Early Detection – A Predictor of Longevity!
People often ask “at what time in my life should I start taking purposeful steps to improve my health & wellness and consider longevity as my priority?” It is also understandable that people in their last decade of life spend most of their time thinking about their own mortality.
The answer, actually, is self-evident. if we really want to figure out how to live longer and remain healthy till the end years of our life, and not be in a state of total decline – then we need a completely different play book that involves adopting real, timely preemptive measures.
This means taking preventive steps very early in life which involves taking personalised steps suited to our personal needs – which may or may not apply to everybody. Sleep, diet and exercise makes sense across the board; but when it comes to using medications, it will have to be specifically tailored for your distinctive needs – known as “personalised medicine”.
Until recently the medical practice was more concerned with risks involving diseases and its complications, side effects of medication, and risks involving surgeries, etc; but less focused on tutoring patients about “acting in time” when it comes to their wellness and quality of future life.
For example, we generally consider a risk of heart disease only upon a ten year time horizon. Looking at a young 30 year old, you’d guess his risk of getting a heart attack could be very low, close to zero. So the viewpoint would be “Oh, there is nothing wrong with you as of now – or at least, for the next ten years to come and so you don’t need to worry about it”.
But what if a blood test and/or genome mapping was done on him and they found biomarkers there that were predictive of very high cardiovascular or any other risk factors later in life?
So, the latest medical science of “predictive, preventive, personalised healthcare” approach would be – “ Yes, the risk in the next 40 years could be significant and therefore act now! You have at this early stage unbelievable potential to change the course of your lifestyle and healthcare to completely alter the disease trajectory of your life and therefore avoid the suffering in later life”.
To sum up – Today’s advanced health care promotes the paradigm change from delayed intervention to predictive and preventive medicine tailored to the person, a change from reactive to preventive medicine and from disease to wellness.
Zareer Patell – Black Belt, Personal / Online Fitness Trainer and Wellness Columnist (since 1972).
