ABSTRACT
Every second an American has at least one chronic illness, and 60 million Americans suffer from multiple chronic conditions. According to some studies, despite advances in modern medicine, our health is worse today than ever before in our history. In the year 2000, the U.S. population was 276 million, and nearly half of the population-125 million Americans-lived with some type of chronic condition. According to Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University, 75% of the country’s $2.5 trillion in healthcare expenditures is spent on four increasingly prevalent chronic diseases: obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.1 Most cases of these diseases are preventable because they are caused by behaviors such as poor diet, inadequate exercise, and smoking. Obesity alone threatens to overwhelm the system. A recent study found that if trends continue, annual healthcare costs related to obesity will total $344 billion by 2018, or more than 20% of total healthcare spending.568 It is estimated that the current health/sickness care industry costs $1.5 trillion.
