How 115 million Americans Got Chronic Disease Overnight (Without Getting Any Sicker)
In a Nutshell
Chronic disease numbers in the US surged after expert panels repeatedly lowered diagnostic thresholds for hypertension, cholesterol, and diabetes, reclassifying tens of millions of people overnight without any change in their actual health. These guideline committees often had financial ties to drug makers, and the new diagnoses triggered widespread medication use and polypharmacy rather than proven improvements in outcomes. The underlying driver for all three conditions is insulin resistance from high-carbohydrate diets, which lifestyle interventions like low-carb eating, exercise, and targeted supplements can address more effectively than threshold-lowering alone.
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The single biggest driver of the chronic disease epidemic in the US happened in a meeting room. The advice is to ask two questions when investigating a health problem: when did it start and what happened just before it started.
Chronic disease graphs show trends that go up slightly and then suddenly spike significantly. The focus is on three diseases: diabetes, cholesterol, and hypertension.
In 2017, around 31 million people were newly diagnosed with hypertension. Their actual blood pressure readings had not changed. The definition of what counts as high blood pressure was lowered.
Normal blood pressure was previously considered 140 over 90. In November 2017, a panel of cardiologists voted to drop the threshold to 130 over 80. This created a new category of stage one hypertension. The same people with the same readings were now classified differently.
The UK, Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia reviewed the same scientific evidence and chose to keep the threshold at 140 over 90.
In 1988, normal LDL was defined as 190. In 2001, the committee lowered the threshold to 130. Statin prescriptions doubled in the following three years. In 2013 the threshold was lowered again.
Overnight, 12.9 million people were newly diagnosed with high cholesterol. Currently, 86 million people are diagnosed with high cholesterol, and most are placed on medication.
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