The Age of Chronic and Late Chronic Diseases: A New View of Diseases

Infectious disease epidemics would soon disappear into history, spurred by the improvement of the public health and the development of vaccines and antibiotics. On the other hand, chronic diseases will dominate because they occur due to the relevant gene's maladjustment to the modern living environment. Therefore, we should pay more attention to the incompatibilities between the genes and the living environments and, more importantly, to the impact of changes in the living environment. However, specific chronic disease is not caused by a specific environmental factor but occurs when the systems of the human body are affected by exposure to specific environmental factors and work beyond their normal ranges. Therefore, the concept of treating a patient with a chronic disease by simply eliminating the cause of the disease has some fundamental limitations. Now, the medical practice must be changed from disease-centered medicine to patient- or human-centered medicine.