60% of annual deaths worldwide are caused by chronic disease.
Let me repeat that – 60% of the people who die each year do so because of mostly preventable chronic disease.
More people die every year because of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and COPD (to name just a few) than any other cause.
According the World Health Organization (WHO), if the major risk factors for chronic disease like poor diet, inactivity and tobacco use could be eliminated, at least 80% of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes would be prevented as well.
In addition to that, 40% of cancers could be prevented too.
More than just a health concern, chronic disease plagues health care systems . . . and economies as well. It’s what our nation spends a substantial portion of its money on.
In the United States, cardiovascular disease and diabetes alone will cost $750 billion annually.
And, according to a study done by Darrel Hulisz, PharmD of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) costs the US anywhere between $22 to $30 million annually, to say nothing of lost work time.
If we could do a better job of helping people take care of their health, not only would the cost of health care go down, but we would see a rise in abundance for everyone, not to mention the clear benefits of living a life that promotes well-being.
This is where mind/body medicine comes into play.
By treating an individual as a whole and taking into consideration the “big picture” perspective of care in terms of causes, management, and treatment, mind/body medicine can help repair the damage that can riddle our bodies.
And, it’s key to helping patients make the changes needed to live a healthier, more satisfying life.
We’ll be taking a closer look at chronic disease in our upcoming teleseminar series and especially at the conference this December in Hilton Head, SC. Close to a thousand practitioners will be gathering.
Think of it as a giant think tank with the potential to shape the future of clinical practice across professions and our country.
We recently asked conference alumni to tell us about their experiences of the conference, and we wanted to share a few of their responses with you:
“NICABM has given me what no other conference or academic training ever could. Exceptional speakers with cutting-edge ideas that I brought back to my colleagues to use in our work. I have been fortunate to attend yearly since 1997.” − Rita Hanuschock, Nurse Practitioner, Cleveland, Ohio
“The entire experience is so valuable, and the information that I have received stays with me on a daily basis in my practice as a clinician. This is the best mind body medicine conference in the world! Period.” – Ed Glauser, M.Ed., N.C.C., LPC Mind Body Counseling, Athens, Georgia
It’s not only a time when leaders come together to share the latest ideas and applications in mind-body medicine, but also it’s a time to receive the refreshment practitioners need to continue providing their patients with the highest quality of care:
“I have attended this conference yearly since 2005 and find that time at NICABM has helped me keep my balance as I provide care for others. It is a joy to be with so many like-minded colleagues who understand my professional interests and passions for a mind-body-spirit approach. I count on coming away with innovative and practical ideas to help my clients and my colleagues–as well as myself.” − Judy Hicks, LCSW, Memphis, TN
“Thank you for reminding me why I got into this field and how much there is to do. This is a retreat, and also a time machine that shows where we may be in 10 years.” – Patrick Goff, Ed.D, North Brunswick, NJ
“There has not been another conference that I’ve found in the last fifteen plus years where I could learn about cutting edge research and profoundly important aspects of a wide variety of … clinical practice approaches, and gain virtually all my required CEU’s in psychology. And all this in a place I came to love as a paradise retreat – complete with dolphins that seemed to keep pace with me as I ran along the beach at sunrise, or at sunset.” − Maria Syldona, PhD, Clinical and Research Psychologist, Ridgway, CO
Thank you to all of the alumni who’ve been letting us know how the Psychology of Health Immunity and Disease Conference has had an impact of their lives and practices.
And please let us know what you think with a comment below – what are some mind-body approaches to chronic disease that have been effective with your patients?
Great blog entry! You should write more!
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I found Panic Away to be very helpful.. . When you start reading through Panic Away, you?ll learn about the One Move technique, which is a method you can employ to control and, with practice, eliminate panic attacks from your life. The basic idea of it is that you should stop resisting the panic attack symptoms and allow yourself to feel frightened and anxious. Most of the time resisting a panic attack just makes it worse.. . The book breaks the One Move down into a step-by-step routine that is easy to follow. It is a recommended that you practice this before you feel a panic attack coming on. Practice makes perfect and if you have practiced the One Move a few times, you?ll be more prepared to deal with a panic attack when you start to feel anxiety creeping in.. . Since panic attacks can be very unique from one person to another, the Panic Away book also covers how to apply the One Move to other scenarios in a much broader context, so, even if the source of your anxiety isn?t directly covered, you?ll be given instructions on how to address it.. . When you buy Panic Away, you are also given the e-mail address of Barry Joe McDonagh, the creator of Panic Away, so if you find yourself getting stuck anywhere along the way, you can always reach out and get personal help from him. I found the book itself to be very clear, and I never needed the coaching, but it?s good to know that it?s there to make sure you can get the most out of the program.
I’m a psychotherapist and marriage and family therapist. I have worked for 20+ years in the Seattle area helping people to balance their body systems for both mental and physical health using counseling, Educational & Developmental Kinesiology, EFT, Energy Psychology, Energy Medicine and EMDR. I totally believe our mind, body and soul all impact each other and that most disease is from dis ease or imbalances in the body/mind system. Feeling good about your self and others, eating well and supplements are a positive spiral upward in health. Too bad the medical system is so narrow in their views on how to treat disease!
I am loving the book by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride about her studies of Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Amazing and I am totally in agreement with her that many of our chronic physical ailments and psychological problems start in the gut. Our society seems to have done everything possible to encourage an unhealthy gut environment – and I would love to see the medical community really become aware of it. And her explanation of the gut reasons behind schizophrenia, depression, autism, etc. were pretty compelling. (I’m in no way connected with her, just heard a DVD of her speak and it aligned with my own experiences with leaky gut, food allergies, depression, etc.
A positive attitude is essential for both patient and care giver. Family members need to feel free to nurture and support positive plans in daily care of the patient to prevent burnout and hence inadequate care taking over. Do you have ideas on this strategy?
As an endocrinologist I have observed how hard it is to get
people to stop eating too much,smoking,avoiding exercise, and other
Harmful behaviors. Education is sometimesdifficult because people
Need to be open to change. I have worked with people one on one for
31 years and have established a website for diabetes education. Let us
work together to spread good actionable information.
I disagree Margo. Think about what we call a broken heart. Have you ever known someone who was literally “eating themselves alive” over something they felt they had no control over? My training and work on my own journey and with clients informs me that it is possible to simply die when you choose the time as opposed to dying from some chronic disease. In the process of doing my own therapy I healed a number of “problems” in my body that had been there festering for years.
My work is focused on chronic conditions. While 100 years ago, more than 80% of the population died from an acute illness, today this figure now reflects those that die from a disease they have lived with for a very long time. In short, the tables have turned and we’re all still trying to adjust to the fact that most people will develop at least one if not several chronic conditions.
Even though 60% of chronic diseases are considered preventable, 100% of us will die from something. There will always be a “top 10” cause of death. So the diabetes you avoid getting by diet, exercise etc. doesn’t stop the cancer or heart attack that takes your life.
In short, there is “no cure,” but there is always healing and living well.