While doing some casual reading this evening I came across the following interesting statement.

“The cost of heart disease and stroke in the United States has been estimated at $432 billion for 2007, including health care expenditures and lost productivity.”
-The Blue Zone by Dan Buettner

This is a pretty shocking estimate and although the number could have quite a bit a fidget room even at half that amount it is a considerable amount. I think this makes the case as has been brought up on numerous occasions for the practice and additional emphasis on preventative medicine in our county. Encouraging and creating incentives to not smoke, live a non-sedentary lifestyle, and have a healthy diet could save our state billions of dollars while also having many positive side-effects.

Where ever you might stand on this issue it will certainly be heavily debated as the US looks for ways to save on spending and improve the state of our health care system. Simple changes in philosophy could make a dramatic difference.