ABSTRACT
To a large extent, modern medicine has failed in its ambition to control both acute and chronic diseases. Acute diseases, defined as medical and surgical emergencies such as myocardial infarction, stroke, and severe pancreatitis and those related to advanced medical and surgical treatments, such as stem cell transplantation or advanced surgical operations, have an unacceptably high morbidity and comorbidity. Furthermore, the world suffers an epidemy of chronic diseases of a dimension never seen before, and these diseases are now like a prairie fire spreading to so-called developing countries. Chronic diseases, including such diseases as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative conditions, diabetes, stroke, cancers, and respiratory diseases, constitute 46% of the global disease burden and 59% of global deaths. Each year, approximately 35 million individuals die in conditions related to chronic diseases.1 Similarly, the morbidity related to advanced medical and surgical treatments and emergencies, especially infectious complications, is also fast increasing. Sepsis presently increases in the U.S. by 1.5% per year and constitutes the tenth most common cause of death in that country.2
