HELLO WISCONSIN! Remember the opening line from “That 70’s show”? Friends all crammed together into their car, singing and laughing? The show conjures up some nostalgia, or for those of us who weren’t alive at that time, some primordial yearning for a time when life seemed better. Afterall, the 70s gave rise to hippies, drugs, and great music. It is also when the EPA and OSHA were formed to protect the environment and workers’ health, military draft ended, and the first Star Wars movie was released. The 70’s were before endemic obesity, before HIV, before the rise of autoimmune conditions and diabetes. Rosy, isn’t it?
But 40 years later here we are, still being impacted by the events that transpired during that illustrious decade. Not just our fashion (looking at you, crop tops and mustard yellow), but more importantly our health. When we look across the board at all types of disease and death, we see some interesting trends that should inform our current healthcare.
The first trend we see is a huge increase in autoimmune diseases and other chronic diseases, like hypertension and diabetes, but also Alzheimer’s, cancer, and even depression and anxiety. Most recent studies point to the environment as the leading cause of this increase, and not genetics. Afterall, genetics don’t change THAT quickly. So what’s environment? It’s pretty much everything that is not genetic but interacts with our body in some way. Here are a few examples of what we mean by “environment”:
"Around one-third of deaths from cancer are due to the five leading behavioral and dietary risks: high body mass index, low fruit and vegetable intake, lack of physical activity, tobacco use, and alcohol use," - The World Health Organization
“In 2016, diseases caused by obesity and being overweight accounted for 47.1 percent of the total cost of chronic diseases in the U.S.—responsible for $480.7 billion in direct health care costs, plus $1.24 trillion in indirect costs related to lost economic productivity.” - Milken Institute, “The Cost of Chronic Diseases in the USA”
Ok, so the leaders in health think we are fat and lazy and we have crappy diets. Eat more kale, doing a little jogging, and cancer should disappear. But if that was the whole story, don’t you think we would all be running around, looking svelte in our yoga pants, drinking wheatgrass juice instead of mimosas?
So what other trends have we seen over the past 40-50 years? Increases in chemical types and production.
“In just the 25 years between 1970 and 1995, the volume of synthetic organic chemicals produced tripled, from about 50 million tons to approximately 150 million tons” - Volume of chemicals in commerce: U.S. synthetic organic chemical production, 1966–1994. SOURCE: Adapted from Goldman, 2002.
Where do we use these chemicals? Well everywhere of course! We spray food crops with pesticides and herbicides, we use chemicals to make our food products taste better and last longer, chemicals to clean our bodies and our homes, to scent the air we breathe, and even to whiten our teeth and brighten our skin. Let’s not forget the chemicals our doctors give us. All those drugs we take end up, in one form or another, in the water supply.
We went through a phase of “better living through harsh chemicals”, and initially this was completely believable. Pesticides prevented insect-borne diseases from spreading, you could put flame retardant in your child’s bedding, and fortify cereals with vitamins. Heck you could even use chemicals to defoliate forests. Turns out that last one was a particularly bad idea, as Agent Orange caused all sorts of nasty birth defects, but all the other chemicals we make have effects in the body too, just less pronounced ones.
The other major change that happened in this time period was the rise of the industrial farm. American farms are hyper-efficient, which is cool, but ultimately this has degraded our food quality. We all know someone who can’t have wheat in America but then goes to Europe and does just fine eating pasta and bread there. It’s not the wheat, it’s what we put on our wheat that is the issue here. The other big issue with our industrial farm is the micronutrient status of the food grown there. The food is only as good as the soil it is grown in, and fertilizers have only a few of the macronutrients plants need to live, not the full spectrum of trace minerals we need to thrive.
So when you look at the environment, it’s kind of a no-brainer that all of our chronic diseases have increased in prevalence. We are over-fed and undernourished, full of chemicals, and we all feel poorly enough that changing those things we control like diet and exercise is a challenge. But we can do better. This blog is dedicated to making the science of health accessible and the implementation practical. Because life is too short to not be better.
Ideal Human was founded around this principle. We take the situation at hand and do our best to thrive in it. We use chiropractic medicine to keep the body moving, because movement is foundational to good health. Naturopathic medicine helps us understand the body and how to support it best. Together, they help you move, think, and feel better.