An Ounce of Prevention: Preventive Care in 2016
As life expectancy increases and medicine develops a more holistic concept of health, preventive care in the medical field is becoming more important. Insurance companies are recognizing that it’s more cost-effective to prevent health problems than to treat them after they’ve developed. Preventive care also ensures longer lasting quality of life.
What Does Preventive Care Look Like?
Preventive care covers diagnostic tests and screenings, nutritional services, vaccines and flu shots, mental health counseling, and more. Preventive care reduces you and your family’s chances of contracting a serious illness, and keeps health care costs down. The object behind preventive care is to stop a medical condition from ever forming, using known remedies, and by increasing overall health education.
Since passing of the Affordable Care Act, many U.S. citizens are eligible to receive important preventive treatments at no cost. Citizens are encouraged to make the most of these free services to prevent harmful diseases and elongate their quality of life. Today the life expectancy of people in the United States is between 75 and 100 years old. The goal of preventive care is to provide citizens with ways to be healthy throughout longer lives.
Top Preventive Care Tips
It’s never too early to start preventive care. Paying better attention to exercise and nutrition at a younger age can significantly impact your health later in life, from preventing diabetes to a number of other health benefits. Going to regular health screenings at least annually can keep developing conditions in check, and allow you to catch a health risk early enough to eradicate it, or at least to take steps toward managing it.
Once you’ve hit the age of 50, preventive care becomes even more important. Getting regular blood pressure checks can prevent heart attacks, strokes, and eye and kidney problems. Cholesterol screenings can prevent or help treat heart disease – the Number 1 cause of death in the United States. Preventive care measures such as mammograms and colon cancer screenings are important for catching deadly cancers.
No matter what your preventive care looks like, make sure you’re doing something to ensure your health and happiness for years to come. Your future depends on it.