A recent study published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that life span and healthy years are not the same thing. JAMA looked at the healthspan-lifespan connection—how long people live about how many healthy years they have—among men and women across 183 World Health Organization (WHO) member states from 2000 to 2019. The idea was to look at the data before Covid which would have changed the long-term outlook of the study. The researchers consider gains in global life expectancy a societal achievement. On the other hand, living longer but not healthier lives shows that people living in the USA have the largest healthspan-lifespan gap of any country. In other words, we spend more time suffering from disease and disability than other countries. Adding healthier years to our lives requires better health-life balance and better nutrition. There are now ideas regarding how we should live, eat, move, and enjoy life balance in the USA which is different in other countries. The idea of healthcare 3.0 is that a healthier life can add 10 more productive years to our lives. This includes Improved nutrition with better eating habits, fewer refined foods, and less sugar. Better care of the musculoskeletal system. Chiropractic care can add years to your vitality, your ability to move and ambulate, and your overall health which requires movement and activity to sustain it. Many falls can be prevented with chiropractic care intervening earlier in life reducing the knee and hip joint replacement surgeries common today. Walking with a cane or walker may help reduce falls, but it does not improve gait or balance which deteriorates with increased reliance on these devices. Often, improving gait, stride, and movement results in less wear and tear on the spine and extremities and allows people to move and exercise more. Rather than our current model of going to specialists for joint pain or back pain, chiropractic offers a holistic model that improves movement and reduces pain naturally. Regular exercise is important for circulation, and muscular tone, and this changes the body at the cellular level. Moving away from the disease model of care which is about testing and intervening. Often these screening efforts push people into the disease mode of looking at the body and managing syndromes instead of solving the problems that cause them. Rethinking the survival at any cost idea and having a healthier conversation about the true lifespan of healthy and productive years instead of existing for an additional 10-12 years with a constant reliance on the medical system to artificially increase how long we live. Doing things better naturally makes more sense and is less costly. It also is more humane. Improve your life balance and find distractions that allow you to reduce stress and improve your mental health. Wellness matters. After many years spent in the chiropractic profession, I have an appreciation for what a better function does for our lives. I practice what I preach and patients who follow our recommendations take fewer medications, have fewer poor effects from medications of dubious value, and see us as health coaches, something all doctors should be. After all, if patients know everything about solving their problems, why would they need our help? With a new administration coming in, perhaps those in charge of healthcare will push a different agenda than the one we currently have where the incentives are about systems or systematizing patients with protocols. As I tell patients, “You are not a protocol”, and healthcare is not managed by numbers. A recent conversation with a bandmate of mine illustrates what happens when patients buy into allopathy or any other profession. He saw his liver enzymes on a doctor’s visit go higher than normal and the doctor voiced concerns. I asked him if he took cholesterol meds. He said he did for years without a problem. Now, he may have a problem which is why patients on these meds of dubious value are monitored 4 times a year; liver problems are a known side effect of preventing a what-if disease. It is known as Statin Toxicity. Pharmacists are the ones who will look at medication panels and can pick out which combinations may be harmful to you. While it is understood these medications may be helpful, it is also known that Americans take more medication than any other country and it is not making us healthier, but may prolong our end-of-life suffering through artificial life extension. Health is a lifetime pursuit. It is not something we should be thinking about after a life challenging problem scares the hell out of us and sends us in fear to the medical system. Perhaps, when our healthcare system incentivises this instead of disease care, we will lead longer and more productive lives naturally and effectively. Read more about this recent study below Need help now with improving how you feel, move, and function? Book online today. New data reveals a surprising story about American health—especially as we age