Prevention is Better than Cure!

For the last six months or so mainly, I have not posted anything here mainly because of time constraints.

Recently, I saw an article on newspapers discussing about healthcare. The heading reads something like this:

"Prevention is Better than Cure"
Instead of costly treatment, greater attention should be given to prevention of illness"

According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the world spent a total of US$4 trillion ($6.1 trillion) on healthcare last year (2006), of which 54 per cent was contributed by North Americans. With global demographic changes, it is estimated by World Health Organization (WHO) to reach US$10 trillion in 2020.

Whether you like it or not, HEALTHCARE is poised to be a key growth engine in the global economy. While this will no doubt create tremendous wealth for healthcare companies, it also means that the burden on governments and individuals will become much heavier.

Worst still, the impending ageing global population will see a tripling of people older than 60 years old, from 600 million to two billion by 2045 globally. WHO's predicts that healthcare expenditure should explode by 2015 with bulk of the spending on costly surgeries and treatments.

Besides heart disease, other sicknesses accompanying ageing population also include diabetes, hypertension, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke, etc.

Health experts believe that concentrating on prevention, on early diagnostics, and on remote patient management will enable us to build healthcare systems that are high quality, patient-centred and financially sustainable.

While finding means to increase funding to meet growing healthcare needs, government should also search for innovative ways to stretch the healthcare dollar.

For individuals, the best solution to counter the escalating healthcare cost is to concentrate on prevention at younger ages instead of dealing with treatment later on.

Is this feasible? Yes, it is possible.

In order to prevent from developing from heart disease or any other diseases, you should adopt a healthy lifestyle starting from young: healthy diet with regular exercise, plus taking some relevant supplements when necessary.

If you are able to do all these, you can greatly reduce the chance of, but unfortunately cannot be guarantee to be free from getting into diseases at older ages. This is because family health history also play an important part in your body's health condition.