The Cure & The Culprit gets off to a great start and helps us realize that we are on a life long journey to become healthier individuals and recognize that certain behaviors and lifestyle choices will improve the quality of our overall life.
Chapter 1 provides an excellent overview of the cause and effect relationship between a lack of exercise, a poor diet, unhealthy lifestyle practices and the onset of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cancer and ultimately premature death. Steven Aldana drives home his argument by showing us the percent of colon cancer (71%), strokes (70%), heart disease (82%) and diabetes (91%) that can be avoided if people consumed a diet with more fruits/vegetables, whole grains, less red meat and exercised regularly in a smoke free environment (no tobacco use). He actually shows us the extra years of life we can add by adopting these healthy habits and maintaining a normal body weight.
Aldana also reminds us that changing our lifestyle to promote healthy living is not easy because of the mixed messages we get about the latest diet, exercise craze or most recent research on the cause of disease. Although new research will always be published and debated in the scientific journals and the public media, the fundamental components of 1) a good diet, 2) 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day and 3) the avoidance of tobacco use will always be the foundation to build upon. Even more important than the awareness and knowledge of this information is the contemplation of making a change in your daily routines. Taking a small step to change or improve a lifestyle behavior is a positive movement towards a lifetime goal. Aldana puts it in very simple terms: increasing your daily diet intake of fruits and vegetables from 2 servings to 5 servings can reduce the likelihood of getting cancer by 50%.
In Chapters 2-3 Steve Aldana helps us better understand the science behind research studies on health promotion and disease prevention. He uses an excellent analogy and compares health care information to a complex puzzle and the need to see the entire picture before we can find where all the puzzle pieces fit. The book actually helps us find the missing pieces of the health care mysteries and interpret them in a way that makes good sense. Ultimately, we begin to realize that our “youthful attitudes of immortality” must be overcome to understand that a chronic condition like heart disease or cancer can actually start when we are very young and we feel no pain whatsoever. On a more positive note, Steve Aldana provides us with the concept of “compression of morbidity”: you live a healthy/ productive life to the very end and never experience the suffering of a chronic disease. Hopefully, that will be the last piece to everyone’s puzzle.
Enjoy your journey to better health,
Dr. Tony Linares
