What Does Chronic Disease Mean?

It means the illness that someone has is not temporary but persistent and will not go away unless it’s treated the right way. Here is a good example of diabetes whether it's type 1 or type 2.

Even though they have somewhat different symptoms and metabolic pathways. Consuming sugar will elevate the blood glucose and a healthy body usually deals with it, and you should be fine after some time. 

However, if you consume sugar every day and some do even three times a day (cereal and low-fat milk in the morning, sandwich, chips, and soda for lunch, and pasta meal for dinner) and you do that for months and years, then the body becomes resistant to glucose. 

Then you end up with metabolic syndrome that will lead to other chronic (long-term) diseases unless you change your eating habits. According to the CDC and the National Diabetes Statistics, there are over 34 million Americans who suffer from diabetes and 88 million Americans who are prediabetes (1). 

The same thing with goes for many other diseases such as chronic autoimmune disease which is an epidemic and many consider it the basis of other chronic diseases like food intolerances and allergies. This is not normal folks! But in our modern time these long-term and persistent diseases are so prevalent they are becoming the norms. This will lead us to the next question...

How to Prevent Chronic Disease?

The short answer, love yourself (more) and start cooking in your kitchen from scratch. If you want a longer answer then keep reading...

Most chronic diseases stem from what you put in your mouth and that is food. As a GAPS certified Coach and a person who suffered from chronic digestive disorders I came to the understanding and conclusion that food is your number one ally or foe, there is no in-between.

The food that fuels your body can make you healthy and vibrant (physically and mentally) or will cause you chronic diseases and that does not stop with physical diseases but also cause you mental illnesses too. So how to prevent chronic disease from the beginning or even how to cure it? 

I will show you how to do that and will help you how to prevent chronic disease, cure it, or improve your health condition, as long as we are in agreement with what is causing it. 

Here are general steps that will show you how to prevent chronic disease:

-Eat like a human!. Our ancestors from all over the globe were healthy in all aspects of life. They hunted and gathered food but they also prized animal foods over plant foods.

-They prioritized the organ meats over the muscle meat and they made sure the animal fat is consumed with the lean meat so it becomes healthy and nutritious. For example, they did not eat chicken breast without the skin or the bones!

-They ate nose-to-tail, period! They consumed the whole fish and not just the fillet or the meat part. They cooked the whole chicken with the skin, bones, organs, feet, and head which provided gelatinous meat soup to nourish the digestive system and prevent any leaky gut issues. 

-They did not dream of eating plant foods the way we eat them now. They were prepared in a special way through fermentation, leaching, soaking, sprouting, and cooking. That way they remove all or most of the antinutrients that plants have and make them easier to digest and more nourishing. 

-They ate fermented foods and they were part of their meals, talk about probiotics the natural way.

-Husbands and wives prepared themselves before, during, and after pregnancy with special food to consume that was nutrient-dense such as organ meats and certain animal fat so the mom can have a healthy body and the baby is well nourished during the pregnancy and after the pregnancy. Talk about, how to prevent chronic disease with these preventive measurements!

-This is how many traditional tribes and societies around the world lived their lives free of chronic diseases and had mental wellness. Indeed, there are still traditional people who possess excellent health and are far better than many if not most of the people in the first world countries.

There is more to the story so to speak but the above guidelines should give you a good start to this great question of how to prevent chronic disease.

-If you don’t know how to cook, then please learn how. If you know how to cook but busy to do so, then please make the time. This is going to be one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make. Don’t leave this decision up to the food industry and fast-food chains. 

What Are the Causes of Chronic Disease?

This question is somewhat related to the above question but this time I will specifically the causes of chronic disease whatever that disease is:

  • Autoimmune disease
  • Thyroid disorders
  • Allergies
  • PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal)
  • Urinary disease
  • Reflux
  • Migraine
  • Multiple sclerosis 
  • Nephropathy
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Ulcerative colitis
  • Menstrual problems  
  • Food intolerances 

And the list goes and on. So what are the causes of chronic disease? Foods are unsuitable for human consumption! That’s the culprit of chronic diseases. Why the food that most people consume in our modern time is not suitable for human consumption and why it is causing chronic diseases. 

One of the things that happened during the 19th century is the industrial food processing for mass production and two technologies were used, pasteurization and canning so you are basically eating dead food that extracts nutrients from your body to digest and assimilate this food. 

As food processing technology advances the food industry created ready-to-eat food but this type of food needs preservatives, heat, and chemical processing, coloring, and flavor-enhancing so they can make the food appetizing and ‘irresistible’. 

And food processing keeps advancing with technology ( but many of these advances making the food worse and worse from a nutritional value at the same time very profitable for these companies. 

So the bottom line here is that we are consuming meals the food companies are preparing for us since many of us have deserted the kitchen and cooking. 

We are overweight and malnourished at the same, this is amazing!

Chronic diseases are the results due to leaky gut, inflammation, overgrowth of pathogens creating dysbiosis in gut flora, and weak and imbalanced immune system.

Other Causes of Chronic Disease?

If our modern highly processed food is not enough to make us all ill then don’t worry, there are more man-made assaults to the health of our bodies.

Non Toxic Personal and Household Products

Here is what you should look for to avoid toxic chemical concoctions and the same thing applies to your skin because your skin is like a sponge and will absorb chemicals into the bloodstream even faster than ingesting food. The same thing goes for what you inhale through the nose and mouth. 

-Non-toxic hand soap, dishwashing soap, or dishwasher detergent.

-Non-toxic all-purpose cleaner or even better make it yourself. There are several ways to DIY (mix water with white vinegar, or specific essential oils that are powerful disinfectants such as tea tree oil and pink grapefruit oil)

-Use high-quality essential oils instead of perfumes and colognes.

-Aluminum-free deodorants. I use coconut oil with peppermint and other essential oils. See if this can work with you and choose your favorite scent.  

-Natural makeups or even better make your own. 

-Non-toxic shampoos 

Non Toxic Kitchen Tools

That's right! You don't want to buy whole foods and then cook them using kitchenware that will leach out toxic materials. 

-This is not an easy one but as much as possible, eliminate plastic bottles, containers, cups, kitchen utensils, and kitchen tools.

-Use only non-toxic cookware such as high-quality stainless steel, stoneware, and cast iron.

People who suffer from long-term diseases most likely are overwhelmed with toxins that are produced from within, meaning, the imbalanced gut microbiome (pathogens such as bacteria, fungus, viruses, worms, flukes, etc.) that is producing toxins consistently,

On top that, the same people seem to have unhealthy habits of poor choices when it comes to choosing clean and non-toxic products. Therefore, the body’s cleansing system is overwhelmed and not able to catch up. All theses causes of chronic diseases are within our control:

  • Whole foods that are cooked at home with care and love.
  • Searching carefully for personal hygiene, household, and kitchen products that are non-toxic.
  • Last but not least is managing stress as much as possible, it is all about how you react to life events.