Is Preventive Care the Secret to a Long, Happy, and Healthy Life?
9 Minutes
Team Curative
Dec 7, 2023
As we approach another cold and flu season, protecting ourselves against illness during the winter months is nothing new. But recently, healthcare experts have started advocating for the life-changing effects of preventive care services year-round — not just when seasonal illness spikes.
Preventive care is the key to keeping you happy and healthy for the long haul. While these are simple actions, they require discipline and have the power to transform your well-being years from now. Practicing preventive care strategies, from regularly exercising to making sure you are regularly vaccinated for common illnesses, fosters healthy longevity that would otherwise be burdened with disease and disability.
Employer-sponsored health insurance companies play a pivotal role in ensuring people can reap the remarkable rewards of preventive care with access to services such as health screenings and wellness programs. Today, the average American lifespan is 77.9 years, though we’re usually only considered “healthy” for 65.9 of those years. Yet, employer-sponsored health plans that focus on preventive care can increase our average life span to 90 years — a 12-year jump — by 2024, enabling us to spend 95 percent of those years in good health.
“There are a lot of things every person could do to stay healthy …feel better, and improve their quality of life to help them live longer,” said Dr. Alex Krist, professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. Let’s explore the importance of preventive health practices, and how your health plan can help you live your best, longest life.
From lifespan to healthspan
Throughout the twentieth century, scientists have used the term “lifespan” to measure healthy aging. But in the last decade, experts have started looking into a new way to understand how people age: healthspan.
Lifespan refers to the time a person is expected to live under ideal circumstances, from birth to death. Lifespan, as a benchmark of population health, has increased in the past seven decades by 26 years. While scientific advancements and increased health awareness have done wonders in helping us live longer, lifespan falls short of offering insight into the quality of our years.
That’s where healthspan comes in. Healthspan refers to how long a person enjoys generally good health, free from serious or chronic illness. Instead of focusing only on the length of life, healthspan emphasizes quality of life over length, with a long, healthy life as the goal.
Main factors affecting healthspan include:
Genetics
Environment
Lifestyle choices such as diet and exercise
Access to healthcare
Daily physical activity, mental well-being, and proactive health screenings can enhance one’s healthspan. As a member of a leading health insurance plan, you have access to regular health check-ups and wellness programs proven to enhance your healthspan.
Shifting perspectives: From Medicine 2.0 to Medicine 3.0
Recently, experts have reconsidered medical theories such as Medicine 2.0 — a personalized, patient-centered form of healthcare that enhances patient engagement and improves overall health outcomes. According to the Journal of Medical Internet Research, this form of care improves longevity by encouraging “active participation of the citizen in his or her health and care pathway with the use of information and communication technologies.” Using health data, physicians can tailor preventive care and treatment strategies to patients’ specific needs.
While Medicine 2.0 has been an amazing development, Dr. Peter Attia believes it has limitations. “If longevity is something we are aspiring for, we need a new strategy,” Attia said. Attia is the founder of Early Medical, a healthcare practice that applies the principles of Medicine 3.0 to extend lifespan while improving healthspan.
Medicine 3.0 builds on the technology-fuelled, patient-centered approach of 2.0 to create an evolved, holistic concept of care that considers the emotive and social aspects of health. Rather than focusing on isolated diseases, Medicine 3.0 takes into account the whole patient, emphasizing the patient-doctor relationship, integration of care across disciplines, and including patients in the decision-making process.
Medicine 2.0 and 3.0 both have a place in preventive care. Technology is crucial in each. An employer-sponsored health plan that understands and invests in these tools and developments provides members with opportunities for early intervention, effective management of chronic health conditions, and enhanced longevity and health.
Preventing the four horsemen of health
Figuring out where to start with preventive care may feel confusing, but recognizing the signs and symptoms of certain chronic diseases can help start you on your path to a longer, healthier life.
Commonly referred to as “the four horsemen” of health, the four major chronic diseases are:
Heart disease - leading cause of death globally due to its severe impact on overall health, representing 16 % of deaths from all causes.
Cancer - 1.7 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer annually. Nearly 600,000 die from it.
Diabetes - From 2000-2019, deaths from diabetes rose 70 percent globally. Characterized by high blood sugar levels, diabetes causes a range of health problems..
Alzheimer’s - Its long-lasting, irreversible, degenerative impact on memory loss and cognition makes Alzheimer’s one of the four horsemen of health. One in ten Americans 65 and older are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
Your health insurance plan works with you in practicing preventive care strategies, aiding in the early detection of the four horsemen, and providing access to important health screenings and wellness programs.
Blue Zones: living lessons from across the globe
In the US, navigating the healthcare industry is no small feat. Neither is making healthy choices, especially when it’s unclear how a health plan can help. Dan Buettner, is the founder of Blue Zones, an organization that helps people transform where they live, work, learn, and play to enhance the lives of future generations. Longevity is central to “Blue Zones,” or the communities with the healthiest, longest-living populations.
The five original Blue Zones are:
Ikaria, Greece
Loma Linda, California
Sardinia, Italy
Okinawa, Japan
Nicoya, Costa Rica
These communities demonstrate the profound impact of positive lifestyle practices, nutritional diets, and community involvement on longevity.
Increasing longevity as a Curative member
The power of prevention cannot be overstated. Paul Reed, Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, shares easy ways you can practice preventive health in your routine:
Physical activity - Whether it’s a walk with your dog or a trip to the gym, an hour of exercise each day does wonders for your healthspan.
Healthy eating - Maintaining a healthy, balanced diet is the key to longevity.
Mental health - Knowing when to take it easy and making time for rest daily can improve mental and emotional health.
Clinical preventive services - Keeping up with immunizations, health screenings, and annual physicals can help prevent illness and avoid health problems.
The best employer-sponsored health insurance plans ensure their workforce has the access, benefits, and support to integrate preventive care services into a routine that fits each person’s needs. Curative supports its members’ health and longevity journeys with comprehensive coverage over a range of preventive care services and strategies:
Physical health wellness programs, such as WeightWatchers
Diet and nutritional counseling and programs, like Noom
Health screenings, including the Baseline Visit
And don’t forget to sleep! While we can’t guarantee you’ll get a good night’s sleep, you can rest assured your health coverage won’t keep you up at night. Curative members can forget about surprise medical bills or confusion about where to find help. Your Care Navigator is there to point you in the right direction.
About Curative
Curative wants people to love using their health benefits. Our health plan actually delivers better health through affordability, engagement, and simplicity.
No copays. No deductibles. No...really. Curative is changing the way we view health insurance.
Explore all the ways Curative connects members with the preventive care services they need by visiting us at Curative Members.
To see all disclaimers, please view here.
References
Ducharme, J. (10 May 2019). The 4 types of doctors visits you should make for a long, healthy life. Time. https://time.com/5530431/preventive-care-longevity/
High quality employer-sponsored health insurance has potential to increase Americans’ life spans by 12 years. (8 Aug 2023). U.S. Chamber of Commerce. https://www.uschamber.com/health-care/high-quality-employer-sponsored-health-insurance-has-potential-to-increase-americans-life-spans-by-12-years
Healthy longevity. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Last reviewed December 2022. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-longevity/
Attia, P. (14 Nov 2022). #231 – AMA #41: Medicine 3.0, developments in the field of aging, healthy habits in times of stress, and more. Peter Attia, MD. https://peterattiamd.com/ama41/
Van De Belt, TH et al. Definition of health 2.0 and medicine 2.0: a systemic review. J Med Internet Res. 2010;12(2): e18. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2956229/
Crane, PA et al. Healthspan versus lifespan: new medicines to close the gap. Nature Aging. 2022;2:984–988. https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00318-5
Garmany, A et al. Longevity leap: mind the healthspan gap. NPJ Regen Med. 2021;6:57. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8460831/
Onque, R. (30 Dec 2022). Here’s the difference between your healthspan and lifespan—plus, how your diet factors in. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/30/healthspan-lifespan-how-does-diet-factor-in.html
Musich, S et al. The impact of personalized preventive care on health care quality, utilization, and expenditures. Popul Health Manag. 2016;19(6):389–397. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5296930/
Inflammation: a unifying theory of disease? (29 Mar 2023). Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/inflammation-a-unifying-theory-of-disease#:~:text=The%20four%20horsemen%20of%20the,information%20from%20Harvard%20Medical%20School.
WHO reveals leading causes of death and disability worldwide: 2000-2019. (9 Dec 2020). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/09-12-2020-who-reveals-leading-causes-of-death-and-disability-worldwide-2000-2019
Health and Economic Costs of Chronic Diseases. CDC. Last reviewed 23 Mar 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/about/costs/index.htm
An ounce of prevention…can save a person’s life. (26 Aug 2022). OASH. https://health.gov/news/202208/ounce-prevention-can-save-persons-life
Physical activity. (5 Oct 2022). WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
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