Disease Prevention: The Future of health care
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"
Benjamin Franklin
Around three hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin offered this sage advice. But today, preventing disease is more important than ever for anyone wishing to age gracefully and live a full and productive life.
The obvious meaning behind his words is that taking the steps now to prevent disease is so much easier than trying to fix it down the road. The worst case scenario when it comes to your health is that it isn't fixable. You probably don't want that.
Poor health is not the inevitable outcome of getting older! It's a too long standing myth of aging. That being said, if you want a better health future, it does require your participation. Building health is not a sideline activity! The option to building health is that you could simply do nothing and wait until you're older, just take your chances and 'hope' your health insurance covers you. Or, you can decide to do somethings now to change your future health and the trajectory of your life along with it.
You don't have to turn your life upside down! But if you're willing to take small steps, over time, you can't help but improve your health. This is key. If you simply take small actions on a daily basis, they compound, leaning into the state we all call 'health.'
When I began my own personal journey to better health in my early twenties I wasn't thinking about disease prevention at the time. I just wanted to feel better, and I knew that my diet and lifestyle were having undesirable consequences.
My diet, fitness and lifestyle were pretty unhealthy at the time, so believe me when I say that if I can do it, anyone can. And small steps, one thing at a time, is how I did it. It took some time, but those small steps eventually became habits that now make healthy a lot easier.
Building better health is progressive, and not something you achieve overnight. But if you do good things for your health on a daily basis, you can't help but benefit.
See it as an investment in your future just like you would your finances. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said 'the first wealth is health.' After all, without health, other aspects of life can lose much of their meaning.
So, what can you do today to begin to build your health? What routines and habits can you begin to develop? Start today. Then do something good for your health again tomorrow. Rinse and repeat
If you want
to reduce the risk of disease which is what prevention is all about, a
focus on health is what you'll need. Start where you are, and take one
step at a time.
It's never too early or too late to take Ben Franklin’s worthy advice.
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