The debate is on – five congressional committees, town hall meetings, president’s speeches, claims from the left, right and the middle – wow, everyone is thinking of the broken healthcare system. It’s interesting, because while we are talking of costs and changes to the system, we may be losing sight of what we as patients can do.

So, while everyone is talking of reforming our healthcare – we thought of putting some focus on reforming our health.

When I was growing up, I learned that prevention is better than cure. But, “A stitch in time saves nine” is all but a cliché today.

Studies show that the spend on chronic diseases is a huge percentage of our total healthcare spending. On top of it, the billions in productivity loss is not even measured. Chronic disease such as diabetes, heart diseases and obesity –that can all be reduced through healthy lifestyle and timely diagnosis continue to grow at an alarming rate. Prevention being considered more expensive on face of it is delayed.

However there are conclusive studies that spending today on chronic diseases completely dwarfs the money we could spend of the right preventive programs. For that, we at DocAsap are launching a preventive care campaign to promote healthy lifestyle and preventive checkups.

So folks, its time to get your routine workouts, quit junk food and smoking and get that postponed annual health checkup, mammogram, dental checkup and flu shot. Go see your doctor for a preventive checkup.

PS: we at DocAsap continue to be committed to prevention because we believe that a stitch in time can save nine, ten or may be even more.