The benefits and protection of youth can no longer be relied on. For example, most of us experience vision and hearing loss. More serious conditions that typically begin to appear at this age include multiple sclerosis, hepatitis C, rheumatoid arthritis and post-polio syndrome. There's such a large number of people facing these changes at this time. This generation needs to educate, protect and prepare itself.
Prevention is the most effective treatment for everything.
Health issues must be divided into lifestyle issues and into disease-specific issues. I think that the three most common or pervasive health issues facing baby boomers today, in terms of lifestyle are smoking, diet and exercise. In general, do not smoke, get a significant amount of weight-bearing exercise, get the fat out of your diet and increase the calcium in your diet. These things are easy to do. If everyone did them, our national health-care budget would shrink and we would all live longer, healthier, more comfortable lives.