More Americans Getting Multiple Chronic Illnesses

January 6th, 2009

Via: Reuters:

More Americans are burdened by chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure, often having more than three at a time, and this has helped fuel a big rise in out-of-pocket medical expenses, a study released on Tuesday showed.

With prescription drugs playing a key role, average annual out-of-pocket medical costs — those not covered by health insurance — rose from $427 per American in 1996 to $741 in 2005, researchers wrote in the journal Health Affairs.

Based on government survey data, 44 percent of Americans in 2005 had at least one chronic medical condition, which could include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, cancer, arthritis, heart failure and others. That compares to 41 percent in 1996.

The study did not look directly at the causes of the increases, but there appear to be several factors.

The rise in Americans with multiple chronic illnesses comes as obesity and sedentary lifestyles have grown more common. Obesity contributes to many chronic ailments including diabetes. U.S. health officials say the rate of new cases of diabetes soared by about 90 percent in the past decade.

6 Responses to “More Americans Getting Multiple Chronic Illnesses”

  1. Loveandlight says:

    And the medical establishment refuses to recognize some of these chronic disorders, such as systemic candidiasis. I suspect that the disorders the science-worshippers refuse to recognize are mostly those that coincide with over-reliance on technological civilization. For instance, one thing that tips many candidiasis patients into having this disorder is unnecessary use of antibiotics.

  2. tranquil says:

    90% of “food” in grocery stores here not only lacks nourishment, causing chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes, but also poisonous, with some of it even causing cancer through dangerous preservatives.

    And most doctors are just trying to make a buck off of others like good businessmen. The community radio station here regularly airs a local journalist who said there are quite a few rich cardiologists who own stakes in local fast food franchises.

    Maybe all docs aren’t this bad, but at best most of them are either nutritionally illiterate or just don’t care. I have a neighbor who has type II diabetes and his docs have never even spoken to him about eating balanced, wholesome meals or even that type II diabetes is caused by too much processed food and refined sugar. They just tell him to lose weight (difficult due to his COPD) without any specific guidelines or attempts at educating him as a patient.

  3. Eileen says:

    I first learned about the Weston Price Foundation from Cryptogon and bought several books recommended by Becky over at Farmlet. My favorites these days are Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. Michael Pallin is also one of my heroes.
    I have to think that something “is wrong” when pigs for slaughter (meat) are fed skim milk products to make them fat (e.g. more tasty to the average meat eater). Imagine all those humans who drink pasteurized, processed, skim milk products and what that is doing to their “poundage.”
    Michael Pallin analyzed the food from a fast food meal re spectrometry and found that 90% of the food contained corn. Corn is not easily digested by either humans OR animals.
    I have been fortunate to remain small in stature sidewise since I stopped buying and ingesting products that contain high fructose corn syrup. This is a substance that is ubiquitous on most food labels (if you bother to read them). Neither animals or humans can digest this shit but no one seems to have told them so.
    Makes me think that humans are getting fatter by design so that they get sick and doctors and hospitals can do their MRI’s and what not tests. My brother in law works for a major US manufacturer and even with his health insurance had to pay $1000 US dollars as a copay for this exam. Didn’t find anything that would cure him of his ailments. But he got drugs diagnosed nonetheless.
    Before my doctor died in a rock climbing accident this fall she saved my life. Diagnosed my vitamin D3 deficiency and taught me how to eat a diet high in alkaline foods.
    If your doctor doesn’t talk to you about how you feel about yourself and your life and what you eat you would be better off not going to them. Putting humans on big Pharma meds is not the answer. Imagine instead sunlight, nutritious food and exercise curing all the Peoples and there goes another corporatist, fascist, profiteering regime that bites the dust.

  4. Kevin says:

    Thank you for sharing that great information, Eileen.

  5. tochigi says:

    Eileen,

    in Japan, HFCS is disguised on food labels as “fructose-glucose syrup”, no mention of corn at all. even a lot of processed foods sold in “health food shops” contains it and no one bats an eyelid because there has never been any media coverage of what it is, how it is made or who profits from it. even on the Japanese-language internet, there is almost no grassroots movement warning people about this shit that is poisoning them. from about 1998 till a couple of years ago i used to do a big scan of Japanese-language sites and search engines to see if anyone was trying to publicise HFCS. nope, nothing. i gave up. all non-diet fizzy drinks here contain HFCS. most frozen desserts. a lot of baked goods. just about everything. the only thing more ubiquitous is MSG! anyway, reading food labels takes up most of my time in the supermarket. but believe it or not, organic vegetables and fruit is cheaper in Japan than in NZ! (not necessarily certified organic, because that is a bit of a scam too, but grown by trustworthy people without chemicals).

    thanks for your info, the wild fermentation book will go on my list. sorry to hear about your doctor.

  6. Loveandlight says:

    If your doctor doesn’t talk to you about how you feel about yourself and your life and what you eat you would be better off not going to them. Putting humans on big Pharma meds is not the answer.

    I’ve got health insurance from work (as a working grunt, that makes me a member of a very rare breed in this country), but I’ve decided to stop seeing doctors unless it’s a very dire emergency. Their solution to everything is to write prescriptions that take a huge freaking bite out of your checking account balance even with the assist in paying for them you get with health insurance! It won’t surprise anyone who has experienced this that the United States of Narcissism has the highest prescription drug costs in the world, while in comparable economies such as Canada, people get their prescription drugs (which I suspect their doctors prescribe on a much more selective and appropriate basis) for much more reasonable prices.

    All my life, schools, government, and the media have told me that good citizens are supposed to “love America”. The problem is, there’s nothing there anymore that inspires love or loyalty. Nothing at all. And of course the garbagey food the American Corporate State pours down our gullets is part of that problem.

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