LIFESTYLE AND GENES ADDED TO SLOTH, BOOZE, NICOTINE AND UNHEALTHY FOOD IS CREATING A TOXIC MIX OF CHRONIC DISEASE WRITES SUE DUNLEVY
Sydney preacher Benjamin Bray has had two heart transplants and two kidney transplants and is the victim of a global pandemic killing 38 million people a year.
His brother died of the same health problems and the 31-year-old is only alive today because of advances in medical technology.
The worldwide pandemic affecting Bray is caused not by a rampant bacteria or an out-of-control virus but by our genes and our lifestyle.
And new data released this week found half the Australian population was affected by the health problems involved in the pandemic. 
One hundred years ago, the biggest health threats were infectious diseases; today what's killing us is chronic disease.
And in many cases we're the cause of our own illness.
The World Health Organisation reports that eight of the world's 10 leading causes of death are now chronic illnesses.
Diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, arthritis and asthma are not passed from person to person, they last a long time and progress slowly.
Many of them are caused by tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity and for some people it's their genes that make them susceptible to a disease.
Physical inactivity is estimated to be the main cause for approximately 21 to 25 per cent of breast and colon cancers, 27 per cent of diabetes and approximately 30 per cent of ischaemic heart disease.
Yet 60 per cent of Australian adults do less than 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per day. The Cancer Council says there is convincing evidence that overweight and obesity are risk factors for cancers of the colorectum, kidney, pancreas, oesophagus, endometrium and breast (in postmenopausal women).
Yet 63 per cent of adults are overweight or obese.
The Heart Foundation has called it a health "emergency" and warns we're "sitting and lazing our way into an early grave".
"People with these illnesses need to think about the lifetime effects. People with chronic disease won't be able to play with their grandchildren. When they retire they want to be able to travel overseas or drive around Australia, but if you've got a chronic illness it's difficult to do that," says Heart Foundation chief Mary Barry.
Experts say to fix the problem we need to change our lifestyle and we need better co-ordinated care for the sick so they don't end up in expensive hospital care.
Benjamin Bray was aged just six when he nearly died after faulty genes caused his heart to swell and turn to jelly.
His parents feared he would face the same fate as his eldest brother Matthew who had died from familial cardiomyopathy in 1980.
Luckily for Bray medical technology had progressed in the decade since his brother's death and he received one of the first heart transplants in Australia.
"I'd have been long gone without it," he tells the Saturday Telegraph. Thirteen years later Bray went into end-stage kidney failure linked to the health problems he had when his heart failed.
He had dialysis for 18 months before receiving a kidney transplant. Side effects from the dialysis and drugs led to Bray's heart clogging up in 2007, he had a series of heart attacks and in 2010 he received a new heart and a new kidney in a double transplant operation.
Five years later he's graduated as a minister of religion and has been travelling overseas.
"Medical technology has given me a life my brother didn't get," he says. "It's been a lot of resources, a lot of doctors' time and a long, hard road." Bray's experience underlines the high cost of many of these chronic illnesses. In fact, health department figures show 5 per cent of chronically ill people are responsible for 28 per cent of our health costs, and experts claim we have to change the way they are managed to slash health bills.
Almost half Australia's population has at least one of eight chronic diseases. One in five have at least two - that number rises to four in 10 for Australians aged over 45.
"For this age group, the two most common chronic diseases to occur in combination with any other chronic disease were arthritis and cardiovascular disease," a spokesperson from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says.
These chronic illnesses are the diseases that most occupy our medical profession. High blood pressure, diabetes, depression, arthritis and cholesterol problems account for nearly a quarter of all GP visits. Heart disease, diabetes and chronic kidney disease are associated with about 1.8 million hospitalisations or one in five of all hospitalisations.
Chronic diseases account for about $27 billion or a third of health expenditure and are the underlying cause for nine in 10 deaths.
The chronic illness pandemic means four in 10 Australians aged over 50 take four or more medicines a day.
But there is emerging evidence that doctors are not properly managing these chronic illnesses which see people taking multiple medications.
About 30 per cent of hospitalisations among those aged over 75 are medication related. Research has found only 63 per cent of diabetes patients and 38 per cent of asthma patients get treatment from their doctors in line with clinical guidelines.
Half those with a cholesterol problem aren't taking drugs to manage it and more than half those with blood pressure problems aren't taking medication.
Australian Medical Association president Dr Brian Owler says the extent of the problem shows the government's recent cuts to GP incomes will hurt and instead we should be investing in primary care.
"If people with complex and chronic disease cannot access the right services in the community, they often end up in hospital, and this costs the system a lot more," he says.
The World Health Organisation has set nine targets to try to rein in these killer diseases. It says countries need to curb tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity that increase people's risk of developing these diseases.
It wants all forms of tobacco and alcohol advertising banned, trans fats replaced with polyunsaturated fats, breastfeeding and cancer screening promoted.
Minister for Health Sussan Ley said the new disease figures backed the Abbott government's decision to set up a Primary Health Care Advisory Group to revamp general practice.
Last week the government revealed the reforms under discussion would see Australians enrol with a single GP practice that would get an annual budget to keep them well under reforms to Medicare. Instead of a fee for each service, doctors could also be paid for performance on reducing hospitalisations or better blood sugar, blood pressure or cholesterol readings in patients.
"As our population ages, we know that the prevention and treatment of chronic disease is an increasing challenge for the health system and Australians generally," Ley says.Heart Foundation chief Mary Barry says the solution is simple - we have to change our lifestyle, eat a balanced whole food diet, exercise 30 minutes a day and spend less time sitting.