Preventative Medicine: The Hope for the Future of Chronic Disease

For those that don’t know, I began my health and wellness career in the corporate space. 

 

I started by working for Denver Public Schools and eventually came to work with employee groups to create incentive packages that help drive their healthcare costs down. In that second job, I gave employees resources, support, and education around lifestyle changes and disease management. 

 

To this day, I don’t think we give enough attention to preventative care like this. There are certain things we can control when it comes to preventing disease and focusing more on that could save people millions of dollars and heartache. Let’s talk about it.

 

Preventative Medicine

 

Preventive Medicine is a new niche that is coming to the forefront. It’s a holistic approach to the concierge model where there’s a continuum of care. To me, that is the key. 

 

At the facility where I work out of, we have physical therapists, orthopedic physicians, personal trainers, massage therapists, and nutrition experts like myself. We can all talk and communicate and collaborate. We can refer clients to one another. That same model is thankfully becoming more common in the medical industry.

 

Where We’re At 

 

However, there is still a lot of change that needs to happen. For example, I have a client right now who’s set on getting bariatric surgery. I’ve tried talking her out of it but can’t totally blame her. For 10 plus years, she’s been going back to her doctor, not losing weight, and not showing any kind of progress or motivation. 

 

We need more support and accountability for people like this. They need educators, counselors, and community resources. Instead, right now we just give people a packet and send them on their way without any follow-up.

 

On top of this, there’s the issue of insurance. Some carriers are getting more flexible. However, most of them cover gastric bypass, shots, and pills but not behavioral components of weight loss such as lifestyle-changing programs. Therefore, people default to the cheaper, quick-fix option. 

 

Management vs. Prevention

 

Disease management and disease prevention are essentially the same. They’re just different lenses to look through. 

 

The difference is really in how we come at disease: either proactively or reactively. That proactive prevention versus reactive management of disease is a major player in helping keep people out of suffering and get them on a healthy track. 

 

So, let’s start educating ourselves and making a change in our world.

If you want to learn more about preventative medicine, check out Episode 017: Disease Management vs. Prevention.