A recent study called ‘Lifestyle Medicine: A Brief Review of its Dramatic Impact on Health and Survival’ has put forward the notion that US medicine should be focussing on preventative measures when it comes to chronic diseases.
Currently, in the USA, many people are suffering from terrible diseases, often fatal. The number of cases of heart disease and cancer in the US is increasing rapidly. Due to pharmaceuticals, less people are dying of heart disease, although it’s suggested that last year cancer became the leading cause of death in the US. However, this new report says that medicinal intervention isn’t enough and that we should be working towards prevention.
‘Medicine, as currently practiced, is approaching a strategic inflection point; a need for change must be recognized and instituted,’ says the report. ‘Practitioners, insurance providers and government agencies must inform the population that we have identified the root causes of many of our diseases and must implement a plan to halt and reverse the conditions.’
The study refers to the ‘poor Western lifestyle,’ and claims that we should be focussing on nutrition, stress reduction and exercise.
Medical professionals have largely agreed with the statements put forward in this report. Furthermore, they are often recommending that a plant-based diet is where we should be focussing our efforts on nutrition.
The study says that US health problems ‘are man-made and, therefore, solvable.’ ‘To those of us looking for solutions to our health care crisis, the gaping need for lifestyle medicine in daily practice is evident.’
The Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine has already detailed the links between animal products and major diseases on their website. These medical professionals believe that a plant-based diet, particularly one that’s rich in whole foods, would seriously decrease the number of cases of these diseases.
The study claims that these finding should be treated with a sense of urgency; change needs to happen now and it needs to happen fast. ‘We are running out of time to reverse the destructive trend…our survival and the survival of the next generation are at risk.’
