What does it actually mean to be “chronically ill”? Medicine has no clear definition. For many patients, it means lifelong treatment, constant appointments, and deep social, emotional, and financial consequences. Chronic illness often leads to isolation — and loneliness, in turn, worsens disease.
This episode explores the hidden burden of chronic disease and reveals a surprising truth: outside of infection control (hygiene, vaccines, antibiotics), medical innovation has contributed far less to life expectancy than we assume. Once you remove the impact of treating infections, mortality and life expectancy show no real improvement since 1900. And since 2000, life expectancy has begun to decline in several industrialized countries, including the U.S. and U.K.
Despite record spending, countries like Germany, the U.S., and the U.K. achieve poor life-expectancy results. More money does not buy health — and rising chronic illness, widening disability, and increasing loneliness show how deeply medicine is stuck.
This episode digs into why chronic illness has become the defining health problem of our time — and what truly drives declining healthy life years.
More information at https://haraldschmidt.online
Contact: harald.schmidt@mac.com
