or the last several years, the Department of the Air Force has been focusing on a preventive approach to health, and it has gained significant momentum. Leveraging a purposeful performance and lifestyle medicine strategy to health, the Air Force and Space Force’s goal was to strengthen personnel readiness by creating a partnership between the healthcare provider and the patient focused on health more holistically—nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress reduction, social connection, environmental hazard mitigation, and risky or unhealthy substance avoidance. Clearly, a healthy force supports readiness and security on a national and global scale; although, expansion beyond those who wear the uniform is needed to support a broader state of global wellbeing.
With the minimal time most individuals spend with medical providers, patient–provider preventive health discussion is often limited to primary prevention of disease after associated risk factors develop, such as prevention of cardiovascular disease or diabetes for someone diagnosed with hypertension and/or obesity. But what about prevention before risk factors develop? Talks with our children? With healthy adults? Though there are pockets of excellence, too often, little time is spent talking about the impact of inadequate sleep or how food choices can increase or decrease inflammation throughout the body. The focus is typically on what is bothering the individual and ensuring compliance with screening tests and vaccinations. Moreover, many patients don’t know to ask for anything different.
Primordial prevention is the first line of defense to transition from a ‘healthcare’ focus to a ‘holistic health’ focus. Unlike the example of someone with a risk factor of obesity receiving traditional, primary preventive approaches to minimize the chance of developing a particular disease, primordial prevention aims to avert developing the risk factors in the first place. Only through this approach can we impact a future where individuals and communities are thriving rather than merely surviving.
Health and education platforms should focus on primordial prevention access and knowledge across the spectrum of global communities. A transformation from ‘healthcare’ policy and traditional approaches to health education in schools and toward holistic health can drive this change. Imagine a world where individuals are mentally, physically, and spiritually sound within communities that are mentally, physically, spiritually, and environmentally sound. This is a call to action for us all. We can do better.
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From ‘healthcare’ to ‘holistic health’ with primordial prevention
July 12, 2024
The preventive health discussion must expand from prevention of disease after associated risk factors develop toward primordial prevention—stopping the factors from ever occurring, writes Dr. Sharon Bannister.
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or the last several years, the Department of the Air Force has been focusing on a preventive approach to health, and it has gained significant momentum. Leveraging a purposeful performance and lifestyle medicine strategy to health, the Air Force and Space Force’s goal was to strengthen personnel readiness by creating a partnership between the healthcare provider and the patient focused on health more holistically—nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress reduction, social connection, environmental hazard mitigation, and risky or unhealthy substance avoidance. Clearly, a healthy force supports readiness and security on a national and global scale; although, expansion beyond those who wear the uniform is needed to support a broader state of global wellbeing.
With the minimal time most individuals spend with medical providers, patient–provider preventive health discussion is often limited to primary prevention of disease after associated risk factors develop, such as prevention of cardiovascular disease or diabetes for someone diagnosed with hypertension and/or obesity. But what about prevention before risk factors develop? Talks with our children? With healthy adults? Though there are pockets of excellence, too often, little time is spent talking about the impact of inadequate sleep or how food choices can increase or decrease inflammation throughout the body. The focus is typically on what is bothering the individual and ensuring compliance with screening tests and vaccinations. Moreover, many patients don’t know to ask for anything different.
Primordial prevention is the first line of defense to transition from a ‘healthcare’ focus to a ‘holistic health’ focus. Unlike the example of someone with a risk factor of obesity receiving traditional, primary preventive approaches to minimize the chance of developing a particular disease, primordial prevention aims to avert developing the risk factors in the first place. Only through this approach can we impact a future where individuals and communities are thriving rather than merely surviving.
Health and education platforms should focus on primordial prevention access and knowledge across the spectrum of global communities. A transformation from ‘healthcare’ policy and traditional approaches to health education in schools and toward holistic health can drive this change. Imagine a world where individuals are mentally, physically, and spiritually sound within communities that are mentally, physically, spiritually, and environmentally sound. This is a call to action for us all. We can do better.
