Another 20 percent can be achieved by creating a safe and healthy environment. Twenty percent is related to heredity, whereas preventive medical care represents only 10 percent of the total benefit. Probably more than half of our trillion dollar yearly health care expenditure could be eliminated if individuals would take responsibility for living healthy lifestyles and respected the environment. We do not have enough money to pay for the amount of disease we are generating. Rather than trying to treat all of our diseases, our goal must be to design them out of our society through healthy lifestyles and other appropriate measures.
Most chronic diseases originate within our genetic makeup.
Current efforts to map the human genome will soon lead to understanding and a means to control these genetically inherited diseases. We will soon be able to predict who has a predisposition to disease and then make alterations to either prevent the disease or control its onset and severity. With better understanding of diseases and more precise measurements of the individual, therapies will be customized to choose the right treatment and optimum amount for success for that particular person. The quality improvement movement has taught us that quality reduces costs and this is achieved by reducing variability and improving processes. High-tech tests, costly procedures and expensive medications often do not produce better outcomes than more conservative therapies.