What Is Primary Prevention?
The key to aging with a vengeance is prevention. One of the obvious goals is to prevent problems such as stroke or heart attack in healthy people and in people who have risk factors for disease. Today’s Memo will deal with primary prevention.
Primary prevention focuses on helping apparently healthy people prevent the onset of disease. Eating a healthy diet that focuses on plant-based sources of food would be an obvious preventive measure; so would a regular exercise program. Supplementation to fill in any gaps in the diet would also fit here.
But there are more steps that we don’t typically consider. Yearly physicals are important as we pass 30; I cringe every time people in their 60s say they’ve never had a physical. Something as simple as examining the skin for misshapen moles or measuring blood pressure regularly can be critical, because early treatment can prevent a disease such as skin cancer or hypertension that can cause life-threatening issues. Then add keeping your vaccinations up to date and flossing your teeth daily, and you’ve got a great start on primary prevention. I’ll elaborate in a new Straight Talk on Health available to Members and Insiders on Saturday. Then in Saturday’s Memo, I’ll talk about secondary prevention.
Tomorrow night at 9 ET is the Insiders Conference Call. The focus is on answering Insiders’ questions. I’m also going to address some of the latest research on artificial sweeteners to see whether they’re hazardous to our health or not. Become an Insider by 8 p.m. tomorrow and you can take part in the call.
What are you prepared to do today?
