Compelling Facts for Our Mission
The Plantrician Project has identified the following facts that illustrate the fundamental drivers for the Healthzone Life Project and website.
Evidence that our dietary guidelines and “disease” care systems are failing us.
- It’s estimated that as much as 80% of all healthcare dollars are spent on treatment of conditions that are preventable.
- 70% of Americans are overweight or obese.
- Nearly one-half of the American population will be obese by 2030, according to a 2012 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
- Childhood obesity has tripled in the last 30 years: One out of three American children is overweight or obese.
- 37% of our children who are not considered overweight have one or more cardiovascular risk factors.
- According to Medicare: Health care expenditures in the United States were nearly $2.6 trillion in 2010, an average of $8,402 per person.
- 70 million Americans have hypertension, with elevated risk for stroke and heart attack.
- The War on Cancer, waged by President Nixon, began over 40 years ago, yet, if trends continue, it will surpass heart disease as the #1 killer.
- 100M Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes, with increased risk of amputation, heart disease, blindness, and limb loss.
- Rates of type 2 diabetes increased by 22% among U.S. adults from 1999 to 2008.
- Current trends suggest that one in three children born after 2000 will receive a type 2 diabetes diagnosis (Hispanic children it is 1 in 2).
- Many experts project type 2 diabetes as the future global epidemic, with diagnosis projections as high as one in three individuals from industrialized nations that have adopted the Standard American Diet.
- The share of the economy devoted to health care has increased from 7.2% in 1970 to 17.9% in 2009 and 2010, now at 18% of GDP.
- The U.S. spends substantially more on health care than other developed countries. As of 2009, health spending in the U.S. was about 90% higher than in many other industrialized countries, yet it ranks near the bottom in health outcomes.
- 90% of the U.S. senior population consumes prescription drugs; with costs doubling in the last 30 years; prescription drugs are the #4 cause of death with 45-50 million adverse events annually.
- We’re experiencing prolonged morbidity, with life expectancy now surpassing 78 years, but with more degenerative disease; this is an alarming combination for U.S. healthcare costs.
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The toxic Standard American Diet:
- 63% refined and processed foods: empty calories with no health benefit.
- 25% animal based products: meat, dairy and eggs; disease building blocks laden with fat and dietary cholesterol.
- 12% plant-based foods, with 6% of this being from French fries, leaving a paltry 6% of daily caloric intake coming from plant-based foods (this number also includes things like fruit juice and ketchup).
- We’re consuming an average of 185 pounds of added sugar and sweeteners each year.
- We’re consuming an average of 3,400 milligrams of salt a day, more than double the recommended amount (triple the amount recommended by many experts), with the majority derived from processed food.
Douglas Amis, Ed.D.
Co-Founder of Health Zone Life and creator of the Health Zone Life Model along with Dr. Pankaj Vij. Dr. Amis set out on this project with the objective of providing an open source model that medical professionals could freely use both as and educational tool and in their practice. The website’s goal is to provide platform for professionals who are leading the efforts to improve the health of individuals in the face of epidemic levels of diabetes and related diseases.
Previously Founder and President of Amisco Consulting Group, to provide management consulting services for start up through mid-sized companies. With over 25 years of experience in the electronics industry, Dr. Amis brings a comprehensive background in management, human resources, communications, media, compliance issues and organizational development to his roles as consultant and advisior with companies in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Silicon Valley.
As one of the principals of Semiconductor Systems Inc., Dr. Amis was instrumental in the achievement of a successful leveraged buy out of SSI from General Signal Corporation in December 1990. The results of this team was to create a company which would reinvent itself as a leading and innovative supplier of capital equipment for the Semiconductor, Flat Panel Display and Multi Chip Module industries. Growing the company from $14 million to $32 million before merging the company with FSI International in 1996.
He holds four masters degrees from the University of San Francisco in Educational Administration, Educational Psychology, Marriage and Family Counseling, Life Transition Counseling, an M.F.A. from the School of the Arts at New York University, and doctorates in Business Administration from Western Colorado University in Organizational Behavior and Management, Educational Psychology/Counseling from the University of San Francisco. Dr. Amis is a Life Clinical Member of the California Association for Marriage and Family Therapists and has been a licensed to practice in California since 1981, a Life member in with the American College of Forensic Examiners. He is a Life Diplomate in Counseling Psychology from the American Psychotherapy Association and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Counseling.
Early in his career Dr. Amis was both a professor and administrator at the University of San Francisco founding both the Mass Media Studies Program and the Gerontology program. He has provided consulting services internationally to multiple public and private sector organizations including high growth startup operations and Fortune 100
Dr. Pankaj Vij M.D.
Dedicated to improving health span with strong focus on mind-body medicine, stress management and mindfulness to turn the body clock backwards, making disease optional. Championing lifestyle medicine. Current board member of American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), engaged with Kaiser Permanente and following my passion as Co-Founder of Crack the Wellness Code project.
Pankaj Vij, M.D. FACP, is passionate about preventing and reversing metabolic diseases by treating their root causes. He is the global Director of the Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance and the Chief Architect of Crack the Wellness Code- a global community platform for health promotion.
He is a graduate of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
He is a thinker, writer and an entertaining and inspiring speaker.