The choice for an unhealthy lifestyle is often the root cause of 80% of the chronic diseases that we face today. About 90% of the annual healthcare expenditures of the nation are for individuals with mental health and chronic conditions, several of which are deep-rooted in the social, environmental, and lifestyle factors. Lifestyle medicine is considered as the entity that is relatively not known, while health screening has become an established and vital part of healthcare that is preventative.
Prescribe lifestyle medicine often reduces the requirement for costly surgeries and medications as it is a specialty employing the interventions for natural lifestyle treatment and prevention of the diseases that are chronic. It is mainly noted to be the lifestyle interventions that are based on evidence treating and preventing lifestyle-related issues in a more clinical setting. It helps the individuals in addressing the root cause of these chronic diseases.
The main contributors in the progression and development of the preventable chronic diseases including the diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and several kinds of cancer are mainly through the poor lifestyle choice that involves smoking, bad diet choices, lack of physical activity, and poor sleeping conditions. There are several patients who are inadequately prepared to either maintain or start these right healthy changes even though the doctors would be encouraging the healthful choice for preventing and managing the chronic disease conditions.
It can leverage technology
For recording and tracking the health metrics that involve blood sugar, blood pressure, weight, and physical activity, there are increasingly more people who are making use of digital devices. The outcome can be in no remedial action that is considered to be taken as many would never be sharing this kind of useful data for health that is collected through digital technology with the help of their healthcare providers.
The patients would perceive a higher quality of care as they are also highly motivated and engaged in making and maintaining the required changes to a lifestyle when there is relevant data being shared with the respective healthcare provider. The doctors, as well as the team of healthcare people, would be able to make greater personalized and effective recommendations by gaining a better insight into the health behavior of a person. There is a growing need for higher-risk individuals, and most are more likely to be benefiting through the guided modifications to the lifestyle, although it is quite heartening to check out people who are keeping track of their healthy behaviors.
More active engagement with the medical providers through the tools for self-monitoring, data sharing with the healthcare professionals, and preventative care would be required here, in addition to a regular health screening that can preempt issues. With the patients dwelling at the core and optimal health results being the ultimate goal here, the patient-centric technologies would be allowing better access to data and flow that is between the practitioners and patients.
So what can be done?
It is noted that true health would be lying in maintaining a healthy behavior, and promoting culture for a healthy lifestyle both at home and work is what the companies should be recognizing. The healthcare providers would be aiding in monitoring and transforming the healthy habits of groups as well as individuals through scientifically based lifestyle medicine along with strategies for behavioral change that can aid the companies in achieving this effectively and easily.
On the basis of the unique health profiles of the employees, they can even help the companies in developing streamlined initiatives and solutions. Solutions would be varying from facilitating healthy behaviors through the line of customized programs and talks catering to the ones that have very poor health habits with no medical conditions to a more intensive and targeted approach for the individuals with existing chronic diseases along with several risk factors, for instance.
There would still be remaining a massive unmet requirement to make sure that this would be translating into the improvement to the healthy habits with the reduction of the future health risks as there are companies that are taking part in the health screening being a part of the advantage of lifestyle medicine prescriptions. In this process, lifestyle medicine and lifestyle analysis would be playing the pivotal role that would empower the individuals to become active partners in this entire process.
