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The WHO estimates that atherosclerosis (heart attacks and strokes) and diabetes (90% of the Type 2 variety) kill about 20 million people every year, more than are killed by war, famine, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, and more than might conceivably be killed in a single pandemic of bird flu. Bill Gates gives billions to trying to eliminate infectious disease but never mentions the really big killer, cardiovascular diseease (CVD) in the form of atherosclerosis and hypertension (high blood pressure).
Half of cardiovascular disease deaths occur in people under 70 years old and at least 90% are preventable with simple lifestyle changes. So, if they are preventable, why aren't they being prevented, like small pox, the plague and polio?
Diseases of lifestyle (coronary heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity) are fundamentally different from communicable diseases. They are determined by each individual's choice in nutrition, exercise and tobacco use. When people are deluded into the belief that they can avoid changing cherished habits by partaking of expensive drugs and procedures, these diseases become rampant.
The ancient Greeks were very perceptive. They gave their god of medicine, Asclepius, two daughters, Panaceia, the goddess of the expensive quick fix, the treatment of symptoms, not the disease and Hygeia, the goddess of cost-free prevention and treatment of disease by healthy lifestyle. We have developed this site to prove to you that lifestyle change, Hygeia, is the only way to prevent and treat these diseases.
Drugs and procedures, Panaceia, only treat symptoms and will not decrease total mortality. There is increasing evidence that Panaceia will actually kill more people than it could possibly save. In particular, the current obsession with "cholesterol", beginning in the early 1980s with the monstrous mistake in the planning of the Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial, has led doctors to largely ignore the larger environmental determinants of mobidity and mortality and inadvertantly encourage the pandemic of obesity and diabetes. The recent ASTEROID trial is a classic example.
Recently there has been a lot of hype over the long term results from the WOSCOP (West of Scotland Coronary Prevention) trial. See our opinion on the original publication and the reason the first large statin trial was done in Scotland.
The Art Déco bas-relief in the header of Hygeia with her sacred snake was done in 1955 by Armand Filion. It can be seen above the Cedar Avenue entrance to Livingston Hall, the former nurses' residence at the Montreal General Hospital in Montréal, Québec, Canada. For more information on Art Déco in Montreal click here.
Click on the purple words to see other pages.
See our photo essay on Food Addiction.
For a complete list of pages see the SITE MAP.
If you have any comments on the ideas presented here please EMAIL us.
For additional opinions on these and other topics, like "bariatric surgery", the polypill and obesity as a cause of global warming see our weblog.
Sandra Cohen-Rose, P.Dt., Dietitian-Nutritionist
Colin Rose MD PhD, Cardiologist, Associate Professor of Medicine, McGill University
Financial Disclosure: This site is solely for the purpose of education and is financed by us as a community service. It is not intended to replace the advice of your doctor, just to give you some questions to ask him or her. The authors receive no income from this site. Any money collected for recommendation of books, etc. will be donated to the Library of McGill University. If you like this site and want your health or disease care professional to have unrestricted access to unbiased information, the foundation of health, we encourage you to donate to your nearest university library or to McGill's. If you think that all doctors have free access to all medical information see Freedom of Medical Information.
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