Preventative Health – A New Era
So you thought that getting your regular checkups at the doctor would keep you healthy, right?…
…Well new research has found that routine medical health check-ups have no effect on mortality rates.
In a review of 14 randomized trials conducted between 1963 and 1999, researchers evaluated the effect of annual health checkups on morbidity and mortality. A general health check was defined as “a visit dedicated solely to preventive counseling and screening tests,” and excluded visits required for the management of chronic conditions or acute care visits.They found no benefit on the long term mortality of patients despite the fact that the checks did increase the number of new diagnoses of hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes mellitus during the health checks (and probably increased the number of drug prescriptions to boot!). Which just goes to show that real preventative medicine goes above and beyond a standard medical checkup at the GP.
As a holistic practitioner, it wasn’t too surprising to me that these kind of checkups wouldn’t confer many benefits. With little understanding of the underlying cause of disease and little training in supporting patients to make healthy diet and lifestyle changes, doctors are really not well placed to help prevent disease.
Real preventative health comes from paying attention to what is out of balance in all spheres of life, not just the physical body ailments. I love doing a wellness checkup and audit with my patients to continually assess what needs to change to ensure optimal health. Sometimes it is your diet that is creating havoc, sometimes it is stress and emotions that are lowering your health. It can even be your quality of sleep or regularity of exercise that needs to change.
When we work out a individualised plan for restoring and rebalancing your health to a new level, we are also working to keep you well and prevent chronic disease. It can be that simple! This kind of approach also works for overcoming many genetic conditions as the new science of epigenetics shows that it is our interaction with our environment that ‘switches’ our genes on or off. We can no longer blame our genetic blueprint per se, but we now have to take personal responsibility for how we live our life and in turn understand that in many cases it is our choices that will determine what diseases we end up with.
Let’s hope they do some research one day to look at how this kind of preventative healthcare program can improve the endgame!
I am concerned that you have not included the referencing for the systematic review you have cited although I am aware of the existence of such reviews. Additionally, your claims seem to be Inflammatory and unhelpful.
Preventative health is more than is addressed in a single GP check up, as you correctly stated.It is more correctly within the domain of public health, not general practice.
It is also important to note that GPs develop rapport over time with their patients, and as they are also humans themselves, are exceptionally aware that the psychological, spiritual, emotional realms of our lives influence our health. The importance of a healthy diet and regular exercise is a fact that is known and also addressed by all medical practitioners. GPs are not the paternalistic, blinkered individuals that you seem to be inferring they are.
Lastly, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and high cholesterol are health issues that are initially ‘treated’ with a prescription for lifestyle changes. If this is unsuccessful for a person, then pharmacological means are suggested. These tablets or injections are proven to have more benefits than risks, especially given that each of the mentioned conditions has very serious sequelae such as heart attacks, strokes and gangrene of the limbs.
Hello Mai
Thank you for your comments and feedback on my post. 🙂
The BMJ research is detailed in this medline commentary http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_131515.html
I did not mean to be inflammatory in my discussion nor do I believe that GPs are blinkered or paternalistic. I am sorry if you took offence to this. I have a few friends who are GPs, and some of who have done additional training with ACNEM have qualifications in nutrition and impart this to their patients. The standard medical degree does not provide comprehensive information on the nutritional underpinning to disease nor the psycho-spiritual components to health. I am aware that this is changing and some GPs practice more from this paradigm than others – just as some naturopaths and CAM practitioners practice in a very linear and less holistic way. I understand the role of GPs and the efficacy of much of conventional medicine. Indeed, I regularly and happily work in collaboration with doctors and specialists to optimise the best care and outcomes for my patients.
Having studied public health last year as part of my masters degree, I understand that preventative health is part of this domain – but for it to be carried out on the ground, it needs to be encompassed by all health professionals and each individual has a role to play. It is my hope that the medical profession in all its guises continues to evolve towards a greater understanding of the human being and what constitutes true health and wellness and applies this in unique, individualised and efficacious ways.
best wishes
Karen