Coming Soon: More Preventative Care

It seems like everywhere I've turned over the past couple of weeks there's been so much buzz about preventative care. And I like it! It's really staggering what people pay to cover up the damage they've done. I know one of the reasons I'm so preventative in my own lifestyle is because I'm a worry wart. I've always been worried something bad will happen and it normally does if I'm not too careful....so I take the less-risky of the two roads (when I'm on good behavior).

There's just some crazy statistics out there that's recently caught my eye and I couldn't resist sharing...here's the mind-boggling numbers:

1. “Studies have shown that changing lifestyle could prevent at least 90 percent of all heart disease. Thus, the disease that accounts for more premature deaths and costs Americans more than any other illness is almost completely preventable, and even reversible, simply by changing lifestyle.” -Dr. Dean Ornish

2. We spend a staggering $2.3 trillion annually on health care – 16.5 percent of our GDP and far more than any other country spends on health care – yet the World Health Organization ranks U.S. health care only 37th among nations, on par with Serbia.

3. The problem is that we have systematically neglected wellness and disease prevention. Currently in the United States, 95 percent of every health care dollar is spent on treating illnesses and conditions after they occur. But we spend peanuts on prevention.

4. Consider this: Right now, some 75 percent of health care costs are accounted for by heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and obesity. What these five diseases and conditions have in common is that they are largely preventable and even reversible by changes in nutrition, physical activity, and lifestyle

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090625/ts_ynews/ynews_ts408

5. Sixty-four percent are either overweight or obese. The figures are stunning: 1 out of every 3 Americans born after 2000 and 1 out of every 2 minority Americans will contract early-onset diabetes. Twenty percent of healthcare costs are on diabetes, and that’s going to skyrocket. We spend less of our paychecks on food than at any point in history. When I was a kid, 18 percent of our income was spent on food. Today it’s a little over 9 percent. We spent something like 5 percent of our income on healthcare; today we spend 18 percent.

Source: http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2009/06/21/robert_kenner_discusses__food_inc/?page=1

Here's the deal. By no means do I have it altogether...it's always going to be a "work in progress" for Mandy to "get it together" but that's okay with me. I'm happy with myself as long as I know I'm heading in the right direction with the intent that I might not ever get there.

Do something different this week. Try doing or eating something you've not tried before. Spice up your life and get out of the monotony of sameness. Don't be one of the statistics above, create a healthier you!