Leading Causes of Death
/by Connie Davis
Talking about the leading causes of death in the United States is not a topic that most of us really want to think about, but we do live in the US, and unfortunately, Adventists are not exempt from death. Around 74% of all deaths in the US occur as a result of just 10 causes.
The leading cause for both men and women is heart disease. The term heart disease includes several conditions, but the underlying problem is due to the buildup of plaque in the walls of the arteries. As the plaque develops, the arteries narrow, making it difficult for blood to flow around the body. This increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes. It can also cause angina, arrhythmias, and heart failure.
The second leading cause of death is cancer. Cancer occurs when cells do not die at the normal point in their life cycle. W e all have cancerous cells at times, but under normal conditions these cells are destroyed by our bodies. If a person’ s body cannot control the spread of these cells, they start interfering with essential, life-sustaining systems.
The other 8 causes of death are much lower in incidence. They include: unintentional injuries, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke and cerebrovascular diseases, Alzheimer’ s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide. Strokes and cerebrovascular diseases, and diabetes are placed in separate categories, however, in all technicality, they both contribute to heart disease. And kidney disease is frequently tied to diabetes.
BUT - there is good news! A number of these causes of death are preventable by lifestyle change. The medical world repeatedly tells patients to adopt a healthful diet, get regular exercise, avoid smoking and drugs, limit alcohol, and to maintain normal weight and blood pressure. Adventists have been given even greater instruction on these topics. Just in the book Counsels on Health alone we are given “the Essentials to Health” with chapters titled: Govern the Body, Adherence to a Simple Diet, Temperance In All Things, Physical Exercise, Fresh Air, and Scrupulous Sanitation.
Adventist Health Studies is a series of long-term medical research projects of Loma Linda University with the intent to measure the link between lifestyle, diet, disease, and mortality of Seventh-day Adventists. Adventists do have a lower risk than other Americans of certain diseases. The first major study began in 1960 and showed that Adventists live longer than non-Adventists. Death rates from all cancers was 40% lower for Adventist men and 24% lower for Adventist women.
Other researchers have confirmed that diet and lifestyle greatly impact longevity. In “The China Study” Dr. T. Colin Campbell and his son reported on research done over a 20 year period by the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, Cornell University, and the University of Oxford. They were specifically looking at mortality rates from cancer and other chronic diseases in 65 counties in China. The study concluded that counties with a high consumption of animal-based foods were more likely to have higher death rates from “Western” diseases, while the opposite was true for counties that ate more plant- based foods.