Chronic Disease is skyrocketing – both the CDC and World Health Organization provide these sobering trends:
1) Chronic disease affects one out of two Americans and causes seven of 10 deaths in the United States.
2) One in 45 children now has autism spectrum disorder, up from just one in 500 in 1999. More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes, and cancer combined.
3) Alzheimer’s is now the sixth leading cause of death in the United States; the number of deaths has increased by 89 percent since 2000. Alzheimer’s kills more people than prostate and breast cancer combined.
4) 100 million Americans – nearly one in three – have either prediabetes or diabetes.
5) 50 million Americans (approximately one in six) have an autoimmune disease (more than cancer and heart disease combined).
6) The rate of type 2 diabetes in children and teens is increasing by almost 5 percent a year.
7) Chronic disease will generate $47 trillion in healthcare costs globally by 2030 if the epidemic is unchecked. That’s more than the annual GDP of the six largest economies in the world.
The medical world is recognizing chronic disease as an escalating epidemic that is sabotaging our health. Leaders within the medical community increasingly realize that disease management is not enough for treating chronic conditions. Leading institutions like the Duke Medical School are revising the traditional treatment approach by emphasizing preventative health care that involves sustainable and integrated lifestyle changes.
Duke Integrative Medicine utilizes a visual tool called the "Wheel of Health" that shows the seven-dimensions of self-care. The Wheel of Health guides practitioners in creating preventative treatment recommendations. Following these recommendations for self-care can be challenging to patients, especially when confronted by common barriers to sustainable behavioral change. This is where integrative health coaching plays a vital role in your success.
Behavioral change can be difficult for many reasons. Each person has different experiences, cultural influences, support systems, values, and emotional resiliency. Working with these psychology-based variables requires an expert in human behavioral change, and the medical community increasingly relies on evidence-based trained health coaches to provide this critical guidance.
What does a Duke Trained Integrative Health Coach bring to the table? A mindfulness-based practice that follows an evidence-based system for helping clients achieve sustainable behavioral change. Health coaches work both independently or in a partnership with a medical doctor. The health coach is also in a partnership with the client where the health coach is the expert in behavioral change and the client is the expert in their needs and goals.
The highest reward for the health coach is witnessing the client gain their desired level of health and wellbeing by achieving real and lasting lifestyle change.
If you or someone you know is experiencing challenge in some area of their life or health, please refer them to Stone Integrative health. It is always a gift to contribute to helping others reach optimal health and wellbeing.
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