An Ounce of Prevention
Happy Leap Day everyone! I hope everyone has had a chance to take advantage of our extra day this year, maybe commit a random act of kindness or take a chance to try something new. Enjoy!
I think growing up we have all heard at one time or another the phrase, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and if you haven’t, well, you just read it. There are many cliché sayings out and about in our world and some of them even ring true…much like the one I just wrote. It is a saying that can apply to so many different areas in life only if we apply the knowledge in the right place at the right time. A brief example…it is better (i.e. less expensive) to perform regular maintenance on your car than to have to replace the car’s engine when the oil fails to keep the engine from overheating and the motor seizes. Twenty-five dollars for an oil change vs twenty-five hundred dollars for a motor change…ounce of prevention vs a pound of cure.
This same principle applies with our own health and care of our health. Over the weekend I saw a commercial for a national health insurance carrier…they weren’t necessarily promoting their own prowess of their coverage or how fast they could help with medications or even your hospital stay. This commercial was promoting the concept of approaching healthcare from a proactive standpoint sharing how this approach could save the holder of the policy time and money. Navigating our own healthcare needs on a good day can be complex at best and due to the nature of the rising cost of healthcare, we as patients, tend to be reactionary in nature. We as a population, tend to only seek out care and advice on the state of our health only when we are not feeling quite right or if something goes wrong with our health. We rationalize this by saying that we don’t have time or that we can’t afford it…etcetera and so on. Historically, we are a reactionary society (when it comes to our health) and because of this reactive tendency the cost of treatment for our illness that develop over time (Hart disease, Diabetes, Cancer, etc.) cost thousands of dollars more to treat than if we had been more proactive in our healthcare.
Fortunately, the national trend is for people to be more involved in their healthcare before long term health issues occur and those benefits of being more involved and preemptive with healthcare are being seen. There has been continued research and studies that show time and again that being proactive vs reactionary in the managing of our health leads to better, long term health. These benefits of being more proactive in one’s approach to one’s own health include but are by no means limited to a better quality of life and lower healthcare costs. Allow me to go on a tangent if you will, a smoker gives up smoking…short term benefits are breathing easier and savings of not shelling out four to six dollars per pack of cigarettes (multiplied by however many packs consumed per week). Long term benefits of quitting smoking are reduced chance of cardio-pulmonary disease (or other smoking related illness) and the massive savings in healthcare by not having to treat those types of illness…being proactive vs reactive…it just makes sense.
When it comes to our health, an ounce of prevention really does prevent a pound (or two) of cure. I hope this is something that you can think on in an open frame of mind or maybe share with a loved one. It is never too late to take steps in the right direction when it comes to living a healthier lifestyle. I hope everyone has a good week and remember, we’re all in this together.
Wm Reid
Best Home Care Services
325 N Eastern Ave
Connersville, IN 47331
765-827-9833
besthomecareservices@comcast.net