Never has it been more true. Your choices today can kill you as early as tomorrow

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Dr. G

The standard American lifestyle is no longer a problem to deal with tomorrow, or decades from now.

Your choices today can kill you in less than a week.

In my career I have spent hours discussing the paths that are available for my patients to avoid their family history of medical illness. I know it may sound strange to most people because we often think of our family medical history as our genetic predetermined path, not our choice.

People have become more and more aware that what runs in families which is as consequential as genes and DNA are our behaviors and we recognize that our behaviors can change if we choose to do so. I’ve made a career out of helping people make meaningful permanent behavioral changes to prevent and reverse disease and for many improve performance.

Unfortunately, there are always those who understand the path and who are not in denial about their future path or their ability to alter their path. This group is typically the group who knows they are pre-diabetic, overweight, have abnormal blood pressure or blood lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides), this group often is willing to avoid making change because they may be half their parents age and think they have plenty of time to address their concerns.

Enter the year 2020.

At the time of the writing of this article, it is safe to say there is so much we do not know, all of the experts have been right one day and completely wrong the next and we saw that cycle play itself out repeatedly. That is not to say that our experts are stupid, it just shines a light on how little we know in the year 2020 about viruses as a subject (virology) and in particular how little we know about a novel or ‘new’ presentation of a virus. We are seeing this virus hit different people in completely different and unique ways. Affecting the lungs of some, the blood cells of some and even the GI or cardiovascular systems of others.

In March 2020, the engine of the entire world stopped working because a virus showed up that had very interesting characteristics, especially for Americans. After 2 months of an acute covid-19 virus outbreak in the NYC metropolitan area, the statistics were very clear. And what follows in the rest of this article is what is indisputable.

Simple Statistics

After nearly 60,000 deaths, here is what we know for sure.

According to https://covid19tracker.health.ny.gov/ 89.5% of deaths have one or more of the following 10 concurrent illnesses. Regardless of age.

High blood pressure
Diabetes
Hyperlipidemia (abnormal fats, cholesterol, triglycerides, etc)
Heart disease
Dementia/Alzheimers
Kidney disease
Lung disease
Abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation, etc.)
Cancer
Stroke

Several of the above are included in those who are obese and over weight. Therefore obesity is included. I have written many times on these incredibly common metabolic challenges, like high blood pressure

An inconvenient truth

The above mentioned comorbidities or concurrent illnesses are either end stage disease or advanced pathology in my practice. It means that too much time has passed and you are suffering from disease.

Do you think the 10.5% who do not have a concurrent illness were perfectly healthy? Would you bet that they were on their way to having one or more of the conditions listed above? I think that would be a good bet. In our office we identify people with elevated inflammatory markers in their blood all of the time. We also recognize the “soft” signs of “metabolic derangement” long before the diagnosis is made for one or more of the listed common chronic disorders.

It just so happens that the list above is also responsible for the top 3 conditions that result in American deaths every year, nearly 1.5 million deaths per year.. With number 4 being accidents far down the line and nearly inconsequential compared to the top 3.. .

What does all of this mean to me?

If you or someone you love are one of those people putting off making changes in your life because you are 30, 35, or 40 years old, and you think you have decades before you start noticing the effects of poor health. Or perhaps you feel that dying of heart disease like your mom did at 80 is just so far away. Well, now there is a virus that can take you out this week.

Did you think that being pre-diabetic was simply a “pre” disease state, and that you’ll have to watch it to make sure it never becomes the diseased state of ‘actual diabetes’. Well your world has been shaken up. You ow realize that pre-diabetes is an actual disease on its own and is part of the metabolic derangement that make you not only susceptible to this virus, but any virus that comes in the future. It could be the flu, the next version of the swine flu, or the next coronavirus ( covid-19 was the 3rd one in less than 20 years) which reveals the weakness of the immune system. I am positive of one thing, it’s the strength of the host that matters most. Never before has it been more clear that we must pay attention to our metabolic health.

Please share this article with anyone you feel may want to know more, leave comments or ask questions. Thank you.

In health,

Dr. Steven Geanopulos

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