The 80-20 Rule, or the Pareto principle, states that for many events, only 20% of the cause can explain 80% of the results. 20% of the input is responsible for 80% of the output, and 20% of your effort makes up 80% of your outcome.
This article shows how diet and exercise can prevent many common and deadly diseases that affect people worldwide.
Medical Treatment without 80-20
There’s an easy way and a hard way to do things. To provide contrast, let us take, for example, a typical patient in an emergency room or hospital.
Patient A has coronary artery disease (CAD), a stent, heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). (Yes, that is typical)
He has four medicines: aspirin, Plavix, nitrates, and calcium channel blockers for his CAD and cardiac stent. Three different inhalers and roflumilast cover COPD. Then he has to take two insulin shots (short and long-acting), metformin, and a DPP-4 for diabetes.
He gets four for hypertension and heart failure: a water pill, ACE inhibitor, beta-blocker, and potassium. That total of sixteen medications must be taken daily and refilled monthly. (I have seen patients with 30 different prescription medicines)
Patient A must also see his Primary Care physician, cardiologist, pulmonologist, diabetes, and kidney specialist, among others.
Furthermore, any underlying metabolic syndrome can increase a person’s healthcare cost by about $2,000 yearly. Add the price of drugs, laboratory testing, imaging, hospitalizations, rehabilitation, and loss of potential income and multiply that with the total number of people with metabolic syndrome globally; it quickly amounts to billions, if not trillions, of dollars in health expenditures.
Patient A used 80% of his life savings for the last 5 to 10 years in the preceding example. His schedule revolves around healthcare-related appointments.
Metabolic Syndrome
As a review, Metabolic syndrome is composed of
- Wide abdominal girth (overweight to obese) 101 cm, 40 inches (Western men) or 90 cm /35 inches (Asian men), 89 cm, 35 inches (Western women), 80 cm/ 31 inches (Asian)
- High blood sugar – over 100 mg/dl or getting treatment for Type 2 diabetes
- High triglycerides – over 150 mg/dl
- High blood pressure – over 130/85
- Low HDL – less than 40 mg/dl in men or less than 50mg/dl in women or getting treatment
80-20 Way to Maintain Health
Metabolic syndrome, Cardiovascular Disease, and diabetes can be prevented with the proper diet and exercise. The following are the guideline recommendations for each.
- Lifestyle recommendations for the prevention and management of metabolic syndrome: an international panel recommendation
- 2019 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Clinical Practice Guidelines.
- Prevention or Delay of Type 2 Diabetes: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes—2019
Intermittent Fasting (IF) has been studied to benefit cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and chronic inflammation. IF can also be used for Type 1 and 2 diabetes but with close coordination with the physician as drug changes and doses may have to be made.
How Could Intermittent Fasting and Exercise Do All That?
The green words in the following paragraphs are the five components of MetS.
The absence of caloric intake during fasting makes the body use and decreases the visceral fat inside the abdomen.
Large amounts of visceral fat are harmful because they produce cytokines that can cause inflammation, gene mutations, and autoimmunity.
Fasting also lowers high blood sugar and reverses insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. Once the blood sugar level stabilizes and insulin resistance is overcome, the liver stops making excess triglycerides.
Exercises lower blood pressure as the blood vessels release more nitric oxide. It also makes the heart more compliant and protects against heart failure.
Understanding Heart Failure Treatment.
The exercising muscles burn the glycogen fuel within and then use the excess triglycerides in the blood as a fuel source and store it for future use.
Skeletal muscles prefer triglycerides for fuel because they release more calories than carbohydrates.
Exercise increases HDL levels and removes atherosclerosis inside the blood vessels’ lining by cholesterol efflux.
The cleaner arteries allow more blood flow to all the organs. Adequate blood supply promotes proper function and repair.
Once the metabolic syndrome is halted and reversed, so will the associated conditions.
Diseases Associated with the Metabolic Syndrome
The Cost of Intermittent Fasting and Exercise
Intermittent fasting costs nothing, saves money, and frees more precious time.
Bodyweight exercises can be done at home. It is not necessary to enroll in a gym or buy training equipment. Weightlifting equipment could also be purchased for home use. It may cost money, but it is a one-time expense and lasts forever.
Take Away Message
Intermittent fasting and exercise can prevent many deadly diseases. They cost almost nothing but can thousands of dollars.
Related:
- The Kaizen Way of Intermittent Fasting
- Keto and Intermittent Fasting, a Beginner’s Guide
- The Science of Fasting
- Are You Skipping Breakfast?
- The Difference between Intermittent Fasting and Starvation
Exercises
- How to Start a Fire or How to be Active from Sedentary
- High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
- Physical Activity Correlates with Life Span
- The Surprising Benefits of Sweating
- The Benefits of Resistance Training
- The Good and Faithful Servant
- Effect of short-Termm Exercise on Mortality
- What are Exerkines?
- Exercise Guidelines
- How Does Exercise Prolong Life?
- Why do You Need an Excellent Performance Status?
- Myokines: An Introduction
- How the Body Saved Itself
High-intensity Interval Training
- How to Perform High-Intensity Interval Training
- High-Intensity Interval Training can Activate Ischemic Preconditioning
- The 20/80 Rule for Health
- 21 Benefits of High-Intensity Interval Training
- Are You Ready for High-Intensity Life Situations?
Talk to your physician before you try intermittent fasting or any exercise program.
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