher risk of being hospitalized (and dying) with Covid.
I realize that nobody chooses to be Obese; in addition to the health problems, overweight people are Subjected to discrimination.
Obesity is notoriously hard to treat; one of the few, seldom mentioned medical truths is that Diets fail long term. Starting and maintaining a diet takes Herculean Will Power, which is in short supply in our overindulgent, overadvertised, and overfed society.
If I were morbidly Obese, I might opt for Bariatric Surgery, and try my best to hold the short term weight loss, since even with surgery the pounds tend to creep back on over time.
The best way to treat Obesity is to treat it as the Plague it is. CHILDHOOD OBESITY should be treated aggressively. Keep the Obese Child from becoming an obese adult, and maybe carry yourself along with the Family.
Better yet, Good SLEEP, DIET, and EXERCISE come as an interactive mutually reinforcing package deal. Prevention always beats treatment.
My article on ABDOMINAL FAT is suggested reading, and there is a link to the Infographic which Displays the above date in graphic form.
Doctors Without Waiting Rooms 