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How do you want to die?
Wait... What... A Wellness class that starts with Death... What kind of nutty Professor would do such a thing?
Death is inevitable, but getting there can be a struggle or a person can choose to have a life filled with a lot of fun, excitement, etc.
How many times do you want to visit with your doctor? How much medication do you want to take in your life (and make pharmaceutical companies richer)? How long do you want to be in a nursing home?
A better question would be: What types of choices should a person make to have a life filled with high quality experiences?
Choices. That is what this Wellness class is all about. The choices we make may put us on a path to pleasure or pain. Sure, some of the things we can chose to do at 18-22 years old are fun... but what are the outcomes of what we choose to do right now or 10, 20, 30+ years down the road.
In the United States, most people are dying from Chronic Diseases. These diseases are considered chronic because they take a long time to develop in the body and many of these diseases can be traced to the choices that we make in our everyday lives. Because of this, we have a say in answering the question: How do you want to die?
When you look at preliminary data from 2020, notice that the top two causes of death are still chronic diseases. COVID 19 is the first infectious disease that made it to the top 5 causes in decades. Please note that cancer deaths in 2020 did not change from 2019. And note that heart disease deaths increased a fair amount in 2020. And also note that the total number of deaths in 2020 was just over 500,000 more than in 2019. Most of that increase can be traced back to COVID.
And even with COVID there are choices to be made... Did you get a vaccine? Did you wear a mask? Did you practice social distancing?
Infectious Diseases are still around. But prior to 2020 , they are not as dominate as they once were. They exist more in lower income countries. A better representation of this trend in the United States can be seen in this chart:
Notice that in 1900, most people died of infectious diseases. Today however, that trend has shifted to chronic diseases (that were around in 1900, but did not dominate as they do today).
For additional information on Chronic vs. Infectious diseases, visit these two webpages:
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