“Happiness lies, first of all, in health.” – George William Curtis

Due to the many advances in medicine in this century and the last, people are living longer. While this is obviously a good thing, unfortunately many people are spending the latter years of their lives suffering with chronic conditions or fighting recurring disease – sometimes for decades. Preventive healthcare – that is, a lifelong appreciation and practice of what it takes to maintain a healthy lifestyle – is an effective technique to mitigate these misfortunes.

Preventive health care – which is covered by most health insurance - is proactive; it assumes that our normal, everyday lifestyle is relatively unhealthy, and seeks to head disease off at the pass.  It suggests that building healthy habits — such as eating nutritionally-balanced meals, eating natural foods, shunning cigarettes and excessive drink, avoiding stress, getting sufficient rest and a significant amount of aerobic exercise — will automatically ward off most disease and give us longer, healthier and happier lives.

The other side of preventive healthcare is detecting disease early. The assumption here is that no one can avoid disease forever.  But almost any condition – even a chronic one – can be cured or the negative effects mitigated if it’s caught early enough. Consequently, being educated to a certain level about diseases, symptoms and treatments is important.  Also significant to maintaining health is scheduling regular checkups with a doctor, especially as one gets older.  Again, the strategy is to discover problems early, and the odds are that they won’t become debilitating or life-threatening.

The obvious benefits of preventive healthcare are direct: Avoiding disease, feeling better, having more energy and enjoying life without the burden of painful or damaging symptoms.  But most doctors are used to treating patients with acute symptoms; the onus is on each one of us to explain to the doctor that maintenance of good health is a high priority, and we are looking for guidance.

“The greatest wealth is health.” – Virgil

There are also many secondary or more indirect benefits of following a regimen of preventive healthcare. Becoming a disciple of maintaining a healthy lifestyle can help you avoid a financial disaster.
Consider any expense you acquire in the pursuit of health an investment in yourself. Preventive doctor visits are usually covered 100% (or with a small co-pay) by health plans.  Insurance companies are masters at investment, and they, too, know the financial benefit of staying healthy as opposed to trying to regain your health after an illness strikes.

For an individual, the financial choice usually comes down to one of two: Either spend a little money every year to stay healthy and eat well, or spend a LOT more down the road recuperating from the maladies that are sure to appear after ignoring your health. Compare the small expense of regular doctor visits to the huge cost of major surgery, chemotherapy, or long-term hospice care. Many times these enormous expenses will wipe out the life savings of an individual; money that should have been used for security and enjoyment of retirement years. This is especially tragic since most of these diseases are highly preventable through preventive healthcare.

Then there is the “bigger picture”… just like each one of us can do our part for ecology to maintain a healthy environment, we can all make our individual contribution to keep our entire healthcare system functioning and affordable.  Individual, small steps matter.  By waiting too long for treatment, an increasing number of patients with serious diseases and chronic conditions also become a burden on our health systems overall.  This will lead to higher healthcare costs and poorer and poorer service for everyone.

If you are interested in preventive health care, there are four basic areas to focus on:

• Avoiding tobacco use and excessive use of alcohol
• Eating natural or organic foods to receive proper nutrition every day
• Getting a sufficient amount of exercise
• Early detection and regular medical checkups

Learn more about these areas and put them into practice, and you will go a long way toward staying healthy and maximizing the quality of your long, long life.