New Era of Disease
A New Era of Chronic Disease in America
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident -- Arthur Schopenhauer
There has been a largely unrecognized explosion of chronic disease in the US. More than 170 million Americans are currently suffering from chronic, germless diseases. Statistics culled from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NCBI and PubMed are staggering. In the U.S. population of 322 million, the number of instances of 40 fast-growing chronic diseases and medical conditions has mushroomed beyond 700 million. That’s an average of more than 2.1 diseases and chronic conditions for every American! The accelerated growth of each of these forty conditions began around 1990.
In a single generation, there has been a dramatic acceleration* in the prevalence of diseases and disorders like autism (2094%), Alzheimer’s (299%), COPD (148%), diabetes (305%), sleep apnea (430%), Celiac disease (1111%), ADHD (819%), asthma (142%), depression (280%), bipolar disease in youth (10833%), osteoarthritis (449%), lupus (787%), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD – 120%), chronic fatigue syndrome (11027%), fibromyalgia (7727%), multiple sclerosis (117%) and hypothyroidism (702%).
These diseases are not caused by germs like bacteria or viruses. Instead they are all triggered by a single molecule made in the body. This molecule is called peroxynitrite. Elevated levels of peroxynitrite have been associated with more than 60 chronic diseases. While thousands of scientists have long recognized the pivotal role of peroxynitrite in disease, few policy makers and physicians are aware of the connection. And the general public remains completely in the dark. The scope of the problem is extensive. The annual economic burden for just forty fast-growing chronic diseases and conditions in the US is more than $2.5 trillion.
The quintessential paper on peroxynitrite was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in 2007. The study, “Nitric Oxide and Peroxynitrite in Health and Disease,” identifies more than 130 biological disruptions caused by peroxynitrite within the body, which, in turn, lead to dozens of diseases. Another paper published on ResearchGate, “The Root Cause in the Dramatic Rise in Chronic Disease,” associates peroxynitrite with 40 of the fastest-growing diseases, all of which have more than doubled since 1990.
Many of these diseases and conditions were relatively unknown until the 1990s. Now most have become household names like autism, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, hypothyroidism, erectile dysfunction, bipolar disorder, just to name a few.
Other more familiar diseases and conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, melanoma, sleep apnea, asthma, depression, and leukemia, have also sky-rocketed in the US.