Prevention is Key

Eat your vegetables. Say no to drugs. Drink eight glasses of water everyday. Don’t drink and drive. Drink milk. Exercise at least thirty minutes every day. Eat a balanced meal. Sound familiar? Sure they do. It’s what we have been told to do all our lives in order to grow strong and live a healthy life. Yet knowing that following this advice is crucial to our health in the long run, how many of us can truly say we are an example to follow? Sadly, the truth is that we are lazy and complacent when it comes to our health. We know what we shouldn’t do and yet we still do it. As in many other areas of our lives we choose instant gratification and prefer not to think about the consequences until they become a problem in the future. So when James Martin, author of “The meaning of the 21^st Century”, mentions that “Some people, determined to enjoy old age, will be careful to avoid cigarettes…may bicycle to work… and do everything their doctor or personal computer tells them to,” I don’t see these people constituting the majority of our population.

I’ve had the opportunity of witnessing the many implications old age has brought to our aging population. Taking the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) course during my senior year in high school, I assisted residents in a nursing home and patients in a hospital for four weeks. Although being at such places isn’t necessary to know the problems old age brings, being able to witness these problems first-hand has made me realize how crucial it is to caring about our health despite our young age. I have assisted people who needed help cleaning their dentures to people who required assistance getting out of bed. I understand the importance of having someone there to help when you’re not able to reach for some water or when you need help taking a shower or go to the restroom. We usually take these things for granted and don’t realize our bodies might slowly be heading towards that same future of dependence. It is these experiences we associate with old age that ultimately drive us to not “want to spend the final 30 years of [our lives] in a wheelchair” (209) unless technology will be able to prolong the inevitable for as long as possible.

Preventive medicine can no doubt help prevent or prolong many of the changes our bodies will undergo as they age. However, if change to become more proactive about our health doesn’t improve as a society, these new technologies can only go so far. The rate of obesity today is astounding regardless of all the options for weight loss that exist. And, despite all the tests and preventive measures an individual can obtain or act upon, the number of people with diseases that could have been prevented is increasing at an alarming rate. Staying up to date with our vaccines/flu shots can prevent many diseases and even a yearly routine checkup could prevent letting many types of cancer reach untreatable levels. If our society could follow simple steps to a better lifestyle and learn to take advantage of the medical advancements available today, preventive medicine could probably have a profound effect in the health of our future generations and ultimately redefine the problems associated with age.