Why do so many die from non-deadly diseases? Most cases of disease are not fatal. Let’s look at a few, to round our understanding before we broach the question “Why do we die from disease?”

Three diseases, very different in nature -and provide a basis for studies of why diseases cause death.

Ischemic Heart Disease

Ischemic heart disease (IHD), also known as coronary artery disease, is the most common “cause of death” worldwide according to many sources. But coronary artery disease is not deadly: “Coronary artery disease (CAD) can reduce people’s life expectancy. However, this depends on various factors, including the severity of the condition, treatment efficacy, and whether the person has other underlying conditions.” – Medical News Today.

We don’t know if any cases of ischemic heart disease are cured, simply because cured is not defined for the disease. Mayo Clinic says “Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition.” The word cure does not appear.

COVID-19

According to the World Health Organization (the WHO) COVID-19 was the second highest cause of death worldwide in 2021. But most cases of COVID are not deadly, and many are so minor that they are not even diagnosed, much less treated. According to WorldMeters.org, less than 1% of diagnosed cases result in deaths. There are, of course, no statistics for undiagnosed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections, although estimates are that half are not diagnosed, so there are no statistics of deaths either. Most cases of COVID-19 are cured.

Stroke

Stroke is listed as the third leading cause of death in 2021 according to the WHO. However, most cases of stroke are minor, Transient ischemic attacks (TIA), with symptoms only lasting a few minutes to an hour according to verywellhealth.com. Even with severe cases, according to Microsoft’s Copilot, “The prognosis for ischemic stroke varies significantly based on factors such as age, severity of the stroke, and timely treatment, with many patients experiencing long-term effects but some achieving full recovery.” eg. Most cases of stoke do not cause death. Most cases are cured.

Ischemic heart disease, COVID-19, and Stroke

These three diseases are very different in nature -and provide a basis for studies of why diseases cause death.

• Ischemic heart disease is a chronic condition that gradually grows more severe and can eventually cause death, if death does not occur for other reasons. People “have” ischemic heart disease, which might be mild, moderate, or severe – rarely deadly.
• Stroke is not an ongoing condition, it is an event that might be mild, moderate, ore severe, potentially being easily cured, or have lasting consequences, or death. But we say the patient “had a stroke,” not they “have a stroke,” and treat the damage, not the event.
• SARS-CoV-2 infections are temporary conditions. In most cases, it is so easily cured in healthy patients. COVID-19 is a SARS-CoV-2 infection that is large enough, serious enough to be diagnosed as COVID.

On a case by case basis, for all three diseases – most cases are minor, fewer are of moderate severity, and very few are deadly, causing death. We count deaths, but cured cases of all three diseases are simply ignored. This image – without actual numbers – provides a useful model.

So why do these diseases cause death? First, we must understand that we all die of something eventually. What happens when someone dies? In every country, when someone dies, a doctor completes a medical death certificate and documents the cause of death for statistical purposes. The cause of death is usually a designated “disease.” Statistically, medically, bureaucratically, most of us die from “a disease.”

But, why do people die from diseases that are, in most cases, not serious? Is this true of every disease. We can find some clues in these three diseases.

• Ischemic heart disease : “Coronary artery disease (CAD) can reduce people’s life expectancy. However, this depends on various factors, including the severity of the condition, treatment efficacy, and whether the person has other underlying conditions.” -Medical News Today. IHD is not an infectious disease.
• Stroke: “risk factors such as obesity, smoking, excessive drinking and limited physical activity are all recommended against. Medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, high cholesterol and high blood pressure commonly increase one’s risk of stroke.” Stroke is not an infectious disease.
• COVID: “Your risk of severe illness from COVID-19 increases as the number of your underlying medical conditions increases.” cdc.gov. COVID is an infectious disease.

Unhealthiness Increases Disease Severity

When our healthiness is high, we handle diseases, cure most diseases easily. When our healthiness is low, a disease that is normally trivial can be serious, even deadly. How does that happen?

This is true for both infectious diseases and non-infectious diseases.

Illness Causes Damage

The damage caused by an illness can range from minor, perhaps not even noticed in some cases, to deadly. The amount and severity of the damage depends on two factors:

1. Severity of Cause. A very minor bullet wound causes little damage. A more severe wound can cause rapid death. A small infection is generally easily cured. A larger infection, a more dangerous infectious agent, or set of infections can result severe injuries or death.
2. Duration of Cause. The longer the cause is present, the more damage is caused. Poor lifestyle choices – over a day, week, or month generally cause little damage, but when they last for years or decades, the damage can lead to IHD or stroke. Even a minor cause of illness can accumulate danger over time, resulting in injuries, illnesses, sequela, and possibly disability or death.

The faster an illness is cured – the less secondary illnesses, sequela, disability, and death will result. Treatments that do not address the cure cause generally prolong the illness allow more secondary illnesses, sequela, disability and death to occur.

Secondary Illness to Sequela

A secondary illness is an illness caused by an illness uncured. The longer an illness persists, uncured, the more likely it is to cause damage and further illnesses.

A sequela is an illness. It can be an injury, or other negative consequence of an illness, injury, trauma, disease – or medical treatment. An illness’ sequelae is the collection of negative consequences of an illness that persist – uncured. A sequela often persists after the primary illness has been cured.

When our healthiness is lower, it takes longer to cure a simple illness, and more illnesses and sequelae can result. What’s the difference between a secondary illness and a sequela? A sequela is often considered to be incurable. Most secondary illnesses, on the other hand, are curable – many are easily cured. We might get a cold, that causes pneumonia – but most cases of pneumonia are cured. The theory of cure’s tautology is “All curable illnesses can be cured.”

Secondary Secondary Illnesses

A secondary illness, uncured, can cause another illness and another illness and another illness. These secondary illnesses, by themselves might cause death – or the accumulated force of all the illnesses might result in deaths.

Few deaths have a single cause. Few deaths are caused by an elementary illness, because most elementary illnesses, most illnesses with a single cause are easily cured.

The Illness Danger Curve

When we study the illness curve, as it moves from minor illness to moderate illness, to deadly illness, in each case – we can see a progression of illnesses. The first, a minor illness might be cured – and most cases are cured. If it is not cured in sufficient time – a secondary illness often occurs, due to the signs, symptoms, and damage caused by the first illness.

This is true even for trivial illnesses.

The Common Cold

• “The common cold is the most common human disease.” Wikipedia (the Reference linked by Wiki, says “is arguably the most common human disease”)
• “The common cold is classified as an illness caused by viruses, but it is not considered a disease in the traditional sense, as it is usually harmless and self-limiting.” Microsoft AI

In the theory of cure, we speak about and study curable illnesses. The whether the common cold is a disease or not is left to the bureaucrats. The definition of DISEASE used in the theory of cure is trivial. A disease is any condition that a doctor might diagnose and treat. The common cold is a disease.

No one dies from the common cold.

The common cold can lead to many other illnesses and diseases. When someone dies from a common cold – the cause of death is the secondary illness, the sequela.

Let’s think about that.

• when the common cold uncured leads to pneumonia and death, the cause of death is pneumonia uncured. The cause of death could be “failure to prevent” pneumonia.
• when ischemic heart disease uncured leads to heart attack and death, the cause of death is is ischemic heart disease. The documented cause of death is based on “failure to prevent” ischemic heart disease.
• when a stroke leads to death, death is usually rapid, directly caused by the severity of the stroke. When the stroke is deadly, cure is not possible, when the cure is trivial, we judge the stroke to be transient, not cured. When a stroke causes death, the death, the documented cause of death can be seen as “failure to prevent” the death.
• when COVID-19 uncured leads to COVID-pneumonia, or ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, or organ failure, or a cytokine storm, the cause of death is judged to be COVID-19. The cause of death is “failure to prevent” the sequela of COVID, or failure to cure COVID in time to prevent the sequela.

Failure to prevent sequela is never cited as cause of death.

We use the same disease name for trivial cases, minor cases, moderate cases, and deadly cases. Most cases of every disease are trivial. Every disease has more trivial cases than moderate cases, more moderate cases than severe cases, more severe cases than deadly cases.

However:

Failure to cure is never cited as a cause of death.

We only die from trivial diseases when we fail to cure them.

to your health, tracy
Author: A New Theory of Cure