This is the 5th in a series of 9 blogs stemming from a recent Fox News article 1 about the rise in Cardiovascular Disease, and the driving forces behind it according to the American Heart Association. We have been taking a look at the contrasting wholistic approach to this information about cardiovascular disease – in particular, prevention and restoration using natural approaches.
Recap
To summarize the article, the American Heart Association says there are 3 primary forces that contribute to cardiovascular disease:
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Obesity (see the 1st in the series for more information)
In the article Renato Apolito, M.D., the medical director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center was quoted as saying:
“One of the key factors (referring to cardiovascular disease) is the projected increase in obesity in the coming decades,” Apolito said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“Obesity is very commonly associated as a driver of hypertension, diabetes, sleep apnea and hypertriglyceridemia,” he said. “Some of the greater causes of obesity are lack of exercise and a heavy reliance on processed and fast food,” he noted.
“I suspect that as our standard of living goes up, our reliance on processed and pre-prepared food — in addition to lack of exercise and lack of sleep from our hectic work lives — will drive up obesity as the common denominator leading to all the other risk factors mentioned,” Apolito predicted.
“All of those factors put together would lead to an increase in coronary artery disease, heart failure and stroke.”
We have been breaking this theory down, piece by piece by starting with what Dr. Apolito stated were the primary causes of obesity:
- Our reliance on processed and pre-prepared (I defined this as fast food), and included packaged foods to this cause. “Cardiovascular Disease – Our Reliance on Packaged & Processed Foods”
- Lack of exercise , “A Holistic Approach to Exercise and Cardiovascular Disease”
- Lack of sleep, “A Holistic Connection Between Obesity, Lack of Sleep and Cardiovascular Disease”
This week we will drill down some more by continuing to pursue the root cause of cardiovascular disease as reported by Dr. Apolito, the American Heart Association and conventional medicine in general, by taking a look at:
The Impacts our Standard of Living and a Hectic Work Life have on our Cardiovascular Health
We will break this down and explain what it means from a wholistic perspective and how to correct these impacts. In my book “Are You Being Deceived About True Wellness” I describe wholistic health as our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health. By mental health, I mean things like:
- Time management
- Budget
- Career
- Goal setting
- Our purpose in life
I believe there is a direct correlation between how I define mental health and our standards of living, as well as what causes a hectic work life. The area of our emotional health can come into play as well here – maintaining healthy boundaries in particular, and why we don’t always maintain them. Keep in mind, as we dive in, that we are exploring each of these areas in order to reverse or prevent the causes of cardiovascular disease, using natural approaches.
The definition of insanity loosely defined is: “if you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” If we want to reduce cardiovascular disease, we need to address the root because simply managing the disease has proven fruitless. Obesity has been addressed in this article as the primary driver, and the multiple causes of obesity are packaged and processed foods, lack of energy and lack of sleep “due to our “standard of living” and “hectic work life.” These are the roots we will break down today.
Our Standard of Living Needs a Re-Assessment
Time and money. Two valuable commodities, that take tremendous discipline to keep in balance. The thief of both of these is a desire for more material possessions, more experiences through vacations and travel, to the point of addiction really, and going into debt to fulfill them. Dr. Apolito describes these things as our “standard of living.”
I was raised in the 1960’s and 70’s with 4 younger brothers – close to the end of the baby boomer era. We were considered a middle-class family living in a small, suburban town in southwestern, Pennsylvania. My dad was a hard-working entrepreneur as was his father, and his father before him, and possibly generations beyond that. My mom was a stay at home mom. We went to the Catholic grade school and took one, week-long vacation each year – usually to Ocean City, MD where we stayed in a motel and as we grew, an older condo. Nothing fancy by any means. We had the family car that mom mostly drove as dad also had his old work van. Our house was a, brick, one story, 3-bedroom, one bath, approximately 1,200 square foot house with an unfinished cellar, on a paved street, but no sidewalks. One phone, one television, no cable T.V. and no central air conditioning. We weren’t poor, we weren’t rich. We were simply middle class. We lacked nothing. In fact, I would describe my childhood as wonderful, and I think the others in our neighborhood would agree. In fact, I would be willing to bet that most of my readers can relate and perhaps agree as well. Maybe not exactly, but close enough. I would describe this standard of living as being in balance between time and money. Dad was home in the evenings and weekends and there for us. Mom kept her household budget tight – I always say she followed the “envelope system” before Dave Ramsey was even born. She shopped for necessities like food and clothing, but she didn’t over-shop by any means. Our home décor was of moderate taste. She was brought up by depression era parents.
According to the American Heart Association total cardiovascular disease is predicted to rise from 11.3% to 15.0% between 2020 and 2050. So, what is happening?
Our standard of living has risen exponentially. One of the (many) things that drive me crazy when I am talking with someone about taking care of their health, is when someone says “I can’t afford it,” “it’s too expensive to eat healthy.” Or, “I don’t have time to fix healthy meals, exercise, get 7 hours of sleep” etc., and on and on the excuses go. Let me ask you something: Have you been to a shopping mall lately? I have no doubt things have gotten much more expensive over the past 3-4 years – gas and groceries for sure. Dining out? Oh my goodness – what I used to pay for a reasonable dinner out is now what I pay for a simple lunch. But you would not know there is an economy crunch if you were to step into a mall. And we all know that the cost of goods in the majority of the stores in a mall are going to be higher dollar than a discount big box store. And most of the stores in the mall aren’t providing necessities, they are selling luxury items. But that is not stopping people from still shopping and buying. How about nail salons, or beauty shops – what are the cost of these luxuries? I have no idea what the cost of just one tattoo is, but I would be willing to bet it is out of my budget. And yet people say they can’t afford to take care of their health, to eat healthy. This is reflective of the “standard of living rising” per Dr. Apolito’s observations.
Here is a description of a middle-class family’s standard of living today, compared to 50-60 years ago:
- Most children have their own bedroom, and quite often their own bath
- Every child by a certain age has their own phone, and probably a television in their bedroom (if kids even watch T.V. these days)
- Most children who learns to drive have their own, new car bought by mom and dad’s hard-earned dollars
- A vacation to Disneyland is every year, for a family of 4; according to google that is an average of $7,000 for one week
- Teens are having fancy hair styles done
- Teens are having manicures and pedicures done
- Young adults (and in some cases teens) are getting tattoos done
A “hectic work life” is another cause that Dr. Apolito states for the rise in cardiovascular disease. There seems to be a hint of “blame” going on here – putting the blame more on the expectations of the employer as opposed to the employee taking charge of their work time. But I would argue that the list of luxury items mentioned above drive the need for adults/parents to work more.
Mom and dad don’t both have to work. The house doesn’t have to be the biggest to accommodate a bedroom for every child, or a bathroom for every child for that matter. No one in the family has to have the best and most of everything. And along those lines, every child doesn’t have to be signed up for every extra-curricular activity that comes down the pike – this not only stresses the finances, but it stresses time as well – for both the parents and the children.
All of this can sum up to living too far above your means. Let’s take a look at a few basic solutions to get you started on minimizing the hectic work life, as well as lowering your standard of living.
A Holistic Approach to Balance Your Standard of Living and Work Life
If our standard of living going up and our stressful work life have a detrimental effect on our health, our cardiovascular health in particular; and cardiovascular health is still the number one disease of Americans, and on the rise, then what can we do about it? For starters, let’s take a look at some of these major components of the Mental part of the wholistic health pie:
Time Management
You would probably agree that time and money are two areas of our lives that need to have a high priority on being managed,and yet most people fail miserably at each of them. First, every single one of us has the same allotted amount of time – 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks and 365 days in a year. It’s the number of years to our life here on earth that varies for each and every one of us. And a lot of what determines how long we have on this earth, is how well we take care of our health – wholistically. Including managing our time. And yet, I don’t have enough time, and I don’t have enough money are the two greatest barriers to not taking care of our health. There are plenty of resources out there to help you manage your time better, it just needs to become a priority for you to take charge of it.
Budget
It’s probably no secret if you’ve been following my blogs, social media posts, read my book or ever heard me speak that I am a big Dave Ramsey fan. If you’ve never heard of Dave Ramsey (and it always surprises me how many people actually have not), then I encourage you to look him up – he has books, podcasts and supportive services on anything to do with your finances. If you are burdened down with debt – and sadly, most Americans are, which is why they have to work themselves (literally) to death – then picking up Dave’s book “Total Money Makeover” or better yet, take his course “Financial Peace University” will totally change your life. There is nothing more empowering than being debt free and taking charge of your finances – this is health.
To book Dr. Jackie for speaking engagements go to:
https://jackiemckool.com/schedule-jackie/
Career/Job
This is primarily the area that Dr. Apolito states is contributing to the obesity problem – primarily calling it our “hectic work life.” There is a book called “The Overworked American” that goes into greater detail in this area, it might be worth taking a look at it. But the bottom line here is it truly is our time and our money that drive this area of our mental health. If you get back to the basics, and make a commitment to your budget and get your time under control – make these a higher priority over your career and work life, your health will start improving, I have no doubt.
Goal Setting
Perhaps this is the area in the mental part of your health, if not your overall wholistic health that needs to be understood and prioritized first, in order to help you with the other areas. Set some basic goals, along with action steps behind them in order for those goals to be reached, in the areas of your budget and time. If you don’t know how to set goals, again, there are many resources to help you do this, including my book. But the most important thing with achieving your goals is they truly must be written out and down.
Your Purpose in Life
Every single one of us has a unique divine purpose and reason for being here on this earth. Most people don’t even know this, and if they do, they don’t know what theirs is. My answer to this is always – ask God, He’ll tell you. Because it’s Him that has assigned you this purpose, and it’s for His glory when it is fulfilled. But I’m convinced that one of the reasons people don’t take charge of their health is that they simply don’t even know why they get out of bed in the morning, so what do they care if they are healthy or not? Well let me help you get started – the reason to get out of bed is to fulfill your purpose given to you by God for His glory.
Your Mental Health, Stressed
While addressing each of these areas is vital to your health, in truth, the root result of not bringing each of these areas into balance is stress. When you are not acknowledging the mental areas of your life, starting with the areas we’ve just talked about, it causes tremendous stress in your life. I would like to direct you to a recent blog I wrote “Stress, is it Silently Killing You?” to have a greater appreciation of the connection between stress and inflammation. Inflammation is the common denominator of all chronic and degenerative diseases, including and especially cardiovascular disease.
I go into much greater detail in each of these areas of the mental part of the health pie in my book “Are You Being Deceived About True Wellness.” I highly encourage you to pick up a copy and dig in.
In Summary
The good news is, your health truly is in your control. Each of these factors we have addressed over the past 3 weeks – packaged and processed foods, lack of exercise, lack of sleep and this week — our standard of living and our stressful work life – all contribute to obesity. And obesity is the driving force between the other two drivers of cardiovascular disease – hypertension and diabetes. When we break it down, and think about it logically, would you not agree, that reversing and/or preventing cardiovascular disease, using natural approaches, truly is in your control. Be encouraged with this, and be empowered by this truth!
Now that we have drilled down and explored the first root of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and it’s causes, next week we will start moving back up the ladder and address the second factor contributing to cardiovascular disease, diabetes.
Looking for a great beach read this summer? How about digging your toes in the sand, or swinging in the hammock with a copy of “Are You Being Deceived About Truth Wellness?”
Did you miss some of these earlier blogs? These could give you some great insight — especially as you pursue your health journey:
“A Holistic Approach to Heart Disease”
“Cardiovascular Disease – Our Reliance on Packaged & Processed Foods”
“A Holistic Approach to Exercise and Cardiovascular Disease”
“The Connection Between Obesity and Lack of Sleep”
Click “Here” to be sure not to miss any informative and health saving insight by Dr. McKool
(1)To reference the Fox News article go here.