Did you know that before the use of antibiotics was commonplace, the average life span was a mere 47 years? And now, thanks to the marvels of modern medicine, the average life span is 73.5 for men and 79.6 for women. Amazing, right? Most of us are living decades longer, but are we living better?
That is, unfortunately, an easy question to answer if you are one of the millions of people suffering from a chronic disease.
Many of the cases this Medical Detective has unraveled share one similarity: They’re chronic.
What Makes a Disease Chronic?
So what is going on? Why are we in the midst of a chronic disease epidemic?
I think it’s really important for you to know more, because chances are really high that either you’ll develop a chronic condition in your lifetime, or know someone who already has. And is suffering!
According to the CDC, “Chronic diseases are defined broadly as conditions that last one year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living or both.”
[Image thanks to Kampus Productions on Pexels.com]
There are two kinds of chronic diseases, and they can overlap:
* Genetic diseases that you are born with. Scientists have estimated that between 6-7000 genetic diseases presently exist, and they include blood disorders, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy, polycystic kidney disease, sickle cell disease, Tay-Sachs Disease, and Type 1 diabetes. Genetic diseases will likely manifest at some point in time depending on a range of factors, including whether they are caused by a single gene defect, mutations in multiple genes, and/or chromosomal abnormalities, and your genetic susceptibility, although some can be improved or potentially reversed. These genetic abnormalities will often interact with environmental factors like exposure to cigarette smoke, environmental toxins, radiation, and even hormonal changes in the body (puberty, pregnancy), which trigger their onset.
* Then there are diseases that develop either from infections, inflammation, immune dysfunction (the 3 Is), environmental toxin exposure, microbiome abnormalities, food allergies/sensitivities with leaky gut, and/or lifestyle choices revolving around how healthy our diet, exercise, and sleep regimens are, not to mention stress…. These include cancer, heart disease, and Type 2 diabetes—diseases that the CDC refer to as the “leading causes of death and disability in the United States.” Even among these diseases, there can be hereditary reasons why you are predisposed to developing them, but whether they manifest or not depends upon the interplay of some of the multiple factors discussed above, and their downstream effects. These are the ones you have control over, but need the guidance--and motivation--to properly address them. The CDC also recognizes that chronic diseases may be a complex interplay of genetics, environmental factors, infections, and trauma. (Not very reassuring, right?)
Let’s take a look at some of the numbers just in the US:
Alzheimer's Disease / Dementia
46.5 million adults are already diagnosed with pre-clinical dementia, and due to progressive aging in our population, cases of dementia will double between 2020 and 2040
Autism Spectrum Disorder
5.4 million adults have this, and many more are undiagnosed
Autoimmune Diseases
24 million adults are affected by 1 of 80 autoimmune diseases
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Up to 2.5 million adults have this
Chronic Pain
51.6 million adults experience chronic pain
Covid and Long Covid
In the US, at least 77.5 percent of adults were infected with Covid at least once, which tallies with its infection rate worldwide. It’s been estimated that at a whopping 48 million American adults were diagnosed with Long Covid at some point, and the numbers are likely much higher.
Lyme Disease
Over 625,000 adults are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease every year
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
1 million adults have multiple sclerosis, which can be progressive
Parkinson's Disease
Up to 1 million adults have Parkinson's Disease
To be even more specific, of the 341 million Americans, an astounding 50% now suffer from at least one chronic disease, and these chronic diseases account for 86% of our $4.5 trillion in our annual healthcare costs and 70% of the deaths in our country.
It’s not just Americans dealing with this epidemic of chronic diseases, either. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that “noncommunicable diseases are claiming around three-quarters of all lives lost each year.” Their statistics up to 2022 aren’t just sobering. They’re terrifying! That’s why the head of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that this data “sends a stark message on the threat of noncommunicable diseases, which take an immense and increasing toll on lives, livelihoods, health systems, communities, economies and societies.”
Is all this info scary enough for most people to take a good hard look at their risk factors? What do you think?
There’s so much to unbundle about chronic diseases, and I’ll be covering specifics in greater detail in subsequent postings. But this is what I want you to know right now: Chronic diseases aren’t always obvious—and this is where the need for a Medical Detective comes in. If you’re a Type 1 diabetic, sure, the answer from one point of view is simple, as you were born with a pancreas that doesn’t produce the insulin you need to process what you eat. Yet even in this case, you can benefit from a Medical Detective, as you or your doctor may not be aware of recent advances in medicine. Some of these are the development of an artificial pancreas; stem cell-derived pancreatic islet cell replacement therapy (the cells that produce insulin); islet transplantation from a donor, and/or monoclonal antibodies that shield the Beta cells of the pancreas from the immune cells that attack them.
[Image thanks to Clker-Free-Vector-Images on Pixabay.com]
The idea behind having your own Medical Detective is that medicine is constantly changing and evolving, and you need the most up-to-date information to effectively treat your chronic disease.
But many chronic conditions are complex and difficult to diagnose and treat—because they’re almost always multi-layered. They have many different components, which means the symptoms and their causes aren’t always clear-cut. Yet the way our health system is structured, if the answer isn’t simple, you’ll likely be sent to one specialist after another—doctors who can only identify and try to treat heal the part of the problem that they specialize in…and if that doesn’t work, you’ll be sent to yet another specialist who focuses on something else entirely. Oftentimes, they will treat your symptoms with drugs they learned about in medical school, but they won’t get to all the underlying causes of why those symptoms are present in the first place. Medical school curriculums do not regularly teach functional medicine, where we learn to get to the root causes of symptoms and diseases.
It’s like the parable of the blind man and the elephant, where conclusions drawn from piecemeal information make seeing the full picture impossible.
[Image thanks to Mote Oo Education on Pixabay.com]
This is why we’re getting sicker and sicker. We’re not getting the help we deserve and need. It’s nearly impossible not to be concerned that one illness can lead to a debilitating, chronic, life-changing condition.
Yet here’s the shocker: we have an effective model that can get to the roots of your chronic illness and improve your health. It is called the Map of the Cure, or the 16-point MSIDS map. I have used this model to get over 13,000 chronically ill individuals better during the last 40 years. Many who came in with a wide variety of chronic symptoms are in long-term remission, yet many doctors in our present healthcare system do not actively use this model to get their patients better.
Why not? Likely because your doctor never learned functional medicine; does not have the time during an HMO visit to get to the underlying causes of the complexity of your symptoms (in a typical HMO model you have 10 minutes to discuss one symptom); does not have the time to keep up with the constantly evolving nature of medicine (we were taught that 50% of everything we learn in medical school will be obsolete in 5-10 years); and finally, because your healthcare provider was also taught to refer you to multiple specialists who know more than they do. They were not taught, as I was, that it is their responsibility to figure out why you are sick.
Why would you accept the limitations of the present medical model when chronic disease completely disrupts your ability to function in every aspect of life—your energy, your work, your family and friends, your hopes for the future? Why are comprehensive treatments and medications out of reach for countless millions, leaving them robbed of their savings, plagued with depression or anxiety or loneliness (or all three), and rendered frustrated, angry, and upset that they aren’t getting better and no one seems to be listening?
Fortunately, there is hope! That’s what this Substack is going to give you.
Because over the course of my four decades as a doctor and Medical Detective, I’ve developed a protocol to treat chronic illness with a phenomenal success rate. I'll be revealing more in upcoming articles. Stay tuned.