According to a recent CDC study, 6 out of every 10 adults in the United States suffer from at least one chronic illness. This statistic is up nearly 10% since 2018.

For this study, ‘Chronic Disease’ is defined as arthritis, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, current asthma, diabetes, hepatitis, hypertension, stroke, and weak or failing kidneys.

A finger must be pointed at modern lifestyle. Never before have we sacrificed quality for convenience on such a massive scale. There’s a fast food joint on every corner and Uber Eats, GrubHub and DoorDash are constantly at our fingertips.

The convenience of life in general is at an all-time high. We’ve shaped our society to avoid laborious activity in favor of efficiency. We’re not hunting, skinning and carving our meat. We’re not scouring and gathering our fruits and vegetables. For the majority of us, ‘work’ is sitting, typing, and clicking. This aspect of our modern lifestyle, while nice, easy and efficient, is clearly detrimental to our health.

Furthermore, an eye must turn to the American healthcare system as a whole, including health education. Because the system is incentivized to treat and not to cure, chronic ailments are seen as opportunities for profit by pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and physicians.

So, what can we do to turn this ship around?

The answer to this from a lifestyle perspective is simple: eat better, exercise more. However, the healthcare angle is much more complex. There are politics and red tape, trillions of dollars and powerful people.

While the enormity of the issue tends to leave us feeling helpless, one attempt at beating the system and helping people secure the care they need can be found at eFundYourHealth.org. This startup is seeking to aid people in need of integrative care by working around the status quo. The idea is for those in need to raise money through its online platform and then the platform matches money raised.

Ideas like this are innovative and simple – but most of all they are needed. Far too many of us are needlessly suffering. For more information on starting a campaign, or if you are interested in donating, please visit eFundYourHealth.org.