Executive Summary

• The obesity epidemic
• Failings of the national healthcare system
• New models for obtaining care
• The basics of prevention

If you have not yet read The Rising Threats To Our Health, available free to all readers, please click here to read it first.

In Part 1, we reviewed some of the major global health issues that will challenge households, economies and nation-states around the world as the global population ages and lifestyle/pollution/age-related chronic diseases affect hundreds of millions of people.

In Part 2, we look at issues that are specific to the U.S. and other developed economies, and consider the impacts of these issues on us as individuals: the bottom line is prevention is in our court.

Overweight/Obesity

While many of the problems listed in Part 1 are found mostly in developing economies (severe pollution, etc.), many others are pressing issues in both developing and developed economies (smoking, chronic lifestyle disorders such as metabolic syndrome, hypertension, heart disease, etc.)

The U.S. leads the world in percentages of overweight (generally defined as a body mass index (BMI) of over 25) and obese (BMI over 30) residents, though a number of countries are close behind.

While the specific causes of metabolic syndrome (pre-diabetes) and the causal connections of obesity to other conditions such as inflammation, sleep disorders, etc. are still under investigation, it’s clear that extra weight and a lack of fitness increase the risk of a host of chronic disorders that affect mortality (see chart in Part 1 on the effects of diabetes on people under 60).

Despite an abundance of publicity and a proliferation of programs aimed at improving dietary and fitness choices of the public, the trend of an increasing percentage of people qualifying as overweight/obese is still in place.

Problems That Are Specific to the U.S. Healthcare System

Some problems are unique to the U.S. healthcare system, which is a hybrid of (supposedly) free-market care and state-mandated regulations and programs.  The net effect is a system of quasi-cartels: a handful of insurers, hospital chains and pharmaceutical giants control most of the U.S.