Preventive Medicine

This article was originally published as an op-ed in The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, 22 August 2024: jpost.com/opinion/article-815766

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” Benjamin Franklin 1735

Imagine a world where most people don’t get chronic disease in their lifetime.  Is that possible?  Of course it is!  There are already places like that.  The secret?  Nip disease in the bud before it starts.

Most people think of preventative medicine as making a well-visit to their physician once a year. Getting a flu shot, taking a multi-vitamin, washing hands properly, or maintaining good dental hygiene are also preventative measures for most people.  Then there’s the use of mammograms and colonoscopies to screen for cancers.  After age 40, yearly blood tests should be routine. As important as these are for early diagnosis of problems, none of these really prevents disease and illness on a grand scale. What can we do differently so that we can have true prevention?

Priorities

The United States spends over 4.1 trillion dollars on health care per year.  That translates into roughly $13, 493 per person.  How much of all this money is used in prevention?  Three percent—that’s right, just 3%.  It’s time to change our priorities. We can live a healthy lifestyle stay out of the doctor’s office, stop supporting the pharmaceutical companies, and have more productive, wonderful lives.

You don’t feel well.  Perhaps you have a sore throat, fever, or stomach pain.  Maybe your blood pressure is high, or perhaps you are having chest pains.  You go to the doctor or urgent care to get treatment.  This is typical of what medicine has become.  Most doctors don’t deal with real preventative medicine; they treat problems once they arise.  There is a real problem with this approach. About half of the deaths in the United States are due to preventable behaviors and exposures.  So doesn’t is make more sense to put the emphasis on prevention?

Getting diseases as we age is NOT inevitable.  Western living is synonymous with a sedentary lifestyle and eating what is convenient. To reduce our chances of heart disease, cancer, infectious diseases, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes, we must take positive preventative actions.

What should a preventative medicine model look like?

Education

It is still surprising to me to see the lack of health education in our school systems. Even in first grade, children learn how to wash their hands and brush their teeth correctly.  Usually a nurse comes into the classroom and explains on an elementary level proper technique and why taking care of our basic hygiene is so important.

As children get a little older, they can be taught about the basics of healthy eating.  For example, children can understand that fruits and vegetables are healthy. Cakes, candy, and chips are not.  Whole grains are better than refined grains. Eventually, they can learn the food groups and what basic nutrition is, and of course, the basics of activity and exercise.  Children need to understand from an early age, the direct relationship between food and exercise and basic health.

At home

In the end of the day, education starts at home, and that includes health education.  If kids see parents adopt good health habits, they will emulate them.  Setting the proper example is imperative for parents.  Are you serving fruits and vegetables, whole-grains, and legumes in abundance?  Is there a limit on treats and junk food served in the home?

If you are the parent, it is difficult and most likely detrimental, to try to impose your will concerning healthy eating on your children. However, there are a few things you can do to encourage better, more nutritious options for your kids:

• Always have good choices available. Your children might be used to coming home and taking a snack bag of chips or something similar. Still, if on the kitchen table, there are vegetable sticks and cut up fruit, eventually children will begin to sample them and even enjoy them.
• In the summer months, slices of melon and watermelon can easily take the place of candy and ices.

The changeover won’t be instantaneous, but gradually, they will go for the healthier choices.

Practical Applications

Practically, preventive actions span a long range of activities. These actions can include not smoking, staying away from smokers, using seatbelts and driving safely to alterations in diet, activity, exercise, and stress management.  No one is going to be perfect. Still, when one comes to understand the ramifications of both healthy and unhealthy living, he or she will understand that it is well worth the initial effort.  Think about money and time, let alone quality of life.  You won’t have to spend time going from doctor to doctor, test to test, and sifting through bureaucracy every time you need a test or a drug.  You will be able to be more productive in your working or studying and you will simply feel much better all the time.

It’s all important

The items we mentioned at the beginning of this article (doctor visits, good hygiene, various diagnostic tests) are of course very important.  However, we must prioritize learning about good health habits. We can learn what good nutrition is, how to include exercise in our lives, and learn a better way to deal with our stresses.  If enough of us would take this on—if our schools and work places would be on board—we could create an absolute health revolution.  The savings in money, time, and the increase in productivity would make our lives so much better and “add hours to your day, days to your year and years to your life.”