By Anne Malatt and Paul Moses, Australia.
In the not-so-distant past, contagious or communicable diseases were greatly feared, and the cause of many deaths, often on a mass scale. The Black Plague, the Spanish Flu, and smallpox all come to mind and are seared in our collective memories. With the advent of modern sanitation and medicine, these diseases have become much less common. As they have waned, the importance of non-communicable diseases has risen.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), non-communicable diseases (NCDs) now account for 68% of all deaths, worldwide, every year. (1)
In Australia, chronic diseases are the leading cause of illness, disability and death, accounting for 90% of all deaths in 2011. (2)
What are non-communicable diseases (NCDs)?
The four main types of non-communicable diseases are:
- Cardiovascular diseases (like heart attacks and strokes)
- Cancer
- Chronic respiratory diseases (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma), and
- Diabetes
NCDs are largely preventable
Non-communicable diseases are largely preventable, through interventions that address the main risk factors, which are:
- Tobacco use
- Harmful use of alcohol
- Unhealthy diet
- Physical inactivity (3)
Eliminating major risk factors could prevent most NCDs
If the major risk factors for non-communicable disease were eliminated, around 75% of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes would be prevented, and 40% of cancer cases would be prevented. (4)
This is huge.
The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles.
Knowing this (and we do) why do we still choose to live in a certain way, especially a way that is known to cause illness and disease?
Why do we choose to eat too much and to eat junk food, to smoke and drink, and lounge on the lounge watching TV?
We all know that these behaviours are harming us, so why do we do them, and then continue to repeat them, even when we can see and feel the consequences of these choices?
What do these behaviours do for us?
Is it possible that we use these behaviours in a specific way to not feel particular emotions we don’t want to feel?
Why do we smoke?
We may smoke because we are lonely – we miss ourselves, we miss true connections with other people, and some would say we miss our connection with our true purpose in life, and with God. Sure, cigarettes can be addictive, but there has to be an emptiness there for us to want to fill ourselves with smoke, a coldness and a dampness there that we warm, if only for a moment, when we breathe in stuff that’s on fire!
Why do we drink?
Alcohol can feel like our best friend too. We can use it as a substitute for truly caring for ourselves. The sugar picks us up and the alcohol numbs us, for a moment, from the sadness, the tiredness and the tension that we feel, but it is a poison for our bodies that we use instead of truly dealing with how we feel.
Why do we eat too much, or eat food loaded with fat, sugar and salt?
We eat for all sorts of reasons, but these foods offer us comfort – they can fill an emptiness and they offer us a degree of numbness from our pain and suffering, that allows us to carry on as we are – and they are cheap, quick and readily available.
And why don’t we move?
Many of us are exhausted and have given up on ourselves, and on life. And in time, this way of being can lead to depression, obesity, and further inactivity.
But these are not natural behaviours – they are learned behaviours.
And where do we learn them?
The vast majority of these behaviours are set up in our family home. We learn to eat, drink and live in a certain way from the people we grow up with, in most cases, from our parents. It can be very hard to change these behaviours that we learn at an early age, and many of us find ourselves repeating them, even if we swore we would not, as we observed them when we were young. These are not just ways of eating and drinking, but ways of living and being with each other. And they are ways we have developed to try and not feel the stress and tension, to numb the ill-at-ease, of our everyday lives.
So, if the way we live can lead to illness and disease, and these illnesses are largely due to our lifestyle and largely preventable, is it possible that these diseases are contagious too?
We don’t think of diseases such as heart attacks and arthritis as being contagious…but what if they are?
What if diseases that ‘run in the family’ (which we now call ‘genetic’) are just as contagious as the common cold?
What if the way we are with each other and the way we live can be passed on just as easily as the bugs we sneeze onto other people when we are sick?
How would this understanding change the way we viewed illness and disease, and the way we viewed raising families and being with each other?
If we saw that chronic diseases may also be contagious, through passing on the way we live, we would see that how we live can make a difference to our own health, and to that of everyone around us.
We have a responsibility for the choices we make, that affect the energy we are in, that then affects everyone, just as if we passed on an infectious disease.
But hang on!
Laughter is also contagious.
Joy is contagious.
So is harmony.
So is stillness.
And truth.
And love.
And the power of these feelings is far stronger than the force of the emotions that can lead to dis-ease.
It is our choice – whether to live in a way that leads us to illness and disease, or to live in a way that offers harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy, for ourselves and for everyone we meet.
References:
- http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs355/en/
- http://www.aihw.gov.au/chronic-diseases/
- http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs355/en/
- http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/noncommunicable_diseases/en/
Read more:
- True health: are we missing something?
- The fat myth continues
- Bad luck causes cancer… and the world is flat
- The Art of Healing through Living
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
We have shut ourselves out of the Garden of Eden and therefore lost the magic of God and our Universe and because of this loss we feel the despair in our bodies which we then cover up by using whatever means we can to numb the despair we feel. We will not change this way of living until we can admit that we are trying to sustain a way of living that clearly isn’t working and that it is actually killing us trying to sustain it.
Thanks Anne and Paul for exposing so clearly and concisely what we all deeply know, that we have in our hands the responsibility for our health or illness.
There is much to ponder about here. Many of the illnesses and diseases are man made, in other words, we are the ones who have created them in our bodies and yet as stated, they can be prevented.
When I looked at the causes and once upon a time, they affected me in my own health and wellbeing, it was the way and the amount that had detriments to my health.
I used to socially smoke (which was a brownie point as I had will power to not smoke any other times except pub time!…)
Drank silly over the weekends and had late nights.
I ate what I felt was a good diet yet left me constipated despite a high fibre diet and mucusy from the indulgence of dairy.
I over exercised and pushed my body to the extreme and frequently suffered, coughs, colds, flus and many upper respiratory illnesses.
So, when I reflected, the balance wasn’t there. Roll forward years, and the fact that my body signalled too many times, I had no choice but to look at my choices.
Now, I eat more cleanly, no dairy or gluten, returning to the foods that are light and supportive and yet nutritious. Stopped smoking many years ago and cannot stand the smell of it anymore, alcohol went out the window, when my body just needed to smell it and I would have a hangover. Exercise wise, I am returning to it with walks, and not rushed to the gym yet; it has been over nine years since I performed extreme workouts.
My body feels much different now and from time to time I feel the joy, the harmony but the most profound feeling, is the stillness I’ve not felt before. I would much rather continue to have these feelings than the ones that left me out of source.
I love the responsibility that comes with considering non-communicable diseases as communicable; I suspect we would all sit up and pay far more attention.
What Anne has offered here in this blog can really go a long way in eliminating the tendency for people to start to believe that they are destined to get cancer, heart disease or other NCD’s just because their parents or other people in their family have historically contracted those diseases. And I just came to another realisation about the way we consider diseases as being ‘contracted’, as if their occurrence was some kind of random event that was completely out of control. But the truth is that it is all our life-style choices and how we emotionally handle life situations that controls what illnesses or disease manifest in our bodies to reflect to us the energy we have been putting our bodies through and offering an opportunity to then make different choices that would lead to greater health and well-being.
Agreed, what has been offered has enormous potential to remind us of just how much we contribute to our own outcomes. It is a positive if you embrace responsibility and therefore are open to accountability, but if you prefer to live as you think you deserve with your ‘treats’ and indulgences regardless of their medical and physiological consequences then there has to be a rebalance whether you accept it or not.
Lucy, spot on ‘there has to be rebalance’. Mother nature reminds us of this from time to time and we label it as ‘natural disasters’, and yet it is no different. Something has to give when we indulge as the body is requesting the equilibrium. Could it be that simple?
What Anne has offered here in this blog can really go a long way in eliminating the tendency for people to start to believe that they are destined to get cancer, heart disease or other NCD’s just because their parents or other people in their family have historically contracted those diseases. And I just came to another realisation about the way we consider diseases as being ‘contracted’, as if their occurrence was some kind of random event that was completely out of control. But the truth is that it is all our life-style choices and how we emotionally handle life situations that controls what illnesses or disease manifest in our bodies to reflect to us the energy we have been putting our bodies through and offering an opportunity to then make different choices that would lead to greater health and well-being.
Energy is contagious because it is passing through all of us all of the time so the quality we choose to live with (which is an energetic imprint or footprint) can affect everyone and everything around us.
Every one is for every other one. Try we may, but nothing is ever isolated and detached from everything else.
I love the idea of lifestyle illnesses being contagious because it brings so much more responsibility to our doorstep. We cannot blame genetics, genetics are an excuse for not changing behaviour. If we know we are genetically pre-disposed to something, would you not consider everything about your life as your medicine?
Great reminder that we are constantly reflecting qualities, of one kind or another, to one another: qualities that inspire us to be more of who we are, or that diminish and undermine that.
This really emphasises the effects we have on one another and that we role model behaviours, choices, and how to be with ourselves and others.
In the same way that cells in our body copy each other and multiply so too can behaviours within a family or social group. In choosing harmony, love, stillness, truth and joy this can inspire both yourself and those around you.
The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles. – sort of says it all really. We are the masters of our own making or demise. I know first hand that my body feels and responds to everything, and we continuously have a choice of if we harm or heal.
This is very interesting. Reflection is truly powerful and that is basically how we get educated and trained to live a human life, and in that we develop a kind of antibody to immunize ourselves against certain things, and looking at the way things are in this modern day and age, quite a few of us seem to have developed very strong antibodies against Stillness.
Yes even though there might be genetic predispositions there is always the choice to change the way we are living so much so that there is no room for the disease to develop. As we have epigenetics this is very possible.
Yes and this is particularly important with emotional issues that tend to be intergenerational. We don’t have to leave things as they are, but in order to change something that isn’t working we need to invest our energy in being more willing to see what is actually there, what is not contributing in a loving way, take responsibility for our part in it and make a commitment to be the change we want to see.
This is such a great blog. When I looked at the top 4 risk factors for disease, all I saw was the outplay of unhappy lives. The author expanded each one beautifully, exploring what we get out of each Band-Aid for an unhappy/purposeless life. I and significant research would absolutely agree that the coping methods we choose are passed down to us in our families, as a contagious disease is spread.
“What if the way we are with each other and the way we live can be passed on just as easily as the bugs we sneeze onto other people when we are sick?” I know how easy it is to pick up mannerisms from other people. Just the other day I noticed that I was sitting in a way that an ex partner of mine used to often sit and at work, if I am not careful, I can begin to pick up bags without bending, or throw bags in to a heap in the same way that some of my workmates do. I have a responsibility to myself, my body, to always take care and I notice how I can pick up healthy habits from others and visa versa. How we do what we do has a much greater influence than we might think
The concept proposed here makes a lot of sense to me, as it would be easy to just go along with the common explanation of disease passed on from generation to generation as being caused by similar genetic make-up, but simply learning the same behaviour from our parents as if it is the ‘only way’ to be is much more plausible, as genetics alone do not predict human behaviour so accurately. Also, using genetics as the cause of hereditary illness and disease is a way to not take responsibility for everything that happens to us, which we can not avoid, but attempt to do so by any means.
Non-communicable diseases, are definitely on the increase, because as a population obesity, diabetes, drugs, alcohol, cancer etc are all on the rise, and every behaviour has been learnt from another, if we start to change our choices others will be inspired to follow.
Tobacco use Harmful use of alcohol Unhealthy diet Physical inactivity… What an extraordinary list… This could surely be on the front page of every media every day until humanity finally wakes up and addresses this glaring discrepancy in our awareness.
‘The largest causes of death are largely preventable, by modifying our lifestyles.’ and the lifestyles we choose are affected by our parents’ lifestyles where we either copy or rebel against how they lived. Consumption of alcohol affects more than just the consumer because of the aggression and poor driving that results.
What I can feel is how the term ‘non-communicable diseases’ seems to give it a connotation of it being somewhat accidental and independent, eliminating a sense of responsibility from us as a community of people – how our own choice might have an affect on others.
The way we are living is either healing us or harming us, the way we see others live around us has for sure an impact on us but we always have the choice to say yes to it or not.