Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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 Smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Each year, about 438,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking, a loss of about five million years of potential life span, associated with an annual cost of $92 billion in productivity loses. One in every five deaths is smoking related.15 These mind-boggling numbers overwhelm any potential health gain from the various procedures and treatments reviewed in our first seven chapters.
A related and serious public health problem, and a generally overlooked one, is the effect of secondhand smoking. |
Lester A. Mitscher and Victoria Toews
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 Green tea's potential as a protective agent against premature death from heart disease and cancer is impressive. Researchers have found that green tea's polyphenols bolster the heart's resistance to cardiovascular diseases by lowering levels of total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol, reducing platelet aggregation, and helping keep blood pressure in check. As an agent in the prevention of cancer, green tea inhibits both the initiation and promotion stages of cancer and even boosts the effectiveness of some cancer treatments. |
| Compared with the mortality rates of other Japanese women during the period of the study fewer of the green tea drinkers died, "indicating the possibility that green tea is a protective factor" against premature death.7
The overall health-promoting effect of polyphenols may account for green tea's role in longevity. Green tea has a stimulating effect on the immune system because its polyphenols boost production of immune system cells. Researchers hypothesize that this stimulation of the immune system reduces the risk of many illnesses. |
| Free radical "hits" on cells and their essential components accumulate over time, producing the signs and symptoms of aging: premature death, heart disease, cancer, dimming cognition, cataracts, and wrinkles. If free radicals are the problem, then antioxidants are, without a doubt, the solution. According to Dr. Denham Harman, a free radical expert from the University of Nebraska, "addition of one of a number of different antioxidants in the diet can increase the average life span." Undoubtedly, green tea's polyphenols are potent antioxidants that can help hold back the hands of time. |
Dr. Arthur Janov
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 But when we address their inner life, their vulnerability to disease and premature death, we may find a different outcome. No one is arguing that someone who escaped the concentration camp cannot really be happy. No one will take that away. What we want to know is how they survive. Are they prone to depression, anxiety, and nightmares? We need to know the price of adjustment in therapy and in life. Criteria are a tricky matter.
We see that many diet regimes "work." The criterion may be that the client has lost 50 pounds. Is he cured? Not without generating sources. |
Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels
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 But there is no good evidence that the drugs can reduce the chances of a premature death for women.
For men the situation is a little different. For those who already have some heart disease, and others at high risk, the drugs can reduce the chances of further disease and premature death. The large Heart Protection Study published in the British journal The Lancet showed that those with heart disease taking a statin for five years reduced their chances of death from roughly 15 percent to 13 percent, and reduced their chances of further heart attacks and strokes from 25 percent to 20 percent. |
Dr. Arthur Janov
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| Denial is a nice, temporary expedient; it makes life tolerable, but the price can be heavy later on—possibly premature death or early disease and a return to symptoms. Still, it works for some when the pain is not too much. There are levels of pain; those on the deepest levels of the nervous system register the highest valence. For instance, we may see a fever of 103 degrees (F) just before entering a feeling. The system treats the imprint as a foreign invader just like a virus. All systems are engaged in the battle against feeling. |
Shannon Brownlee
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 Yet even that is not a fail-safe talisman for warding off premature death. Howard Brody, a primary care physician at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, recalls a tragic case of a young woman who put her faith in the Pap test:
One of the saddest cases I ever took care of was a woman in her late thirties who died of cervical cancer. She'd had an abnormal Pap smear four or five years earlier.
A [biopsy] found some abnormal cells. Everybody thought we'd gotten it all. She had a normal Pap smear every year after that, year in, year out. |
| For many patients, of course, the medical progress of the past several decades has meant the difference between life and a premature death or a disability. But for others, it has simply meant more opportunities to receive even more costly unnecessary care. For some it has meant premature disability and death.
"The resistance to change is structural," says Wennberg. "It relates to the fact that doctors don't want to think they aren't doing the right thing. You can understand why doctors would feel that way; they've done it all their lives. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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 Although abnormal iron loading leads to premature death in people with hemochromatosis, the sufferers of this genetic condition do not die of bubonic plague. So when a quarter of the European population was killed during the first plague, our ancestors with hemochromatosis survived. Subsequent bouts of the plague were much less devastating because of this change.
So infections have shaped our genes through natural selection and have forced humans to jump through hoops in developing complex systems to protect ourselves. |
Bill Sardi
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 A 325 mg coated aspirin tablet still produces very little increase in life expectancy (2 weeks), with approximately 1 in 15 aspirin users experiencing a side effect and 1 in 556 individuals premature death. [Annals Pharmacotherapy 39: 51-57, 2005]
¦ Additionally, one-third of gastric ulcers produced by non-steroidal drugs involve low-dose daily aspirin. [American Journal Gastroenterology 100: 1694-95, 2005]
¦ COX-2 inhibitor drugs like Vioxx and Bextra are widely promoted for potential cancer prevention, but they increase the risk for heart attacks and strokes. |
Andreas Moritz
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 Thousands of years ago, Ayurveda proclaimed that the main cause of ill health and premature death is located in the bowel. The ancient healers considered the large intestine to be an extremely important part of the body due to its vital roles. These include the synthesis and absorption of certain essential nutrients for the nervous system and the elimination of waste matter. When you think of it, without the internal motion (Vata) of fluids, waste and nutrients, the body would be dead.
Vata translates as "air" or movement, and as such, is present throughout the body. |
| Chronic illness predisposes one to accelerated aging and premature death. Each time an infection is suppressed, the subsequent congestion in the deeper-lying structures of the body increases the workload of the heart, making it increasingly weak and stressed. Heart disease, which is the prevalent killer in most countries of the industrialized world, could largely be prevented if we didn't suppress immune responses such as the common infection. |
Anne Harrington
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 If people were willing to blame modern life in general for a range of stress-linked disorders, did it not follow that they should also be willing to blame the corporate world for its role in encouraging behaviors that increased employees' risk of heart disease and premature death? A few people moved cautiously in this direction, noting that the "20th-century Western milieu" had "probably increased the prevalence of [Type A behavior] . . . if only by offering special rewards to those who can perform more competitively, aggressively, and rapidly than others. |
Steven V. Joyal
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 Obesity increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and premature death. It is also a proinflammatory condition, which means that excess adipose (fat) tissue releases substances such as inflammatory cytokines and other factors that are associated with insulin resistance, elevated blood pressure, and oxidized cholesterol (which promotes the formation of plaque), all of which are implicated in heart disease and stroke. |
Gabriel Cousens
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 Accelerated aging occurs with an FBS of 86 or greater and with that an increased risk of premature death. We have just begun to recognize that even a high normal glucose can eventually become a serious threat to our health. The point is we need to understand the complex toxic effects that high blood sugar or hyperglycemia creates in the body. It should be clear at this point that a high blood sugar damages cells through multiple mechanisms and accelerates all elements of aging.
The following list shows the potential problems that can arise from a high-glycemic diet. |
| Tanzania
These estimates are based on lost productivity, resulting primarily from premature death. Accounting for disability might double or triple these figures.
Diabetes also has a negative impact upon a person's general health condition and work performance. In 2003, the CDC found: 33.6 percent of U.S. adults with diabetes reported at least one day of poor mental health for each thirty days; 53.9 percent reported at least one day of poor physical health; and 62.8 percent reported at least one day of either poor mental or physical health. Also, 32. |
| People with diabetes face the near certainty, and in many poor countries the stark reality, of premature death. Type-1 diabetes is particularly costly in terms of mortality in poor countries, where many children die because access to life-saving insulin is not subsidized by governments (in some countries, there even is a high tax on purchased insulin), and is often not available at any price. |
Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D.
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 Keeping our cellular powerhouses healthy is vital to delaying the premature death of cells, which we now believe to be the main cause of early aging, illness, and death. Since most of us do not consume the proper balance of nutrients in the foods we eat to provide the nutrients the mitochondria require, supplementation has become a necessary way of life.
Why is it, for example, that one eighty-five-year-old person can pole vault, while another fifty-year-old person can look and act like he is eighty? It's no mystery. If mitochondria are healthy, then so are we. |
Anne Harrington
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| At the time, the evidence seemed clear that, unless they changed their ways, such men risked a tragic end: premature death from heart failure.
The discovery of the Type A personality and his apparent vulnerability to heart attack had roots in a far more broadly based set of public health concerns in the postwar period. This was a period of sharply rising levels of coronary heart disease in the American population. |
Andreas Moritz
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 The quick-fix approach of suppressing symptoms of disease is a major cause of chronic illness, premature death, and, of course, spiraling health care costs. Over 900,000 people die each year unnecessarily as a direct result of side-effects from expensive medical treatments. By comparison, it is very inexpensive to actually cure disease and prevent new diseases from arising. Conventional health care is becoming less and less affordable for most people in the world and is likely to become a rare privilege for a relative few in the future. |
Tom Bohager
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 Although there are no magic cures to arrest the aging process, there are measures that one can take to slow the process and reduce the risks of premature death.
Significant factors that may contribute to an individual's longevity include genetics, access to health care, hygiene, diet, exercise, and lifestyle. Therefore, recommendations to increase longevity include a healthy, well-balanced diet, stress management, rest, regular exercise, support of the digestive and immune systems, and enzyme supplementation for overall improved health. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
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 Surgeon General's report concludes that secondhand smoke causes premature death and disease in children and in adults who do not smoke.10
If you are overweight or obese and you smoke cigarettes, the health risks are increased dramatically. Since cigarette smoking speeds up your heart rate and constricts the flow of blood throughout your body, it will significantly increase your odds of experiencing a heart attack.
Nicotine addiction also results in withdrawal symptoms when a person tries to stop smoking. |
| The Web site actually makes claims for long-term benefits such as "heightened immune system, reduced risk of heart disease, reduced risk of high blood pressure, reduced risk of colon and breast cancer and even the reduced risk of premature death." While these benefits may be obtained with regular and consistent cardio respiratory
Red Exerciser exercise and other dietary and lifestyle changes, these are not benefits that you will realize from twisting your upper body from left to right like a washing machine. It's just another marketing gimmick and a waste of money. |
Jack Challem
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 More clear-cut symptoms do not usually appear until after age forty, and these symptoms may also include bronze-colored skin, diabetes, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, and premature death.
The Gene Connection
Hemochromatosis is usually caused by a mutation in the HFE gene. Because of the mutation, the amino acid tyrosine is substituted for cysteine during the production of hemoglobin. This seemingly minor change alters the way the body stores iron. The mutation is referred to as HFE C282Y, because it occurs at position 282 of the HFE gene. |
| Begun early enough, it can reduce the risk of iron-related disease and premature death, enabling people with the disease to have normal life expectancies.
Some dietary strategies may also be of benefit. In a study of 18 patients with genetically confirmed hemochromatosis, researchers found that regular consumption of black tea with meals significantly reduced iron storage as well as the frequency of bloodletting. The need for bloodletting might also be reduced by avoiding processed, iron-fortified foods, including breads and pastas, and iron-containing vitamin and mineral supplements. |
| Detection of C282Y and H63D mutations indicates hemochromatosis, an iron-overload disease that increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and premature death.
• HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8. These tests indicate a genetic predisposition for celiac disease, an intolerance of gluten proteins found in wheat and many other grains.
• Homocysteine. Elevated homocysteine levels (especially greater than 13 mmol/L) are indicative of low folic acid, possibly low vitamin B]2, and poor methylation reactions. An ideal level is between 4 and 8 mmol/L.
• Insulin. |
Byron J. Richards
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 Research now shows that in elderly individuals, for every 80 calories of legumes they have in their daily diet, they reduce their risk of premature death by seven to eight percent. There is no other single component in the Mediterranean diet for which such a claim can be made. There is life force in the legume.
Peanuts are not a nut, they are a legume. The peanut plant comes from South America and is a food product uniquely American. It is potentially a nutritious food. |
Greg Critser
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 Prescription drugs have become a way of delaying premature death without dealing with the underlying soul and body sickness of modern life and modern life choices. This is complicated by the fact that while pharma will always be with us, deep down inside, Americans still don't fathom that pharma's principal allegiances are not to God, nature, and man, but to science, markets, and mammon. It depends on us.
The traditional liberal response is to say that we do not invest enough in wellness programs and preventive medicine. |
| High blood pressure — which can cause everything from heart attack to stroke — is a leading cause of premature death, and its causes are complex, ranging from too much salt to obesity. In essence, hypertension puts undue pressure on the heart, lungs, and other organs; using the pump analogy, hypertension would be akin to putting a lakeful of water into a pump designed only to handle a small pond. The number of Americans said to be afflicted with hypertension ranges into the tens of millions; the number of untreated does as well. |
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