Category: Health news

We often hear in the media of the “health care crisis”.  People are getting older, and sicker and our system is at risk of collapsing with the strain of taking care of everyone. And there are any number of scary statistics to support the idea in articles like this one, for example:

• The supply of physicians will need to increase by at least 46 per cent over the next 25 years just to keep up with increased demand for services by the aged population.
• We’ll need severe cutbacks to other already neglected sectors (such as the arts, public transportation, infrastructure, education, social welfare, etc.) and put in force abrupt tax increases to cover health care costs

Of course, “solutions” abound to solve the problem: User fees. Delisting services. Private clinics. Privatized insurance. Reforming the prescription drug system.

What’s amazing is that no one seems to truly care about one simple number: 75% of health care costs are spent on chronic disease.

Okay…here’s the thing: Chronic diseases are preventable. And sometimes reversible. They’re lifestyle diseases. They’re caused by what you do, and what you don’t do. When you change those things, you get better. Period.

It’s not rocket science. You eat better, move more, drink less booze, don’t smoke, go outside, have friends and have a great reason to get out of bed. That’s it. Do that consistently all the time and you’ll be healthier. A lot healthier. The evidence is all out there. According to the World Health Organization, at least 80% of premature heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, and 40% of cancer can be prevented through healthy diet, regular physical activity and avoidance of tobacco products.

Simple? Yes.

Easy? Hell, no.

If prevention and lifestyle change were easy, we’d all be healthy and doctors and researchers would be focusing their time—and your tax dollars—on acute care, true genetic issues, and other non-lifestyle-related challenges. But they’re not, because this simple stuff is hard.

Instead of accepting that it’s hard and figuring it out, though, what do we do? We use hard as an argument to avoid dealing with it. “People can’t do it, so we just won’t bother trying. We’ll invent a drug instead.”

That’s wrong. It’s as wrong as giving up on changing attitudes towards cigarettes, or race and gender issues. If we gave up every time something was hard, half of adults wouldn’t be able to vote and we’d still be smoking like rock stars.

So where do we start? I think the solution starts with changing who has the power.

Presently, the center of power is the doctor. The doctor has access to all the training, all the tests, all the info and all treatments. The doctor does the tests, makes the diagnosis and gives the treatment plan. It is a system that has worked this way for generations, and as we perceive the number of “scary diseases that can kill you” rising, patients become more and more willing to give up control to the “expert”.

Want to avoid a health care crisis? Start seeing patients as experts. Put the power in the hands of the people who know themselves best, and help them focus on the 75% we can actually change.