According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 75% of our health care dollars goes to treating chronic diseases. The CDC goes on to say that these persistent conditions are the leading causes of death and disability in our nation. But more importantly, these deaths and lifelong disabilities “could have been prevented.”

The CDC states that the most common chronic diseases include arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. These chronic conditions are the most costly, and yet preventable diseases of all healthcare problems in the U.S. today.

Chronic means to persist or recur for a long period of time. However, chronic also means “having a particular bad habit.” It is this definition that needs further consideration.

In the medical sense, being diagnosed with a chronic disease labels the sufferer as having an incurable illness. In this case, the irremediable opinion of a medical practitioner determines that the patient’s affliction is impossible to cure or put right. Drugs and surgery are advocated as remedial treatment, while the afflicted is left to contend with their chronic disease for the rest of their life.

The four common causes of chronic disease, defined as “modifiable health risk behaviors” by the CDC, include poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption.

This leads us right back to the second definition of chronic—having a particular bad habit. In other words, if we were to eliminate a particular bad habit, then the chronic condition associated with that bad habit will no longer be evident.

Most Americans today understand that excessive alcohol consumption and smoking cigarettes causes cancer and other debilitating diseases. But how many people actually realize that their chronic diseases are also caused by eating junk food and being lazy?

Alcoholics and smokers are encouraged to quit their bad habits in order to regain good health. Why is it that people who eat junk food and fail to exercise are not encouraged to do the same?

That’s exactly what I did back in 1996! I quit eating junk food, I quit drinking artificially flavored drinks, and I quit taking all prescription drugs. I also eliminated the use of toxic chemicals on my body, and I quit using dangerous chemicals in our home. Once I began avoiding all toxic chemicals—in foods, personal hygiene products, and cleaning products—my body healed itself of over 100 symptoms and 35 chronic diseases. Even diagnosed heart disease simply went away.

I’m living proof that if we change “a particular bad habit that recurs over time,” our body no longer needs to suffer with chronic dis-ease. The “particular bad habit” that I removed from my lifestyle was the exposure to toxic chemicals. I eat whole, living foods that are as organic as possible. I drink pure water. I use products that are as close to nature as I can find. And I get exercise. As a result, all chronic disease disappeared and I’ve been healthy ever since.

In my book, Warnings of Disease: Your Body Uses Symptoms to Communicate, I describe what disease is, and how it can be eliminated. I also detail what I did to rid myself of disease. I hope you’ll pick up a copy today. There is no need to suffer any longer. There is hope.