Degenerative diseases

Paradigm shift

It is so ironic that despite all the advancement in medicine and medical technology people are dying of degenerative diseases more than ever before. Heart attack, stroke and cancer are the top three killers in the western world.

In the old days people died of infectious diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis and the like. Today we are dying of degenerative diseases.

Degenerative diseases occur due to degeneration of the cell as a result of oxidative stress caused by free radical damage. Depending on what organ is subjected to degeneration of the cell, that part of the body will be affected. There are over one hundred degenerative diseases reported to date. These include cardiovascular disease (CVD) such as heart attack, stroke, atherosclerosis, and hypertension. Other degenerative diseases include cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s dementia, Parkinson’s disease and macular degeneration to name a few.

Heart disease

Heart disease remains the number one killer in Australia. Cardiovascular disease such as heart attack and stroke claim the life of an Australian every ten minutes. The cost to the health system is more than $3.7 billion a year. Deaths from cardiovascular disease are greater than 2:1 than deaths from lung and breast cancer, and are 5:1 with deaths from car accidents.

In Australia 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will develop coronary heart disease in their life.³⁴

In Australia 2.8 million people had CVD in 1995. That is 16% of the population. The risk of having coronary heart disease (CHD) in a 40-year-old in their future life is 1 in 2 for men and 1 in 3 for women.¹⁸

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) claims a life in Australia every 10 minutes.³⁵ Prevalence of CVD increased from 17 % (2.2 million in 1989-90) (2.8 million in 1995).³⁶ In Australia 8 out of 10 adults are either physically inactive, overweight, have high blood pressure or smoke cigarettes.³⁴ One in 10 Australian adults has 3 or more of these major risk factors.³⁴ This is quite frightening and alarming!

Stroke

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in Australia, claiming 12,133 lives in 1997. Stroke is the most common cause of long term disability in adults. 18

Imagine the number of people affected by stroke who cannot talk, cannot walk, or have one side of their face drooping. Some can not eat and some become incontinent. This is a nightmare for the sufferers and their loved ones.

Indigenous people of Australia die from CVD at twice rate as other Australians. In Australia men aged 45 have a 1 in 4 chance of having a stroke before the age of 85 and women have a 1 in 5 chance.³⁶

About 10 million adult Australians (80% of adult population) had at least one of the following risk factors in 1995: tobacco smoking, lack of exercise, hypertension and being overweight.¹⁸

In America, more than 60 million people suffer from cardiovascular disease, of which more than 13 million have coronary heart disease. There are 1,500,000 heart attacks per year of which 500,000 are fatal. More importantly the majority of these deaths occur in the first hour. 5

Interestingly, most of death, disability and illness due to CVD are preventable. How? It is the purpose of this Website to show you how.

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