Market Overview 2009: The top five conditions

If you think the current economic deficit is tragic, ponder these numbers: Cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, pulmonary conditions and mental illness have a total economic impact of $1.3 trillion annually, according to the Milken Institute. If the country stays on its current path of poor lifestyle choices, this number could be $6 trillion by 2050. That is the bad news.

The good news — most of this is avoidable. With a change in two major areas — prevention, and a push toward healthy body weight — the nation could avoid 40 million cases of chronic disease, and reduce the economic impact by $1.1 trillion annually. If obesity alone were under control, treatment costs would decline by $60 billion and productivity would rise by $254 billion. FI requested facts and figures from SPINS regarding the top five conditions the natural-products industry is well prepared to address — fatigue, cardiovascular health, diabetes, joint care and immunity.