Modern healthcare systems are founded on a disease-centric paradigm, which has conferred many
notable successes against infectious disorders in the past. However, today’s leading causes of death are dominated
by non-infectious “lifestyle” disorders, broadly represented by the metabolic syndrome, atherosclerosis, cancer,
and neurodegeneration. Our disease-centric paradigm regards these disorders as distinct disease processes,
caused and driven by disease targets that must be suppressed or eliminated to clear the disease. By contrast, a
health-centric paradigm recognizes the lifestyle disorders as a series of hormonal and metabolic responses to a
singular, lifestyle-induced disease of mitochondria dysfunction, a disease target that must be restored to improve
health, which may be defined as optimized mitochondria function. Seen from a health-centric perspective, most
drugs target a response rather than the disease, whereas metabolic strategies, such as fasting and carbohydraterestricted diets, aim to restore mitochondria function, mitigating the impetus that underlies and drives the
lifestyle disorders. Substantial human evidence indicates either strategy can effectively mitigate the metabolic
syndrome. Preliminary evidence also indicates potential benefits in atherosclerosis, cancer, and
neurodegeneration. Given the existing evidence, integrating metabolic strategies into modern healthcare systems
should be identified as a global health priority. CLICK TO REVIEW