Chronic Inflammation: A Silent Killer
Posted in Final Expense Insurance last updated on January 26, 2021
“Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with a shorter lifespan of 10 to 15 years. RA itself is not fatal, but severe RA can cause complications such as narrowed or blocked heart arteries, scarring of the lungs, and blood cancers that can shorten life expectancy.”
https://www.emedicinehealth.com/ask_is_arthritis_deadly/article_em.htm
We talk to hundreds of our clients about their health every week. While we want our clients to look good on their health interviews, we explain that life insurance companies have access to your prescription record and use that to evaluate your health and to determine your rate class. The bottom line is: if you were prescribed medication it is because you have a condition. Medication is not meant to cure you.
If your health improves we may be able to lower your payments.
Our main job is to pre-underwrite you and to find the best carrier based on your health and goals. It is relatively common that we can switch someone that was in the waiting period to first-day coverage with a lower payment. Nevertheless, we can do more.
As an agency with 20+ carriers, our loyalty is to you. So, if your health improves and you stop taking a couple of drugs we may pre-underwrite you again in the future and switch carriers, so you can have better coverage or lower payment!
Always follow your doctor’s instructions. Let your better health do the talking.
High blood pressure medication can protect you from more severe health issues like a stroke, a heart attack, etc. However, there are ways to reduce your high blood pressure naturally. Similarly, there are medications that can prevent your arthritis to get worse. In fact, early diagnosis may yield a much more effective treatment.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic connective tissue disease which develops in the course of an autoimmune inflammatory process triggered by environmental factors in a genetically predisposed person.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6142028/
You can’t control your genetic DNA (you may be able to change the RNA), but you control your lifestyle and may improve your health and reduce your dependency on medications.
Depression and anxiety are linked to Rheumatoid Arthritis
The link between arthritis and depression is referred at emedicine.net. Additionally, if depression is present and not treated, the arthritis treatment may not be effective.
There are ways to reduce stress, anxiety and depression and improve your mood through a more active lifestyle, more nutritious foods, reducing stressful activities, and doing meditation, etc.
Too much TV watching (more than 4 hours a day) is believed to lead to depression based on this study on the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
The practice of meditation might help you control your levels of stress and anxiety that lead to depression, yielding a better mood. The scientific evidence is layered on this post from Harvard Medical School
The direct benefits of a more active lifestyle on depression were sourced from this article from the Mayo Clinic:
- Releasing feel-good endorphins, which improves your feeling of well being.
- Helps your brain stay focus on the positive aspects of life, reducing negative thoughts that feed depression.
The Anti-Arthritis Diet
Nutrition is key to reduce systemic inflammation that is one of the causes of rheumatoid arthritis. The arthritis foundation recommends the Mediterranean died: The Ultimate Arthritis Diet.
Basically the Anti-Arthritis Diet is composed of:
- More fish
- More fruits and vegetables
- More nuts and seeds
- More beans
- More RAW olive oil. The catch is “do not overheat or fry with it”
- Onions are packed with antioxidants. Shop them before for more effective results.
- Avoid tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant
- Avoid processed foods like cookies, chips, and fried foods that generally have very unhealthy fats and excess sodium.
Plant-based diet linked to higher performance in athletes and improved health in general.
The movie Game Changers talks about how athletes are improving their performance based on a plant-based diet, and how it may help your body heal and perform better even if you are not an athlete. What gives athletes super strength and endurance may give you super health and self-healing power.
Chronic Inflammation leads to several diseases that collectively represent the leading causes of disability and mortality.
Social, environmental and lifestyle factors can promote Systemic Chronic Inflammation (SCI) that can, in turn, lead to several diseases that collectively represent the leading causes of disability and mortality worldwide, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-019-0675-0
Dr Furman leads a movement based on “Nutritarian Diet”.
There are numerous examples of how a vegetarian diet may cure insulin dependency in diabetes and many other diseases. Start bellow we
A step by step approach might yield the best results.
As you start choosing the more healthy lifestyle it should get easier to go to the next level. If you watch less TV and start doing more exercise, you’ll feel better. If you use the extra time to research about nutrition and cook your own foods you will get better. If you start growing some of the foods it might affect your mood and your health. If you take fewer drugs you will feel less of the side effects and it will affect your health and your mood.
You can also share this information. You can join a local group of people that share the same values, and/or join a Facebook group. The group becomes a source of information and support to help you live the best life you can.
