Personalized Medicine....What about Prevention?

A recent study published and talked about everywhere around the web indicates that our lifestyle matters. If we would just follow these five things, we would save thousands of lives.......How will we carry out personalized medicine if we cannot follow simple preventative measures.

Here's what the Partnership for Prevention Suggests:

The biggest impact would be saving 45,000 lives by encouraging more adults to take a daily low dose of aspirin to prevent heart disease, said the report which was sponsored by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the WellPoint Foundation.......
Other measures that would save tens of thousands more American lives every year include more adults getting flu shots

• 45,000 lives saved from more adults taking a daily low dose of aspirin (current take up rate is below 50 per cent).
  
• 42,000 more lives saved by offering smokers professional help to quit, including medication (current level is below 28 per cent).
  
• 14,000 more lives saved by more adults having regular screening (current level is below 50 per cent).
  
• 12,000 more lives saved by more adults aged 50 or over having an annual flu shot (current level is below 37 per cent).
  
• Nearly 4,000 more lives saved by increasing the number of women aged 40 or over who have been screened for breast cancer in the last two years (current level is 67 per cent).

What about the potential for genetics to promote public health? Well, Wylie Burke is a little less optimistic than myself.

The Sherpa Says: What would you do if you knew you were at risk? Would you get the flu shot? What about frequent cancer screening? Taking an aspirin? Or even quitting smoking? I hope with the right Sherpa, you would.....