Why Doing More Is Making Lifestyle Diseases Worse: Healing Begins When the Body Feels Safe

Affluenza: When Comfort Leads to the New Disease

Affluenza....Affluence plus Influenza.....

The richest generation in history is also the sickest and most disease prone..

Read that again.

Slowly.

Never before have human beings had so much food, comfort, convenience, medicine, and technology — and yet never before have we seen such an explosion of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, anxiety, depression, infertility, insomnia, and burnout. ...and whatnot...

This is not poverty-related illness.

This is not infection.

This is not bad luck.

This is Affluenza — the disease of affluence.

And most people don’t even realise they’re infected.

I see it every day in my clinic.

Successful professionals.

Well-educated families.

People who “have everything”.

And yet they sit across from me saying:

“Doctor… I don’t know what’s wrong. I have no energy, feel fatigued, feel something is not right at all with me.”

“I’m eating well, but my weight won’t reduce.”

“My sugar is not controlled despite medicines.”

“I feel anxious for no reason.”

“I feel tired even after sleeping well.”

They don’t look poor.

They look comfortable.

And that’s the problem.

Affluenza doesn’t arrive suddenly.

It seeps in quietly.

It starts when comfort replaces movement.

When convenience replaces cooking.

When screens replace sunlight.

When stress replaces rhythm.

When success replaces meaning.

The body adapts at first.

Then it compensates.

Then it breaks — politely, silently, over years.

Affluenza is not about money.

It’s about how modern comfort rewires biology.

When food is always available, the body forgets how to fast and reboot.

When temperature is always controlled, brown fat goes dormant.

When movement is optional, muscles shrink, atrophies and strength is lost....

When stress is constant, cortisol never switches off. ....cortisol loop is constant...

When silence disappears, the nervous system stays alert....always..

This is not indulgence.

This is chronic overload.

The body was designed for cycles by Nature — effort and rest, hunger and satiety, stimulation and stillness.

Affluence erased the pauses.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth most wellness conversations avoid:

Most lifestyle diseases are not caused by “bad habits”.

They are caused by lives that are too easy, too fast, too full — and yet deeply empty.

Affluenza affects all eight pillars of wellness.

• Physical — obesity, diabetes, heart disease

• Mental — anxiety, brain fog, attention collapse

• Emotional — numbness, irritability, suppressed grief

• Sleep — shallow, broken, un-refreshing

• Social — lonely despite being connected

• Financial — earning more, feeling less secure

• Intellectual — constant input, little reflection

• Spiritual — success without significance

Nothing collapses alone.

The tragedy of Affluenza is this:

People keep adding more solutions to lives that need subtraction.

More supplements.

More workouts.

More apps.

More productivity.

More discipline.

Affluenza cannot heal by addition.

It heals by relearning simplicity and substraction..

Healing begins when the body remembers its original language.

Walking without headphones.

Eating without distraction.

Sleeping in darkness, coolness and stillness.

Feeling hunger occasionally.

Moving daily, not violently.

Sitting in silence without escaping it.

Doing work that feels meaningful, not just profitable.

These are not luxuries.

They are biological necessities.

Affluenza teaches us a humbling lesson:

Progress without wisdom becomes pathology.

Modern medicine can manage diseases of affluence.

But only lifestyle can reverse them.

And lifestyle is not about restriction.

It’s about returning to rhythm.

If you’re reading this and feeling uneasy — good.

Affluenza thrives in denial.

Healing begins with awareness.

Ask yourself gently, honestly:

Is my life nourishing my body…

or slowly overwhelming it?

Because sometimes, the greatest act of wellness is not earning more, achieving more, or owning more —

but living less — and living better.

( This reflection is part of our ongoing exploration of lifestyle diseases and holistic wellness......)