For the first time in the history of our species, our life expectancy is going DOWN – that means
our children will be sicker and die younger than their parents.
The facts speak for themselves:
° 65% of Americans are overweight... up 18% since 1994
° 30% of us are obese... up from 36% since 1994
° Over 40% have high cholesterol...
° 50% of Americans over 65 have high blood pressure...
° The number of Americans with type-2 diabetes is up a 104% in the last 20 years
° Over 100,000,000 Americans have metabolic syndrome... just one step away from type-2 diabetes...
° 92% of Americans are deficient in one or more essential vitamins and minerals...
As startling as these statistics are, they are easy to ignore, because they don't affect our everyday lives in any meaningful way...or do they?
Consider this:
° Americans spend $117 billion EVERY year treating obesity-linked diseases including heart disease, diabetes, dementia, cancer, arthritis and more...
° Over $50 billion is spent annually on weight loss alone...
° Of the $1.9 trillion spent on health care (16% of our GNP), only 2% is spent on prevention..
° Medicare and Medicaid costs are expected to skyrocket with Medicaid expenditures ballooning an estimated 8.9% a year from 2002 to 2012 and Medicare jumping 6.7% a year during that same time...
° And not surprisingly, health care costs have exploded from $717 billion in 1990 to $1.9 trillion in 2004...
° Despite the U.S. leading the world in terms of the amount spent per person on health care (about $5,000) we are nearly DEAD LAST (12 out of 13) when it comes to leading health indicators...
° Health insurance costs have skyrocketed by over 10% a year for the last 4 years. Since 2000 cost of health insurance has increased 59% while wages have increased only 12%.
Let me sum that up for you: we are paying THROUGH THE NOSE for our health care and getting no return on our investment