6 in 10 Americans have a chronic disease, and 4 in 10 have multiple chronic diseases.

The rate of childhood chronic conditions more than doubled between 1994 and 2006, and continues to rise. (source)

In 2016, 11% of US adults had diabetes, and 34% had pre-diabetes, meaning they were at high risk for developing diabetes.

As of 2015, over 5500 children a year were being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, a number that had significantly increased since 2002.

Chronic disease is an obstacle that modern society hasn’t tackled effectively and it is costing lives, quality of life and frankly, a lot of money.

I’m 24 years old, and when I was 18 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, another one of those chronic diseases. Like many others, Crohn’s is a disease “without a cure” and one that warrants a lifelong prescription of heavy medications. These medications can, and often do, cause a great deal of harm to the body on their own, not to mention when coupled with a debilitating disease.

Then comes the bills for these medications, the emotionally distressed conversations with loved ones about how to handle this new obstacle, the phone calls with insurance companies to try and get as much of the expenses covered as possible, the new symptoms that pop up every so often that call for more prescriptions, and on and on.

How long before public health standards catch up with cutting edge research? All of the people living and dying with horrible diseases don’t actually have to live and die that way.

Disease is optional.

It's a bold statement, but the past 5 years of my life have proved it. I know every situation and person is unique in more ways than one, but there are powerful lifestyle factors we can all use to prevent, combat and reverse some of the most feared and harmful diseases and conditions.

In November, 2015, I took my last pill. I haven’t taken any form of conventional medication for my Crohn's since; I feel better than before I had ever heard of the disease.

I was given 8 weeks after my diagnosis to decide if I would accept the doctor’s advice to begin a rigorous course of conventional treatment, and after 8 weeks of intense and desperate research, I politely declined.

I figured, if what I wanted to try didn’t work out, I could always go back and take the meds. And a small part of me thought I might have to. But I never did. My health continued to improve and I continued to feel stronger and more capable, less hindered and less fearful of the disease. It did end up changing me, but for the better.

I weaned off of the intermittent short-term meds the doc had me on until I would start the heavier stuff. When I had my last appointment and told him this, and that my diet was making me feel well enough to not need those meds, he said diet had nothing to do with my disease, and that I was making a mistake.

I would never tell someone to disregard their doctor’s recommendations, and I didn’t disregard what he had told me either. I weighed it carefully against two things:

1 how I felt, physically, emotionally and spiritually

2 the most current and reputable body of scientific literature

None of which agreed with him. I felt so good after I began making certain dietary and lifestyle changes and the research indicated he wasn’t looking at the whole picture when it came to this chronic disease epidemic. The same looks to be true of more than just Crohn's, but with a vast array of chronic and auto-immune diseases and conditions, which means a lot of people could stand to hear the good news about the personal autonomy they can take control of when it comes to their own lives and health.

So all of my outlets of communication are now driven in large part by sharing this message: disease is optional. We can feel better and live healthier than we might think or have been led to believe is possible.