(GDP), and more than four times the U.S. military budget. This cost is
even more than other industrialized nations who provide health
insurance to all their citizens (many of them spend only about 10 per-
cent of their GDPs on health care). Despite this, the U.S. is ranked 37th,
just above Cuba, in health care by the World Health Organization.
Without adequate changes, things will only continue to worsen.
Baby boomers that today make up approximately 28 percent of the
U.S. population will represent 67 percent of all those over 50 in
America by 2010, posing even more challenges to the entire health-
care system.
As the patient base grows, the “waiting for disease” model of
health care will continue to fund an ever-expanding array of medical
technology, devices and drugs enabling more patients to undergo
more diagnostic procedures, take more drugs, see more specialists
and be subjected to increasingly aggressive treatments. The advances
in medical technology have increased the life expectancies of an
increasingly large number of medically complex patients, many of
whom require a high degree of monitoring and specialized care as
well as rehabilitative therapy. However, this model of health care has
failed and small numbers of health-conscious people are looking at
real alternatives.
The cornerstone to promoting health, maintaining wellness and
preventing illness is information that empowers individuals to
assume personal responsibility for healthy diet and lifestyle practices,
and the self-discipline to incorporate these practices into daily living.
Despite this trend in the health-care system, the overwhelming evi-
dence of the revolution toward self-health management is the increas-
ing recognition and acceptance by the general public of the effects of
diet, nutrition and lifestyle on achieving and maintaining optimal
health and human performance.
Your Mission: Outlast Rather than Conquer Disease
Many experts point out that there is a maximum biological limit to
aging. By shifting health-care strategy toward ongoing prevention
rather than last-minute intervention, we seek to defer the onset of
degenerative diseases to a point beyond the maximum age limit.
236 • IN FITNESS AND IN HEALTH