Dr Paul Clayton 2013<\/p>\n
According to the crude stats, we\u2019re living longer. According to the Global Burden of
\nDisease Study, an enormously expensive and rather fatuous exercise in number-crunching
\nfunded by the Gates Foundation and just published in the Lancet (Salomon et al \u201913), global life
\nexpectancy has risen from 59 in 1990 to 70 today. According to the medical profession and
\nthe pharmaceutical industry all is increasingly for the best in this, the best of all possible
\nworlds. And according to those who really know, this is claptrap. In fact, it is nothing
\nshort of a public health disaster.<\/p>\n
A very large part of the increase in global life expectancy is due to reduced infant mortality in the developing world, which has been achieved with improved sanitation, clean water and
\nimmunisation programmes. But what has modern medicine done for life and health expectancy for adults?<\/p>\n
Male life expectancy has fallen in the UK compared with the 19th century <\/strong> Women have done better. Mid-Victorian girls aged 5 could expect another 72 years of life Why have men and women fared so differently? The answer is simple: in the 19th century, female life expectancy was dragged down by multiple pregnancies (contraception Why have men lost life expectancy? The answer again is simple: nutritional standards Cancer is dramatically increasing<\/strong> Unfortunately, it\u2019s not just cancer. If diabetes, coronary artery disease, dementias (and cancer) Degenerative diseases cannot be cured with drugs <\/strong> 20th century medicine focused on the curative treatment of bacterial, fungal and protozoal Doctors are taught to disregard nutrition <\/strong> And the tides are rising. Overweight, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer \u2013 Shoppers are buying less healthy food<\/strong> Chris Murray, Professor of Global Health at Washington University and a lead author of the We cannot afford a future based on drugs, surgery and expensive medicine <\/strong> Let us hope that the growing evidence base linking good nutrition to better health will REFERENCES<\/p>\n Charlton J, Murphy M, editors. The Health of Adult Britain 1841\u20131994. 2 vols. London: National Statistics; 2004.<\/p>\n Clayton P, Rowbotham J. 2013; work in progress<\/p>\n DEFRA 2012. http:\/\/www.defra.gov.uk\/statistics\/files\/defra-stats-foodfarmfood- Lim et al 2012. A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2013 Dec 15;380(9859):2224-60.<\/p>\n McNay K, Humphries J, Klasen S. Cambridge Working Papers in Economics. Cambridge: 1998. Death and Gender in Victorian England and Wales: Comparisons with Contemporary Developing Countries.<\/p>\n Murray CJ et al. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2013 Dec 15;380(9859):2197-223.<\/p>\n Office for National Statistics 2011. http:\/\/www.ons.gov.uk\/ons\/rel\/health-ineq\/ Salomon JA, Wang H, Freeman MK, Vos T, Flaxman AD, Lopez AD, Murray CJ. Healthy life expectancy for 187 countries, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Sikora K \u201911. http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/health\/healthnews\/8791979\/Thebig-C-cancer-treatment-is-increasingly-unaffordable.html<\/p>\n Sullivan R, Peppercorn J, Sikora K, Zalcberg J, Meropol NJ, Amir E, Khayat D, Boyle P, Autier P, Tannock IF, Fojo T, Siderov J, Williamson S, Camporesi S, McVie JG, Purushotham AD, Naredi P, Eggermont A, Brennan MF, Steinberg ML, De Ridder M, McCloskey SA, Verellen D, Roberts T, UK Public Spending; http:\/\/www.ukpublicspending.co.uk\/uk_budget_pie_chart<\/p>\n USA stats: http:\/\/www.infoplease.com\/ipa\/A0005140.html<\/p>\n Vos T et al. Years lived with disability (YLDs) for 1160 sequelae of 289 diseases and injuries 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2013 Dec 15;380(9859):2163-96<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nThe results have been mixed, to say the least. In the UK, for example, and comparing like for
\nlike, the situation for men has worsened significantly over the last century and a half. In
\nmid-Victorian England, male children aged 5 could expect to achieve, on average, another 75
\nyears of life (Charlton & Murphy \u201904, McNay et al \u201998). By 2002-2006, the life expectancy of boys born to parents with routine occupations (formerly \u2018working class\u2019) had fallen to 74.6 years
\n(ONS \u201911) \u2013 a loss of 5 years.<\/p>\n
\n(Charlton & Murphy \u201904, McNay et al \u201998), and in 2002-2006, the life expectancy of girls born
\nto C1-C2 parents was 79.7 years (ONS \u201911) \u2013 a gain of nearly 3 years.<\/p>\n
\nwas basically unavailable) and the perils of childbirth. Family planning and better
\nobstetrics (such as doctors learning to wash their hands between patients) have given
\nwomen an average of three more years of life.<\/p>\n
\nhave fallen hugely since the 19th century, thanks to the modern food industry and to our
\nlow-energy lifestyles. Our appalling nutritional status condemns us to an unnecessarily high
\nrisk of acquiring, as we age, one or typically more of the non-communicable degenerative
\ndiseases; and thus we spend far more of our old age suffering from the so-called diseases of
\ncivilisation than ever before (Clayton & Rowbotham \u201909, Lim et al \u201913, Vos et al \u201913,
\nMurray et al \u201913).<\/p>\n
\nThe resulting increased need for medical resources has driven up healthcare spending
\nfrom circa 1% of GDP in the second half of the 19th century (Clayton & Rowbotham \u201913), to approximately 18% today (UK Public Spending \u201912); and it is getting worse. According to leading oncologist Professor Karol Sikora: \u201cThe incidence of cancer is dramatically increasing \u2026 the last eight cancer drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration will cost over \u00a310,000 a
\nmonth per patient \u2026 no healthcare system can afford this \u2026\u201d (Sikora \u201911, Sullivan et al \u201911).<\/p>\n
\nare diseases of civilisation, we are certainly becoming more civilised. But conversely, this
\nis telling us that none of the on-going pandemics of degenerative disease is
\ninevitable; they are not occurring because we are growing older (we are not, much); but are
\nbeing triggered by our unhealthy lifestyles and sustained, often life-long dysnutrition\u2014which
\nresults in chronic inflammation.<\/p>\n
\nThese diseases cannot be cured with drugs, and so increasing numbers of us develop health
\nproblems that cause many years of pain, disability and mental distress (Lim et al \u201913, Murray
\net al \u201913, Vos et al \u201913). This is no \u2018distressing irony\u2019, as the papers\u2019 authors call it, but a direct result of the way in which medicine is practised.<\/p>\n
\ninfection with antibiotics; the prevention of infection via immunisation; and the (noncurative)
\ntreatment of symptoms of noncommunicable disease, using specific and often hazardous drugs.<\/p>\n
\nTaught at medical school to disregard nutrition, 21st century doctors remain fixated on drugs
\neven though the literature linking nutrition and nutrients to health outcomes is growing at a
\nrate of hundreds of papers per week. They ignore the root causes of the flood tides that
\nwash, every day, the victims of poor diets and lifestyles into their surgeries.<\/p>\n
\nall of the chronic degenerative diseases \u2013 are driven by lifestyle factors. Not enough
\nexercise, fruits or vegetables, and too much smoking, alcohol, salt, omega 6 fatty acids and
\nfast food. And all these factors are going in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n
\nSupermarket food prices are rising much faster than incomes and as a result, shoppers are
\nbuying less healthy food and more of the fatty, filling, salty products that provide both comfort
\nand disease. In the last year there has been a 10% fall in fruit and vegetable purchases, with
\nan even greater fall (22%) in low income homes (DEFRA \u201912). This study of more than 6,000
\nhouseholds compared actual food consumption to the government-recommended eatwell plate
\n(itself a very low standard), and concluded that \u2018neither low income households nor all
\nhouseholds are close\u2019 to achieving it.<\/p>\n
\nglobal study, summarised his team\u2019s findings. \u201cVery few people are walking around with
\nperfect health,\u201d he said, \u201cand as people age, they accumulate health conditions. This means
\nwe should recalibrate what life will be like for us in our 70s and 80s. It also has profound
\nimplications for health systems as they set priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nI agree that very few people have perfect health, but the rest of Professor Murray\u2019s
\nstatement represents a profound failure of courage and intellect. It implies that a globally
\nageing population will inevitably become sicker, and that this must be planned for in a
\nframework based on drugs, surgery and expensive medicine. It ignores the fact we
\ncannot afford this future. It ignores the fact that current trends will degrade life and health
\nexpectancy way beyond these basic demographics; and it effectively ignores the
\nfact that the only way to prevent these tides of disease is to cut them off at source, by
\nimproved nutrition.<\/p>\n
\neventually overcome the resistance of the pharma lobby and become incorporated into
\ngovernment policy, agricultural practice and food design. The barriers between us and
\nvastly better health are no longer scientific, but political.<\/p>\n
\nfamilyfood-2011-121217.pdf<\/p>\n
\nhealth-inequalities\/trends-in-life-expectancy–1982—2006\/trends-in-life-expectancyby-
\nthe-national-statistics-socio-economic-classification-1982-2006.pdf<\/p>\n
\nLancet. 2013 Dec 15;380(9859):2144-62.<\/p>\n
\nStorme G, Hicks RJ, Ell PJ, Hirsch BR, Carbone DP, Schulman KA, Catchpole P, Taylor D, Geissler J, Brinker NG, Meltzer D, Kerr D, Aapro M. Delivering affordable cancer care in high-income countries. Lancet Oncol. 2011 Sep;12(10):933-80<\/p>\n