| A warning is definitely needed for the Western | | | | did it go from almost non-existent to the number |
| world, particularly for people eating food out of | | | | one spot? |
| grocery stores and restaurants. Know anyone like | | | | What about cancer? Only 3% of us died of |
| that? | | | | cancer a hundred years ago. Today, almost 30% |
| Like the aristocrats of ancient Rome, many | | | | of us will succumb to it. The 1909 edition of the |
| Americans are literally eating themselves to an | | | | standard U.S. textbook, Principles and Practice of |
| early death. I feel that with a little bit of basic | | | | Medicine, devoted only 15 pages to cancer. Breast |
| knowledge, supported by statistics and research | | | | and prostate cancers were not even mentioned; |
| from the cutting edge of health and science, | | | | colon cancer received 2 lines. In contrast, the |
| people can take some simple steps and put the | | | | 1994 edition of Principles of Internal Medicine |
| odds of living a longer healthier life back in their | | | | devoted 174 pages to this affliction. |
| favor. There are 8 major diseases that have | | | | Stroke, which killed only a very few people a |
| been sweeping the land since the 1940's. All of | | | | hundred years ago, is today the number three |
| them were virtually unheard of at the turn of the | | | | deadly disease killer of Americans. |
| 20th century. | | | | Alzheimer's wasn't even diagnosed until 1907. |
| I started to do some of my own research, | | | | Today, 40% of those over 85 are suffering from |
| because I am one of those 77 million baby | | | | it. |
| boomers born between 1946 and 1964, that is | | | | Diabetes has increased 600% in just the last |
| quickly aging & I want to preserve my | | | | generation. Each year, Diabetes kills more than |
| health as long as possible. | | | | twice as many American women as breast |
| There is a lot of contradictory information | | | | cancer. |
| available, which is why so many people are | | | | Over 40 million Americans suffer with some form |
| confused about what to do to maintain their | | | | of Arthritis or Osteoporosis. Ask any American |
| health. I've heard people say things like: "there's so | | | | woman what disease she fears most and she'll |
| much contradiction out there, who knows what to | | | | probably say breast cancer. Yet hip fractures kill |
| believe anymore--I'll just eat what I want and | | | | more women than cancers of the breast, cervix |
| take my chances". | | | | and uterus combined. |
| Incredibly, some of the so-called studies I read | | | | Finally, there are the auto immune disorders like |
| were funded by the very industries that were | | | | chronic fatigue syndrome, Epstein-Barr virus, lupus, |
| directly affected by the results! For example, how | | | | fibromyalgia, and AIDS. I lump them into one big |
| serious do we take a study on the effects of | | | | category, and this group is growing like wildfire in |
| pesticide use, when it is funded by a pesticide | | | | the US right now. 20 years ago, they didn't even |
| manufacturing company? Or how about a study | | | | have names for most of this stuff and many of |
| on the effects of dairy products on asthma and | | | | them were written off by doctors as |
| allergy patients that was funded by the Dairy | | | | psycho-sematic. But the harsh symptoms of |
| Council of America? | | | | these auto-immune disorders are currently |
| I call this "junk" science. They start out with a | | | | wreaking havoc on the health of tens of |
| proposition to prove, and then they find a way to | | | | thousands of Americans, and in the case of AIDS, |
| manipulate the data in order to prove it! I decided | | | | are killing people at an alarming rate. |
| to sift through the science and only qualify studies | | | | Obviously, something has gone terribly wrong |
| where the funding source was disconnected from | | | | here, and it's happened in our lifetime. But we're |
| an interested party. | | | | acting as if all of these diseases are just a part of |
| In addition, I started studying people who were | | | | the normal aging process! Not so! There is nothing |
| healthy themselves and maybe had overcome | | | | normal or natural about degenerative disease. We |
| personal illness through holistic healing or natural | | | | have convinced ourselves it is normal as a way of |
| remedies, people who had experienced definite, | | | | dealing with the terrible new reality of sickness |
| verifiable results (like me), using alternative | | | | and disease in the modern world. |
| medicine. There has always been something about | | | | Many of these deaths are totally unnecessary. |
| our "drugs and surgery" approach to health care | | | | And that's the tragedy. When a plane crashes and |
| that never made sense to me. During my | | | | a few hundred people die, it makes the front |
| research I found a huge number of people that | | | | page news for days. But when a million people die |
| supported the idea that good health resulted from | | | | of heart disease or a half a million die of cancer, |
| right choices with regard to food, nutrition, water, | | | | you would think there would be more of an |
| exercise and rest. Using a combination of carefully | | | | outcry. It's the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of |
| filtered scientific studies, stories, and good old | | | | people crashing every single hour of every single |
| common sense, I found that if the body is given | | | | day of every single month for an entire year, |
| those five elements in the proper form and | | | | year after year. |
| amount, the body can solve almost any problem. | | | | How long do you plan on living? To what age? 70? |
| Most of us assume we are living longer, because | | | | 80? 90? 100+? What do you think is reasonable? |
| the longevity stats have gone way up in the last | | | | Now, take that figure and add 10 extra healthy |
| 100 years. But the sad truth is that because | | | | years to it. What if you could live to 100 and |
| these 8 diseases are growing so fast, we are | | | | beyond without the pain and disease that most |
| actually living shorter...but taking longer to die. Our | | | | people think comes with old age? |
| technology keeps us alive longer, but we sacrifice | | | | Today the average person lives to about 76. |
| the quality of life in the process. Can there really | | | | That's 79 for women and 72 for men. But in |
| be dignity when our elderly spend months or even | | | | certain areas of the world centenarians are |
| years in a vegetative state hooked up to a | | | | common. We have only lately started to uncover |
| machine? | | | | why. |
| What about the economic impact of this trend? | | | | Today, the risk of dying of any thing before you |
| I used to think that normal aging was the same | | | | are 40 is really very small. But starting at 40, you |
| for everybody. You get one of the eight deadly | | | | enter the zone of the 8 deadly diseases. How |
| diseases, and then you slowly die. Imagine my | | | | deadly are they? They kill more than 80% of us, |
| surprise when I learned that heart disease, the | | | | which is sad because the majority of the time |
| number one killer of Americans, is a relatively new | | | | they are preventable. |
| disease! The first modern cases were reported in | | | | In summary food, nutrition, water, exercise and |
| 1912, and even then it was extremely rare. | | | | rest are the keys to enjoying the highest level of |
| Today heart disease kills four times as many | | | | optimum health for many years after we thought |
| American women each year as breast cancer. For | | | | possible. |
| 300,000 people each year, the first and only | | | | See you at my hundredth birthday party, will you |
| symptom of heart disease is sudden death. How | | | | be there? |