BOOK EXCERPT
In The Great Healing – Five Compassions That Can Save Our World, activist, author, screenwriter and feature filmmaker Stephen Erickson identifies our Arch-Villain, the main cause of global warming which now threatens to bring about the end of our Anthropocene Epoch — of us and virtually every multicellular life form. He also reveals our singular solution.
Along the way there are exquisite creatures, human and non-human. The challenges they face reveal the immensity of the threat facing each one of us — and its urgency.
Meet Brady Kluge.
What That Means Is This…
Brady Kluge was crossing the patio area of Hunt Meadows Elementary School at recess, when he realized she was talking to him. She was a 4th grade classmate, someone he knew but not all that well. One of her friends was with her, a classmate who Brady thought was really cute. In fact, he had a crush on her.
Brady is a soft-spoken, sensitive nine-year-old. He’s a good student who communicates well in class. Other students are pleased when they learn they are teamed with him on a class project because they know they’ll get a good grade — but outside of the classroom, no one pays much attention to him. So, when this girl tells him she and her friend are interested in seeing how fast he can run, Brady hides his surprise. Can he run over to the playground area and back? Would he do that for them?
It’s a sunny, warm spring day in Easley, South Carolina. Flattered to be spoken to — almost polite to a fault — he glances at the friend, making the briefest of eye contact, trying not to blush as she smiles at him. She smiles at him. He isn’t used to this. So, he agrees. He runs, as fast as he can, over towards the playground. Arriving there, he steps demonstrably onto its surface edge marking his turn so they can see he didn’t cheat, that he is running the whole way.
Breathing hard, Brady runs back toward them. They are still watching him and they’re smiling — their attention stays on him the whole time. Inspired, he surmounts his fatigue, keeps running. Nearing, he can hear them — they are cheering, clapping - for him! He finishes strong, pulls up before them. “Good job, Brady! That was a really good job.” He thanks them, basks in their smiles. He says an awkward sheepish goodbye, their pretty faces, their eyes still focused on him, especially the friend. She is one of the most beautiful girls he has ever seen. As if he was a camera, he tries to freeze-frame her smiling face and store that image forever in his mind. Brady turns and heads away, not wanting to get all sweaty in front of them, aglow in the remnants of their attention.
About a week later another classmate, a girl who is a family friend, asks Brady about those girls and the day he ran for them. His spine tingles, nervous concern rising. His running for them wasn’t that big a deal, so why would she even be bringing it up? It turns out she’s friends with both girls and when they told her the story they were laughing. They asked Brady to run because he is overweight, and they wanted to watch his belly fat wobble as he ran. They didn’t seem to be laughing at him — not that Brady could tell — so he had no idea. Apparently, however, they found the story enormously entertaining recounting it afterwards to different groups of friends.
Brady Kluge has a gentle voice, “I felt ashamed learning that. And it certainly didn’t help my self-confidence.” Like most children, he is acutely self-aware. In the maelstrom most of us get to experience known as elementary school, middle school and high school, we yearn for inclusion, making friends. We also learn to mask that while trying to be cool, to fit in, to be interesting and to be accepted. To come across as too needy — let alone desperate — for friendly attention is a surefire way to attract the wrong kind or none at all.
When Brady had an experience that was a blow to an already fragile self-esteem, he would take stock, analyzing the situation in his characteristic way: He was polite and had good manners. He was well regarded in classes because he was smart and he knew the material. He even had a sense of humor, so his peers didn’t categorize him as a nerd. And he wasn’t immodest about his academics — he didn’t brag or exude any air of superiority. He offered to help others. He wasn’t bad looking. But he didn’t have any school friends. Not one. At home, he had his three brothers and his parents but every year on his birthday, his party turned out to be a family affair — no classmates ever came. The reason he was ostracized could only be one thing: his weight.
Brady was 5 feet 3 inches tall. He weighed 190 pounds and had a 36” waist. He had a face widened by fatty tissue, a small double chin and he had a bit of fatty skin across the back of his neck that made him appear slightly hunched over. He conceded to himself that his belly fat would wobble up and down — as it must have done while he was running as fast as he could for the girls.
Five years later, Brady is now age 14 as his mother drives him to Easley Pediatrics for his annual physical with Dr. Gary Goudelock. In an examination room wallpapered with pleasantly illustrated kid-friendly elephants, giraffes and other animals — one that Brady has been returning to for as long as he can remember — his pediatrician enters and performs his exam. Brady’s mom, Tinna, sits patiently as always.
Brady’s weight is now 215 pounds, his waist 38 inches around. Scanning Brady’s health history, Dr. Goudelock notes Brady’s inability to stop gaining weight. He has counseled Brady about this during previous physical exams. “I know it’s hard. I understand. I’m fighting this battle with you.” His doctor is empathetic. He struggles with his own weight.
Body Mass Index (BMI) is your weight divided by height squared. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have defined “obese” as a BMI of 30 or higher. Based on this definition, 36% of adults in the United States — over 94 million Americans — are obese.1 Approaching middle age, your BMI to body fat closely correlates: a BMI of 30 means that approximately 30% of your body mass is fat. The percentage is lower earlier in life and increases in your later years. A formula developed by Deurenberg, Weststrate and Seidell in the Netherlands precisely calculates body fat at every age level based on your BMI and taking your age and sex into account.2
The CDC defines “overweight” as a BMI of 25 to 30. Based on that definition, 181 million Americans are overweight or obese.3 33.4% of children ages 2 to 19 — one in three — in the United States are now either overweight (16.2%) or obese (17.2%). In Brady’s age group, children ages 12 to 19, obesity has increased from around 5% in 1976 to 20.6% today — one out of every five is obese.4 One of them is Brady.
There have never been, in all of human history, more obese and overweight people alive.
Obesity is the pathway to diabetes.
Dr. Goudelock regards mother and son, meets their eyes. Before this medical professional even speaks a word, a concern in his lingering gaze spreads out creasing his face, and Brady and his mother silently realize… there is a problem, something is wrong.
Based on Brady’s vital signs, his blood sugar level, and his BMI, Brady is pre-hypertensive. Hypertension is abnormally high blood pressure. He is on the path to becoming pre-diabetic. As his pediatrician explains his increasing risk of medical problems should he become diabetic as he approaches his twenties, the 14-year-old fidgets, avoids eye contact with Dr. Goudelock, wanting this visit to end. The slights at school, the glances-at shifting quickly into looks-away, the ridicule whispered sideways between amused confidants — almost privately — Brady’s radar field of nervousness is acutely attuned. Now, in this moment, he is again caught in the headlights, unworthy, weak, a glutton, a failure, the subject of condescending disdain, and all he wants is to mute it out, to flee, and get away to solitude and safety.
Hearing the word “diabetic” applied to her son actually doesn’t cause his mother immediate or inordinate concern. Tinna is overweight, as is Brady’s father, John. A number of people she knows, including her mother-in-law, are diabetic and the medications they take seem to be handling their situations just fine. Besides, Dr. Goudelock’s prefix “pre” and even better, the “becoming” before that offer the comforts of distance and time.
But as Dr. Goudelock provides more detail, growing apprehension slows and draws her breathing, the tiny muscles underneath the skin of her face release and her expression falls until she becomes aware of that, and of needing to mask any concern in front of her son.
A program, New Impact, has just opened at the children’s hospital nearby. Dr. Goudelock feels intervention at this stage is the best plan of action, and he wants to refer Brady there.
Brady and Tinna are quiet as she drives them home. As a mother, she’s usually savvy enough to think of something to say, to lighten things when moods dampen or topics become dour, but right now her mind is working, she’s thinking things through. She has an action plan in mind before they even set foot on their driveway.
Tinna and John love their children and are succeeding in providing a nice home for them, the best they can given their steady modest income. Evidence of that love is, in part, the food they serve at their dining table. Their food culture living in South Carolina consists mainly of the rich, fatty, sugary traditional dishes, the comfort food of the American south, combined with today’s national brands of appealing calorie-rich processed foods, snacks and beverages. Her husband, John, and Brady’s three brothers don’t know it yet, but Tinna is now resolved. It’s been torture for her, feeling helpless watching her son get bigger and bigger. She and John have been struggling with weight issues of their own. The entire family will now begin eating a healthier diet and exercising more. Done deal. Junk food and processed foods are going to become scarcer in her kitchen. Even though she doesn’t yet know what that “healthier diet” will consist of, she will be going with Brady to New Impact where they will learn more about it together. The family Kluge is going to be on board, this will be a team effort. Done. “Pre”-done. Even though neither Brady’s older brother, Joseph, or either of his younger brothers, Chandler and Nicholas, are overweight, Brady’s mom knows they’ll rally, that the family will circle the wagons around him. Done. Chandler is strident in his opinions — Tinna knows he’ll put up a fight and will still refuse to eat vegetables — but that can be tolerated. Double done.
Going forward, Tinna will be driving Brady weekly to New Impact. There, he will be provided with four specialists. Dr. Sease will be his medical doctor — she’s the clinic’s director so that sounds like a good thing — and Brady will also be assigned a nutritionist, a psychologist and an exercise advisor.
Brady and Tinna have just learned from Dr. Goudelock that Brady is on the path to becoming pre-diabetic. And what that means.
What that means is this…
If Pre-Diabetic is the name of the road you are on, then the city you are heading to is named Type 2 Diabetes. It’s a big city — 95% of diabetics live there. When Brady arrives in that city, his neighborhood — given his young age — has a special name: Early-onset Type 2 Diabetes. Once he moves into Type 2 Diabetes, if he remains a resident there, his life expectancy will be reduced by 15 years.5 Brady will likely not live beyond his mid-60s.
All those wonderful years of your life’s full span spent living with the knowledge you’ve gained, the experiences and adventures you’ve had, the family and friends you have created, the joys and the sorrows enabling you to arrive at an understanding of life, a perspective unique to who you are, infusing a sharp brain riding high on a healthy savvy body, sensually attuned and more than adequately ambulatory, ready now for new adventures and experiences captained by a discerning mind, clever now, learned, influential, perhaps even wise. These are years young Brady can barely even conceive of, let alone envision — his mid-60’s, the 70’s and 80’s, stages of life that Tinna is looking forward to enjoying and living through for herself, and that she now realizes, if her son becomes diabetic, he will likely never experience.
Even worse, Brady’s diabetic trajectory into his 30’s, 40’s and 50’s will be years lived while enduring increasingly limited physical stamina and ability. He’ll experience low energy and diminished brain function, years spent in an expanding body at high and ever-increasing risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer, liver and kidney failure, of neuropathy worsening over time into limb amputations, declining vision leading to blindness, erectile dysfunction, brain fog, anxiety, depression and dementia.
Eventually diabetes reduces kidney function to the point where dialysis becomes imperative for survival, but surprisingly few diabetics need that treatment — just those who actually live that long.
In the 1960s, type 2 diabetes was rare, effecting 1 out of 100 people. The American Heart Association’s (AHA) 2019 update of its Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics reports 26 million American adults have been diagnosed with diabetes. 26 million is 9.8% of the population — nearly one in ten adult Americans.6
The AHA estimates that an additional 9.4 million, or 3.7%, of American adults have diabetes that has yet to be diagnosed.7 Diabetes then, whether diagnosed or undiagnosed, affects 13.1% of American adults. 1 out of every 8 of us has it. As of 2015, 1.5 million Americans are being diagnosed with diabetes every year.8
These are the numbers of an epidemic.
Our situation is actually even more dire. The same report notes that in addition, “about 91.8 million, or 37.6% of American adults have pre-diabetes.”9 That means half of all Americans — of all ages — have been diagnosed with diabetes, have diabetes and don’t realize it, or are pre-diabetic.
Up until fairly recently, the medical term was “adult-onset diabetes.” This condition has now been renamed “type 2 diabetes” because it is affecting so many children, and at younger and younger ages.
Obesity leads to diabetes.
Childhood obesity rates have tripled in the U.S. since 1980. As of October 2017, the childhood obesity rate nationwide was 18.5%. The rate rises as children get older: 13.9% of 2 to 5-year-olds are obese as are 18.4% of all 6 to 11-year-olds. For 12 to 19-year-olds, 20.6% are obese.10 Obesity rates are rising faster in children than adults.
Obesity in adolescence is significantly associated with severe obesity in adulthood along with the increased likelihood of life-threatening maladies.11 If you are obese as a child it is five times more likely you will be obese as an adult.12 70% of Americans are now overweight or obese.13
Over 25% of our children have some kind of chronic health problem. Over 50% of all Americans do. Four million deaths are attributed solely to obesity each year.
Tinna and John love their four sons. They have parented Brady; taken care of him, raised him and are so proud of the outstanding young man he is becoming. He’s a straight-A, honor roll student. He’s the one who makes sure everyone else is okay. He is more than they ever hoped for. And now the family pediatrician tells her that the food they have been providing for their children is harming them?! Tinna’s mad at herself and questions rush to her mind. Questions like, “How is this happening to our son?” “Why is this happening to our son?” “Why didn’t I think to ask more about that while I was right there?” And as she and her son pull into their driveway, “What the heck?!”
Doctors are delivering diagnoses like Brady’s to increasing numbers of children and their parents. Millions of us aren’t doing so well — despite our education, our medical and technological advances, all the skillsets and tools at our disposal…
We have the knowledge. We lack the understanding.
Diabetes is a gateway.
Diabetes is the gateway to heart disease.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States. And the biggest risk factor for heart disease aside from smoking is pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.14 Should Brady become diabetic, the odds that he will have a heart attack become much greater. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), “adults with diabetes are 2 to 4 times more likely to die from heart disease than adults without diabetes.”15 In fact, heart disease is the number one cause of death for diabetics.
AHA 2019 statistics show that 800,000 Americans die each year from heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular illnesses. That’s 1 out of every 3 deaths. 48% of American adults — 121.5 million people— are living with coronary heart disease, heart failure, high blood pressure or the after-effects of stroke.16 On average, one American has a heart attack every 34 seconds.
47% of all Americans have at least one of 3 key risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or they are a smoker according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).17 As a 4th risk factor, diabetes ranks second among these.
45.6% of American adults have high blood pressure (based on the new thresholds of 130/80).18 And nearly half of them do not have it under control. 77% of people who experience their first stroke had high blood pressure at the time. Strokes kill over 132,000 Americans a year, which means they are the 5th leading cause of death. They can happen at any age. Strokes are a leading cause of serious long-term disability in the U.S.19, making them particularly nasty.
Joel Fuhrman, M.D., specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods. In his compelling book Fast Food Genocide, the connection between a poor diet heavy in fried foods, fast food, and processed foods and the increased risk of disease is evident: “The epidemic of strokes, occurring at younger and younger ages, has sparked an entire industry of health care facilities that cater to impaired young people who have destroyed large sections of their brains with fast food.”20
Diabetes is also a gateway to cancer.
In 1960, 1 in 80 Americans could expect to get cancer. Today cancer strikes 1 out of 2 of us. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 1,762,450 new cancer cases in the United States in 2019 and 606,880 cancer deaths.21 A CDC study reveals that over the past decade overweight and obesity-related cancers constitute 40% of all new cancer cases.22
Mark Hyman, M.D., the director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, founder of The UltraWellness Center and bestselling author of 14 books writes, “We know certain things for sure. Insulin resistance or pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes dramatically increases the risk of most common cancers (prostate, breast, colon, pancreas, liver, etc.). We also know that inflammation increases cancer risk.”23
Studies have shown that insulin resistance (the hallmark of type 2 diabetes) causes the body to produce increased amounts of insulin in order to overcome the opposition to it. This leads to elevated insulin levels, which induces other growth factors. Together insulin and these growth factors act on and promote the growth of cancer cells increasing the risk of developing cancer in diabetics.24
Avoiding or reversing diabetes reduces your risk of cancer. And what you eat plays the central role in this. The American Cancer Society states, “A substantial proportion of cancers could be prevented including” the 18% caused by a combination of excess body weight, physical inactivity, excess alcohol consumption, and poor nutrition.25
Diabetes is a gateway to loss of brain function.
This affects adults through Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, and our youth as well, via ADHD and conditions on the autism spectrum.
Just as adult-onset diabetes was renamed type 2 diabetes in order to be more name-appropriate in our contemporary era, it is now becoming increasingly common in medical circles to refer to Alzheimer’s disease and other brain-degenerative conditions as… type 3 diabetes.
Alzheimer’s disease affected 5.4 million people in the United States in 2018, a number that is projected to nearly triple by 2050.26
Up until recently, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia were diagnosed predominantly in elderly patients, and your genetics combined with an aging body were thought to be key contributing factors. It is now understood that these diseases are progressive and begin much earlier in life.
Recent research, including a report with this heady title, Midlife Adiposity Predicts Earlier Onset of Alzheimer’s Dementia, Neuropathology and Presymptomatic Cerebral Amyloid Accumulation, has shown that people who have a higher BMI at age 50 have a “robust association” with both the earlier onset of Alzheimer’s disease, and a greater severity of Alzheimer’s neuropathology as it develops in them.27 Other research by Samantha Budd Haeberlein, Ph.D., and Biogen substantiates this, revealing that proteins begin building up and forming plaque in the brain for decades before a person demonstrates memory loss.28 A pervasive correlation has been established between obesity, diabetes and the onset of these cognitive diseases.
Behavioral symptoms of a diseased brain include anxiety, anger and depression. So not only are you losing your mind, but you’re not too happy about it either.
Dr. Fuhrman realizes that this deterioration of the brain begins sooner in life, much sooner, during childhood when a child’s brain is developing, earlier still as a baby, even earlier in the womb… “It’s not just children that are becoming obese, it’s that the American diet reduces intelligence in your child, it interferes with your child’s ability to concentrate in school. We’re not just talking about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [ADHD], which is linked to that. Even the diet a mother eats in her pregnancy affects whether her child gets autism or not, whether her child gets childhood cancer. Eating luncheon meats and high-nitrated foods, and a lot of processed foods and a low level of phytochemicals in her diet are linked to having a child with an autoimmune condition or childhood cancer. And then your child doesn’t do well in school. Their intelligence is based on how properly they are fed and how properly the mother ate.
“Parents should be wary because even before your kids become overweight, even before they become diabetic, feeding them these high glycemic, greasy, fried fast foods and processed foods is destructive to their potential, to their brain function, to their being able to realize the American Dream, and be economically and emotionally successful in life.”29
Diabetes is also a gateway to liver disease, kidney and renal failure.
Your blood circulation is impaired when high levels of sugars in your bloodstream react with and damage molecules of the cells lining your blood vessels. Diabetes encourages inflammation and weakens your body’s immune system. As your blood circulation is impaired, so is your body’s ability to cleanse and heal itself. This impacts not just a specific organ such as your heart, liver, or your brain, but the entirety of your circulatory system leading to a myriad of complications. These include erectile dysfunction, retinopathy, which is impaired vision including glaucoma that can progress to blindness, and neuropathy which is damage to your nerves, a condition that often begins as a loss of sensation or a tingling in your fingers and toes and worsens over time until amputations become necessary.
Over the entire span of human evolution, today is a tremendous time to be alive, to enjoy life, to take in every wonderful moment of an elongated optimized lifespan.
Our science and technology have broadened our knowledge and understanding of this world and everything in it, and we are especially well equipped in the field of medicine with our tools and skillsets. In just the past two centuries, humankind has experienced the virtual eradication of polio, smallpox and tuberculosis. Malaria may soon join that list. As a civilization, we invest significant resources, energy and effort into scientific research and discovery resulting in innumerable medical advances, including antibiotics, vaccines, and surgical procedures that have demonstrably increased our quality of life, our potential and our longevity.
Until now.
Our next generation’s life expectancy will decline. Our children, on average, will not live as long as we do.
Dr. Goudelock understood the path that Brady was on and that, over several years, the teenager was unable to correct it. This pediatrician was highly skilled and trained as a doctor but not as a nutritionist — so he made Brady and his mother aware of the hazard, and he provided a resource. He referred Brady to New Impact and a path to healing.
Brady and his mother would soon come to understand the benefits of preparing their own meals, eating whole foods and a plant-based diet.
This is the cure, and the solution. Poor nutrition is the fundamental, overriding reason for our current disease pandemic.
It’s not a secret virus from Russia or some weird gas secreting up from middle earth. Aliens are not weakening us and thinning us out prior to landing.
It’s all about the food…
Excerpt from The Great Healing – Five Compassions That Can Save Our World by Stephen Erickson. Published by TGH Press, August 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Stephen Erickson. All rights reserved.
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Stephen Erickson is an author and a dedicated environmental and animal activist for 30 years. He is also a screenwriter, feature filmmaker, and former Home Entertainment executive. He lives in Los Angeles and has 3 children. The Great Healing – Five Compassions That Can Save Our World is his first book.
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1 Emelia J. Benjamin, Paul Muntner, Alvaro Alonso, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. AHA Journals Circulation. Vol. 139, No. 10, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659
National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2016 – Individual Charts and Tables, Keyword: Overweight/obesity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2016.htm
2 There is a more accurate calculation of Body Fat based on Body Mass Index, which has been validated and shown to be precise. The relationship between BMI and Body Fat percentage is curvilinear, and the conversion depends on sex and age.
In adults the prediction formula is:
BF% = 1.20 x BMI + 0.23 x age - 10.8 x sex - 5.4
In children the BF% could be predicted by the formula:
BF% = 1.51 x BMI - 0.70 x age - 3.6 x sex + 1.4
Where the variable for sex is: males = 1, females = 0
Deurenberg P, Weststrate JA, Seidell JC. Body Mass Index as a Measure of Body Fatness: Age- and Sex-specific Prediction Formulas. Br J Nutr. 1991 Mar;65(2):105-14. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2043597
Thank you Sven Walderich.
3 Emelia J. Benjamin, Paul Muntner, Alvaro Alonso, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. AHA Journals Circulation. Vol. 139, No. 10, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659
4 Emelia J. Benjamin, Paul Muntner, Alvaro Alonso, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. AHA Journals Circulation. Vol. 139, No. 10, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659
5 Maria I. Constantino, L Molyneaux, F Limacher-Gisler, et al. Long-term Complications and Mortality in Young-onset Diabetes: Type 2 Diabetes is More Hazardous and Lethal than Type 1 Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Dec. 2013, 36(12):3863-9. doi: 10.2337/dc12-2455. Epub 2013 Jul 11. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23846814
6 Emelia J. Benjamin, Paul Muntner, Alvaro Alonso, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. AHA Journals Circulation. Vol. 139, No. 10, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659
7 Emelia J. Benjamin, Paul Muntner, Alvaro Alonso, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. AHA Journals Circulation. Vol. 139, No. 10, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659
8 American Diabetes Association, Statistics About Diabetes, Mar. 22, 2018, http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/
9 Emelia J. Benjamin, Paul Muntner, Alvaro Alonso, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. AHA Journals Circulation. Vol. 139, No. 10, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659
10 Emelia J. Benjamin, Paul Muntner, Alvaro Alonso, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. AHA Journals Circulation. Vol. 139, No. 10, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659
The State of Childhood Obesity, Childhood Obesity Trends, The State of Obesity, a collaborative project of the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Oct., 2017 https://stateofobesity.org/childhood/
11 The NS, Suchindran C, North KE, et al. Association of Adolescent Obesity with Risk of Severe Obesity in Adulthood, JAMA, Nov. 10, 2010, 304(18):2042-7. doi: 10.1001/jama.2010.1635. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21063014
12 Emelia J. Benjamin, Paul Muntner, Alvaro Alonso, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. AHA Journals Circulation. Vol. 139, No. 10, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659
13 Overweight & Obesity Statistics, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Aug. 2017 https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity
14 Pencina, Michael J., Navar AM, Wojdyla D, et al., Quantifying Importance of Major Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Disease. Circulation, Mar. 26, 2019, 139.13 (2019): 1603-1611.) doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.031855. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30586759
15 American Heart Association, Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes, Heart.org, https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/diabetes/why-diabetes-matters/cardiovascular-disease--diabetes
16 Emelia J. Benjamin, Paul Muntner, Alvaro Alonso, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. AHA Journals Circulation. Vol. 139, No. 10, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659
17 National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, Heart Disease Facts, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nov. 28, 2017 https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm
18 Emelia J. Benjamin, Paul Muntner, Alvaro Alonso, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2019 Update: A report from the American Heart Association. AHA Journals Circulation. Vol. 139, No. 10, Jan. 31, 2019, https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659
19 Benjamin EJ, Blaha MJ, Chiuve SE, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2017 At-a-Glance, A report from the American Heart Association. Jan. 25, 2017 Circulation. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000485 https://healthmetrics.heart.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Heart-Disease-and-Stroke-Statistics-2017-ucm_491265.pdf
20 Joel Fuhrman, M.D. Fast Food Genocide, New York, New York: Harper Collins, 2017 pg. 32.
21 Cancer Facts & Figures 2019, The American Cancer Society, 2019 https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics/all-cancer-facts-figures/cancer-facts-figures-2019.html
22 C. Brooke Steele, Cheryll C. Thomas, S. Jane Henley, et al. Vital Signs: Trends in Incidence of Cancers Associated with Overweight and Obesity – United States, 2005 – 2014, MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2017;66:1052-1058 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oct. 3, 2017 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6639e1.htm
23 Mark Hyman, M.D. Eat Fat, Get Thin, New York, New York: Little, Brown and Co., Hachette Book Group, 2016 pg. 167
24 Emily J. Gallagher, Derek LeRoith, Minireview: IGF, Insulin, and Cancer, Endocrinology, Vol 152, Issue 7, Jul. 1, 2011, Pgs. 2546–2551,https://doi.org/10.1210/en.2011-0231 https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/152/7/2546/2457127
Thank you Sven Walderich.
25 American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2019. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2019. https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2019/cancer-facts-and-figures-2019.pdf
26 Liesi E. Hebert, Jennife Weuve, Paul A. Scherr, Denis A. Evans, Alzheimer Disease in the United States (2010-2050) Estimated Using the 2010 Census, American Academy of Neurology, US National Library of Medicine, May 7, 2013 Neurology. 2013 May 7; 80(19): 1778–1783. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3719424/
27 Yi-Fang Chuang, Yang An, Murat Bilgel, et al. Midlife Adiposity Predicts Earlier Onset of Alzheimer’s Dementia, Neuropathology and Presymptomatic Cerebral Amyloid Accumulation, Mol Psychiatry. Jul, 2016 21(7): 910-915. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5811225/
28 Samantha Budd Haeberlein, Why This Scientist is Hopeful a Cure to Alzheimer’s Disease Isn’t Far Off, Time Magazine, Jan. 4, 2018, http://time.com/5087364/scientist-hopeful-cure-to-alzheimers-disease-isnt-far-off/
29 Joel Fuhrman, M.D. as stated in iThrive! Rising From the Depths of Diabetes & Obesity, 9 part documentary series, Executive Producers: Jonathan Hunsaker, Jonathan McMahon, Michael Skye, 2017, iThrive Publishing LLC, https://go.ithriveseries.com/