Preface: Learn How To Take (and Lower) Your Chronic Disease Temperature

 

Too many citizens of Earth die suddenly and unexpectedly, in the primes of their lives. Medicine claims to be baffled because our healthcare system, by design, is reactive to disease. Early detection and prevention are terms commonly used and the health physical is mainly how it is carried out. This exam hasn’t changed much over 100 years.

Here we present readily available medical information and research that provides a better way to determine your immediate and future risk of becoming chronically sick, dying prematurely, or dying suddenly. We include an explanation of tests that help you determine if you are at risk and how great is your risk.

 

Your action plan is to simply obtain our recommended medical tests and plug your results into our proprietary “chronic disease temperature” calculator. A value above 98.6 implies that you are at risk and that you have chronic disease brewing. Also, we provide ways to restore your health and lower your chronic disease temperature through a “life-preserving” consumption (food) pyramid and other simple, but healthful, measures.

We want all our readers to live a long and healful life.

Stay Well,

Clem and Tom.

 

Introduction:

The information you receive from healthcare professionals may not save your life. It can also be poor at predicting the onset of the chronic diseases that are epidemic in our society. Our medical establishment is focused on three things:

 

1.Managing acute (immediate) illness,

2.Surgery,

3.Reacting to chronic disease after it impacts a persons health.

 

Even when you are provided with a diagnosis, the treatments are usually for your symptoms, not the root-causes, calling into question the value of the diagnosis. The intent of this book is to provide you with the knowledge and resources to improve your prognosis for a healthy longevity, assuming you take substantial responsibility for your own health.

Do you need our advice? Let’s take a brief look at three people who are no longer with us today, but might have been saved if they implemented our advice.

 

Dave Goldberg:

Dave was in the prime of his life at 47 when he suddenly died. His only symptom of any illness was a heart arrythmyia. Doctors studying his case have no idea what happened to him we all know he fell of a treadmill while exercising. His wife, a founder of Facebook said “I cry myself to sleep every night.” This is a tragedy that we believe could have been prevented.

 

What do doctors today do if you have an arrythmyia? The probably give you blood thinners and drugs that impact the “Q-T interval” of your electrocardiogram. More informed doctors will prescribe magnesium supplements that, alone, aleviate many cases. Few, if any doctors, recognize arrythmias as a chronic inflammatory disease of the heart. However medical research fully understands the connection.  A search of PubMed yield over 85,000 research articles using the key words “atril fibrillation” and “inflammation,” as an example.

 

The tests that are part of our chronic disease temperature measurement look broadly and deeply into chronic inflammation that is associated with many of the major diseases of our modern society. We believe that Mr. Goldberg would have had an elevated chronic disease temperature. He could have followed our recommendations and worked proactively to lower that temperature and possibly save his own life.

 

James Lee:

“Jimmy” was a prominent JPMorgan investment banker who died suddenly at the age of 62. He helped arrange some of the biggest corporate deals for companies including General Motors, News Corp. and Facebook. JPMorgan annouced Lee’s death, saying he passed away “unexpectedly.” Our question is, why did he have to die so young? In 2015, the year he died, do we really lack the means to predict premature decline in health and sudden death?

 

We are convinced that, if Mr. Lee routinely had his chronic disease temperature measured, a trend in decaying chronic health, not obvious to himself, his family, or even clinically, may have been revealed. Here is an important distinction between acute sickness and chronic sickness. You can be chronically ill, and even near death (Mr. Lee and Goldberg as examples) with no obvious symptoms. Thus our medical system is not positioned to help you. Our system is designed to detect a myriad of “silent” conditions that, if detected early and properly, can be treated by modern medicine and by yourself – through lifestyle changes. And, since we provide you with a number (a value and a target for good health) you can objectively measure your improvement in health and your reduction in risk of future premature death or disease.

 

Tim Russert:

When TV journalist Tim Russert died from sudden cardiac arrest, it was heartbreaking news for his family, friends, and fans. Chief of the Washington bureau of NBC News and longtime moderator of "Meet the Press," Russert was known for asking tough questions. He leaves two more: How could death come so fast to a man who, on-air and off, had always seemed so full of life? And couldn't something have been done to prevent the tragedy?

 

What happened to Russert? According to reports, Russert died from sudden cardiac arrest -- his heart stopped working. This occurred when plaque ruptured in his left anterior descending coronary artery, a major vessel that supplies blood to the heart.

 

Why did Russert have his heart attack just then, and why did it kill him? No one in modern medicine can say because we do not have the test that help us understand health disease risk factors. We are stuck with a fanatiscism against cholesterol. An we all know that Mr. Russert had his cholesterol checked and was probably on a statin drug.

Here is what modern medical expects say about Russert’s death. "Russert had bad luck because his heart went into arrhythmia," says Dr. Scott Monrad, director of the cardiac catheterization lab at Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center in New York City, "but we don't know who will, or when."

 

Do you find this statement acceptable? We don’t. That’s why we have developed a better way for you and everyone to prevent these types of unfortunate (but predictable) occurances.

 

What was Russert's condition before his heart attack? He had been diagnosed with asymptomatic coronary artery disease -- his doctors knew he had some buildup of plaque in his coronary arteries, but he was not experiencing negative effects. This is not unusual: Of the men who die of coronary artery disease, more than half don't show symptoms. Other times, mild symptoms such as shortness of breath or pains in the back, neck or shoulders may be present but get ignored. Or circumstances that can reveal symptoms don't arise.

 

Russert had a stress test with "normal" results and had reasonably low risk score using the most advanced diagnostics offered today in your doctors office, but they clearly did not paint an accurate picture of his chronic disease health.

The sad truth is, because the medical community put its hopes on cholesterol as the cause of heart disease, the true culprit(s) go undetected.  Our medical establishment has advanced little in terms of both diagnosis and treatment of chronic and particularly, cardiovascular disease, especially in early detection methods.

 

Medicine Confused About Chronic Diseases

 

Did either Mr. Russert, Lee, or Goldberg have elevated chronic disease temperature. We will cover a number of important tests that we include in our chronic disease temperature calculator throughout this book. Here, as an example we present information on white blood cell counts and why they are important?

White blood cell counts is a simple, but powerful, example of where medicine is not, but should be, looking to help us assess our risk of chronic disease. White blood cell counts is part of our chronic diseae temperature measurement.

White blood cells are cells of the innate immune system involved in defending your body against both infectious disease and foreign materials. Healthy people have a baseline level white blood cell count (WBC) appropriate to their individual physiology and this value rises when our body goes on the defense against illness. Interesting, several labs and other authoritative sources publish different “normal” ranges. Table 1:

Source

WBC (cells / milliliter) Normal Range

LabCorp

4,500 – 10,000

Mayo Clinic

3,500 – 10,500

WebMd

5,000 – 10,000

Quest Diagnostics

3,800 – 10,800

 

There are serious health consequences associated with white blood cell counts well within the upper limits published by the experts. The medical research world agrees with this conclusion. Here is one such example:

 

“Patients with white blood cell count ≥7,900 have 3.1 times higher risk of death than those with levels <6,300.”  [i]

However, LabCorp, Mayo, WebMD, and Quest do not give the slightest indication that a count of 7,900 is related to a health riak. It is considered in the normal range. If you have a count of, say 8,100 your doctor will tell you are healthy. Yet they have little explanation for sudden death and chronic diseases.

 

The following graphic, an Internet ad, sadly tells the truth about medicine today as it relates, in this instance, to cardiovascular disease. Today’s healthcare system does NOT know upon whom or when chronic disease or sudden death will strike. But could we?

 

White blood cells are your defense against disease that can cause heart attacks. Shouldn’t you know your real clinical risks of disease or death? Instead we are fed “consensus” values well polished by medical professionals, lawyers, and actuaries. You deserve better.

 

In the ensuing chapters, we provide a guide that helps you interpret medical tests that we recommend, based on the most current new research in the field of medicine. We provide you with a list of critical tests that delve into your chronic disease health. When you put the values into our chronic disease calculator (Appendix 1), it provides you with a chronic disease “temperature.” Any value over 98.6 implies that you probably have an asymptomatic chronic disease. Translated, this means you are at risk for premature disease and/or death. If your chronic disese temperature is elevated, now is the time for you to take action, before you have symptoms. We also outline what you can do to advocate for—and protect—your own health when modern medicine does not provide adequate answers or solutions.

Your Must be in Charge of You!

 

We are a reactionary society rather than a proactive one, and modern medicine is no different.. Unfortunately, the business model of modern medicine is misaligned with preventative care. Your doctor cannot determine if you are heading toward serious disease during a 10-minute check-up. This book provides you with the power to be both reactive and proactive by giving you the tools to understand when you are heading down a path toward disease before you are clinically sick.

 

The quality of your health is in your own hands. Why? Does your doctor explain what white blood cell counts mean when it comes to your health, or does he/she let you fend for yourself if you are “in range”? The reality is, if you are in range, you are presumed well. Next patient, please!

 

When you become ill, who is to blame? Too often we don’t do the right things, get sick, and blame our genetics. However, research and experience tell us that good health, for the most part, is a choice. Here is what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say about heart disease: [ii]

 

“Nearly 1 in 3 deaths in the US each year is caused by heart disease and stroke. At least 200,000 of these deaths could have been prevented through changes in health habits.”

 

Most of us find it hard to take action against something we do not understand. Thus, if we are told we are “normal” why make changes? Don’t we deserve to know our risks? We pay more for medicine compared to any other country in the world, so we should be afforded the opportunity to learn about our future prognosis.

 

A National Geographic magazine article explored the world seeking an answer to what promotes healthy longevity. [iii] The author focused on centenarians (people who live to 100), looking for key common denominators. He focused particularly on areas with unusually large numbers of these folks, still healthy at very ripe old ages. What did NatGeo conclude?

 

“[…] genes alone are unlikely to explain all the secrets of longevity… And in the end, genes probably account for only 25 percent of longevity. It’s the environment too, but that doesn’t explain all of it either. And don’t forget chance.”

Modern society is replete with chronic disease such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. Is this abrupt upswing in these diseases due to some sudden change in our genetics? No.  Genetic changes are not nearly that fast. Our environment has changed, paralleling these diseases. Environment in this context is not so much our external environment, pollution and the like. What has really changed is our internal environment.

 

Claude Bernard, a giant of 19th century medicine coined the term “milieu interieur” that translates to homeostasis. [iv] In even more simplistic terms, it means balance. The bodies of the chronically ill, and those who are predisposed to illness, are out of balance and we, personally and individually, are to blame – not our genetics.

 

We have all heard the platitudes: don’t smoke, exercise, avoid fats and junk foods, get plenty of sleep, and drink plenty of water. There are a myriad of books providing valuable information on how to best take care of our health but we are not listening. Why? Maybe because we believe that these diseases will not happen to us. And our doctors tell us we are well, even when we are not. What is your reason? I’m sure many readers feel healthy today yet are unaware of the insidious workings of chronic disease that may be damaging their health right now.

 

We provide you with the power to be both reactive and proactive toward chronic disease by providing those of you most concerned with your health the tools to understand when you are heading down a path toward disease BEFORE you are clinically sick. You think your doctor or other healthcare professional can provide you with this information from which you can react, but even if they have the knowledge, they do not when it comes to chronic disease risks. The 10-minute office visit does not afford your doctor the time to investigate latent diseases. Just look at the proliferation of chronic diseases in our modern society for proof. Medicine ignores the “apparently” well. If you fit in this category you are quickly sent home to keep doing what you have been doing. But what if your white blood cell count is normal at >7900?

 

 

 

[i] Arain, Faisal A., et al. "White blood cell count predicts all-cause mortality in patients with suspected peripheral arterial disease." The American journal of medicine 122.9 (2009): 874-e1.

 

[ii] http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/pdf/2013-09-vitalsigns.pdf

 

[iii] Hall, Stephen, S. “New Clues to a Long Life.” National Geographic Magazine, May, 2013

 

[iv] Bernard, Claude. Leçons sur les phénomènes de la vie commune aux animaux et aux végétaux. Baillière, 1879.