The cost of staying healthy is trumped by the cost of getting sick. Over the past several years I’ve heard many people argue the same point; they muse use a little different verbiage or call on a differing variety of key points to support their claim,
but the message remains the same.
Japan has based their entire healthcare system on this premise. Many of us invest a considerable amount of time and effort in this notion: whether it be as seemingly benign as taking the stairs, parking farther away and avoiding the golden arches – or as dramatic as lifting weights, hitting the treadmill, seeing holistic health practitioners, eating whole foods – or supplementing our diet with various nutrition products.
The ever rising cost of healthcare, coupled with the steady decline in the health of the American population, has many of us increasingly disenfranchised with the healthcare system as a whole. A far greater number of people are becoming increasingly interested in Homeopathic and Osteopathic avenues in addition to the traditional Allopathic healthcare. As a result, alternative medicine practitioners are gaining credibility in the marketplace.
This country consumes more medications per-capita than any other – by a huge margin. Furthermore, healthcare costs in this country are the highest in the world. It has been reported that on an average, a 65-year-old American is taking 19 different medications annually!
Peer-reviewed medical journals cite 106,000 deaths annually as a direct result of adverse drug reactions, as well as 98,000 deaths annually from medical errors. According to recent estimates, a minor heart attack resulting in an overnight hospital stay will cost you about $6,000 a night.
Being aware of this, it is surprising that people consider investing a few extra dollars a day in their own overall health to be expensive. Dr. Forrest C. Shaklee invented the multi-vitamin in 1915. Since its creation, the multi-vitamin has increased the quality of nutrition, thereby increasing the quality of life for millions of people. A recent study published in the Nutrition Journal (October 24, 2007) outlines just exactly how beneficial supplements can be to one’s health.
This study, termed the Landmark Study, is also indexed in PubMed Central. The study, which is the first and only one of its kind, examined the overall health of people who used multiple nutritional supplements by Shaklee for 20 years, compared to non-users and those who used only a multi-vitamin. The study followed blood serum nutrient levels and biomarkers to measure health in the respective groups. A biomarker is a tangible characteristic that can be objectively measured, such as the cholesterol level or blood pressure. These biomarkers are good indicators of heart disease risk, cancer, diabetes or braing disorders.
The study found that those who consumed multiple dietary supplements were 75 percent less likely to have diabetes and 39 percent less likely to have high blood pressure than the non-user group. Furthermore, the multiple supplement group was at 52 percent less risk of coronary heart disease and 49 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack. Finally the multi-users were shown to have a 45 percent decrease in risk for emphysema when compared to the non-users.
So, the message is loud and clear: invest in your health and the payoffs will speak for themselves. Shaklee has invested $250 million in scientific research and quality control in their more than 50 years they have been in business. Their supplement products are currently the only ones scientifically proven to have a positive impact on the health of those who regularly use them.
