Minding the Body: A Wakeup Call

By Paul Salmon, Ph.D.

An article last fall in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine pointed out some significant changes taking place in society that have major implications for both corporate America and anyone else affected by increasing healthcare costs (i.e. virtually all of us!) Reading the article reinforced my longstanding belief in the importance of taking personal responsibility for staying well and avoiding, to the extent possible, unnecessary medical costs. There are no guarantees that a healthy lifestyle will prevent illness, and eventually all of us will succumb to something! But in the meantime, there are both personal and socially beneficial reasons for intelligent health care management.

Here is a summary of the key points made by the authors of this article:

• Employers are increasingly passing on healthcare costs, which doubled from $700 billion to $1.4 trillion dollars between 1990 and 2000, to employees to try and contain them.
• Within the next few years, healthcare costs will increase at an even faster rate, owing to the fact that there will be a significant increase in workers age 55 and older. And within 20 years, fully 20 percent of the U.S. population will be made up of people 65 or older.
• The workplace has become a potent source of anxiety, stress and stress-related illnesses, which may require medical care. Contributing factors include fallout from 9/11, corporate downsizing and a moribund economy. The result is that employees who are paying an increasing percentage of health insurance are at the same time more likely to need medical care. (Of course, those of us fortunate enough to have health care insurance probably shouldn't complain!)
• Increasing health care costs are driven largely by hospital charges and drug expenses, related in part to the need for comprehensive and often complex management of chronic medical conditions that are becoming increasingly prevalent in our aging population. 

The bottom line? Take steps to prevent conditions that, if ignored will land you in the hospital and/or necessitate the kinds of costly drug regimens associated with long-term treatment of chronic illness. Make a commitment to exercise, control stress and eat sensibly. There are already enough diseases over which we have relatively little control taxing the medical system without the overload created by conditions that can either be prevented or effectively managed through prudent lifestyle practices. Think beyond healthcare as a self-focused commitment to 'getting in shape' and more as a way of making a contribution to society as a whole.

I suppose much of my heightened sensitivity comes from being a member of the baby boomer generation. I am acutely aware of being in the segment of the population that is currently consuming an increasing percentage of available health care resources, and will in the future impose a significant cost in terms of post-retirement medical care and, in all likelihood, social security benefits as well. Furthermore, I am also aware that, as a society, we utilize a disproportionate percentage of both natural and manufactured resources to fuel an economy that is intimately tied to health care services and costs.

From this vantage point, it seems obvious that, taking increasing personal responsibility for health care and disease prevention benefits not only benefits the individual, but society as a whole. It's easy to think of health-conscious and fit individuals as overly self-absorbed, and I don't doubt that this is true for some. But it's important not to overlook the fact that staying healthy, independent and free of preventable illnesses frees up valuable economic and social resources better put to other uses.

Paul Salmon, Ph.D. is a faculty member at U of L in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and an ACSM-certified health fitness instructor. Paul is a member of the Kentuckiana HealthFitness Advisory Board.