The #1 Way You Can Die Young at an Old Age

It's not healthcare, it's YouCare

Quick. What images pop up in your mind when I say the word “HEALTHCARE”?

I bet in your mind’s eye you saw doctors, nurses, hospitals and/or pharmaceuticals.

In that case, here’s an important question.

Where are YOU in that visualization?

Are you the patient? The sick person?

Here’s a life-changing and potentially life-saving way to reconsider what you saw.

Healthcare needs to begin and end with YOU.

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” – Jim Rohn

We have it ass-backward

You want to be so healthy that you don’t need to be treated.

Thank goodness something may be there for you if you get sick or injured.

But even then, well, you’ve heard the horror stories. You can’t empirically trust the healthcare system to do the right thing for you.

Or potentially anything for you.

Or even get seen within a reasonable period of time.

When you do get seen, you may need to challenge and question the diagnosis, prescriptions, or treatment.

So you see? It really does begin and end with you.

It should be called SICKCARE

How often have you had a preventative care appointment?

For some of us, insurance or Medicare won't even cover a yearly checkup.

During a virtual appointment with a family physician on a minor issue, I mentioned that I was switching to a Lifestyle physician .

I was stunned when she said, “Oh. I really admire Lifestyle Doctors. I wish I had that kind of expertise. But there’s so much to learn about prevention. I was only trained on what to do if someone is sick.”

Are you friggin’ kidding me?

Translation: Like many doctors, she is only taught how to treat, not prevent, and certainly not treat with lifestyle changes but rather with pharmaceuticals and procedures.

It’s more than semantics

OK. Second question.

What images pop into your mind when I say the word “healthycare”?

Is it nutritious, healthy food? Aerobic exercise and strength training? Enough quality sleep?

I bet it doesn’t include doctors, nurses, hospitals, fear and drug side effects that make the cure worse than the disease.

"Living longer is not accomplished by living longer with a disease. Living longer is accomplished by living longer without disease." -Dr. Peter Attia

Don’t assume it's your genes

Some say, “I’ve inherited or have genes that caused my ailment.”

That may be the case, and therefore, thank goodness for traditional healthcare.

However, more and more research points to our lifestyles and environments as the primary cause of our ills. Not our genetics.

The latest research shows that only 25% of age-related diseases can be linked to our genes.

Instead of inheriting bad genes from your parents, you may have inherited their bad habits.

In his book The Longevity Paradox , Dr. Steven Gundry writes how he thought his struggles with weight were from inheriting the genes of his overweight, pre-diabetic father.

As an eminent cardiovascular surgeon, he also wondered why he had so many patients who needed a second or even third heart bypass operation.

Through his research, he developed a better diet and exercise lifestyle for himself and his patients and now he’s famous for it.

Oh…and his father followed suit, and both are now in robust, vastly improved health.

The father inherited better healthcare from his son.

“Health is not valued until sickness comes.”?–?Thomas Fuller

Be Whealthy

My friend and colleague Scott Fulton coined the term “Whealthy”.

A wealth of health via healthycare. Get it?

I got it by going from the worst overall health of my entire life to being in the best health of my adult life and doing so at an age when one would assume I would begin to decline.

Right now, I’m healthier and happier than I was 20 years ago and still doing everything I did back then and more.

Realize that I am not the most disciplined person when it comes to this type of thing.

Nevertheless, I took responsibility for my health by taking 10,000+ baby steps to better health, making me Whealthy.

Those 10K baby steps involved gradually cutting down on the foods I (and all of us) know I shouldn’t eat and eating a lot more of the foods I should eat.

I got into and now enjoy exercise, sleep, yoga (stretching), meditation, etc., etc., etc.

Doing what we all know we need to do (and granted, what doctors tell us to do) a little bit at a time and a bit more every day got me on a roll.

Motivation and self-discipline came naturally to me because I wanted it and almost immediately reaped the benefits.

I started wanting to learn more and do more.

It was like being in a poker game where you’re winning all the time and don’t want to quit.

I also felt a helluva lot better about myself.

It’s all about Healthspan

Oh. One more BIG thing. It’s not just about increasing my lifespan; IT’S ABOUT INCREASING MY (and your) HEALTHSPAN.

My intention to die young at an old age is all about living fully, actively, independently and happily into my 90s and beyond.

With healthycare, you will have the physical, mental and emotional health to make olderhood some of the best years of your life.

It’s a new phase of life for which we can reimagine, reinvent and redefine ourselves to be relevant, fulfilled and purposeful.

But you gotta have the health to achieve it and enjoy it.

If I can do it, I honestly believe anyone can do it as long as you realize that healthycare begins and ends with you.

Use Whealthspan as a guide

Scott has now published a book called?WHEALTHSPAN: More Years, More Moments, More Money , ?which can give you the whys, whats, and hows of dying young at an old age by extending your health span.

This book could save your life.

I will also allow you to envision yourself first when you think of healthcare.

"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver." —Mahatma?Gandhi