You Don’t Have to Be Sick

Seventy-one percent of all deaths globally are caused by noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) according to a 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) fact sheet. Most NCD deaths are the result of cardiovascular diseases, which kill nearly 18 million people every year. Add cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes, and you have accounted for over 80% of all premature NCD deaths. 

Says the WHO, “Modifiable behaviours, such as tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and the harmful use of alcohol, all increase the risk of NCDs.” Many of the top ten causes of death are preventable through lifestyle changes. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, life expectancy for smokers in the U.S. is at least 10 years shorter than for non-smokers, making tobacco use the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The risk of death before age 70 for moderately obese men (Body Mass Index of 30-35) is 10.5% greater than for men with a normal BMI. 

The four leading metabolic conditions that increase the risk of NCD deaths globally are: elevated blood pressure, overweight, high blood sugar levels, and high levels of fat in the blood. These conditions are all influenced by what we eat. 

A total blood cholesterol of up to 200 mg/dL may be considered normal, but normal is not necessarily safe. Autopsies of young American soldiers (average age: 22!) who died in the Korean war showed that three out of four of them already had significantly narrowed coronary arteries. No wonder 340,000 coronary artery bypass graft operations are performed every year in the United States. 

In 2018 Americans spent 3.6 trillion dollars on health care. The real tragedy is that most of those illnesses could have been prevented if people would simply follow God’s health plan.