Does a healthy lifestyle equal quality of life?
The idea that a healthy lifestyle improves physical and mental health is something of an open secret. Making sure to get the correct amount of exercise, eat the right foods, and regularly visit your doctor’s office for checkups are all suggestions straight out of a waiting room pamphlet. However, did you know that having healthier lifestyles could reduce health care costs for everyone?
What Does “Quality of Life” mean?
The current healthcare system is best described as a sick-care system, meaning that our medical system works towards treating the sick. This is a good goal in essence. After all, anyone who has been sick for any length of time knows how important getting the right help can be.
However, this form of healthcare can put a huge amount of strain on the financial side of healthcare. Focusing on treating sick people is one thing but putting off treatment or general “Health Maintenance” until someone is sick can lead to big problems.
That is why many medical professionals suggest our society works to transition from sick care to preventative or maintenance healthcare the “Health” back in “Healthcare,” so to speak.
Preventative healthcare works on the idea that a healthy lifestyle equals a higher quality of life. This doesn’t mean that individuals who do not exercise or practice good dining habits are worthless or are less valuable than individuals who exercise daily, it simply means that medical professionals have found a direct correlation between healthy habits and healthier, happier people.
Moving towards preventative healthcare
Medical innovations such as the Internet of Things(IoT) that uses Artificial Intelligence(AI) to connect medical records can help make preventative healthcare a reality. While these programs, also known as Machine Learning programs, are still in the early stages, they could prove to be a huge help to medical providers everywhere. These programs would allow doctors to keep track of your healthcare on an updated continuously basis, as well as have access to exercise routines using things like personal trackers.
By being able to see this kind of information without having to wait for a bi-annual checkup, your doctor would be able to see problems before they happened, making preventative care all the simpler. Plus, these programs would put your information in an easy-to-access location, allowing you to have more say over your healthcare records and make informed choices about your health
By shifting healthcare towards caring for people’s health and encouraging healthy lifestyles, medical providers can help improve the quality of patient’s treatment and their lives.
Source(s):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4704968/