Prevention is the Cure!

Prevention is the Cure!

Why do I care? Why should you?

⁃ I am afflicted with an autoimmune disease and so is my husband. Autoimmune diseases run through the ancestries on both sides. We have a daughter who has a 50% chance of inheriting defective genes from each of us, or both. If we knew earlier on - before signs and symptoms took hold - we may have been able to halt or reverse the progression for ourselves. Now our conditions have progressed too far along to be able to interrupt the progression. The outlook is grim, as there appears to be no actual cure in sight. Instead, we live with watching disease dictate our lives, cause a lot of expense, and slowly steel our physical abilities. At this point, there is not much we can definitively do for our daughter, but watch and wait.

⁃ If we had known sooner, we could have made the correct choices to benefit our lifestyles, and it’s possible impacts on our child and grandchildren.

⁃ Yes, it’s hard to make choices before suffering consequences, but it’s also hard to live with disease once it is recognized and symptoms are suffered.

⁃ This all puts a huge strain on the economy by removing people from the workforce, added medical expenses for individuals and tax payers, and often leaving feelings of hopelessness in it’s wake, as cures are awaited, treatments are ineffective and lives are impacted. And, if it’s not yourself at the moment,. We all know someone greatly impacted by disease. Wouldn’t you rather know if something awaits you and you have the choice to intercept the issue before it takes hold?

How can we help ourselves and pursue prevention before being side-swiped with a devastating diagnosis, waiting for a cure?

⁃ We could do this with the proper testing to determine the type of diseases presently lurking within our bodies, even before symptoms appear, because it does show up before obvious symptoms appear. If we know the possibility that exists, we can take the appropriate actions to prevent the disease from taking hold in the first place.

Why Should Prevention be the goal? What are the Benefits?

⁃ I suspect the focus lies on finding cures, instead of on preventing disease in the first place, is due to the innate belief pattern we all have as humans that “it will never happen to me.” The economy is well-supported by affirming that belief through doctors and professionals. The public is invested in creating expensive pharmaceuticals that may or may not work and preying upon affected people desperate for a cure. The benefits of knowing means you have the choice to take action. Take control. Let’s put our support behind prevention disease before it happens, instead of trying to find a cure after it does. Disease doesn’t have to happen.

Conclusion

It’s hard watching my body deteriorate day-after-day, and limiting my lifestyle. It’s hard watching my husband succumb to his issues, and the impacts to his own activities. But what’s most difficult is anticipating the impacts to our daughter, whether she acquires disease, or is forced to watch the impacts upon her own family as disease progresses for us.

I make lifestyle choices every day to attempt to minimize the impacts of disease on my family, but it would be so much more encouraging to have a roadmap from which to begin. Currently, I’m approaching our issues in the best ways I have interpreted from research and my own understanding and experience.

Thank you for reading! I have turned off commenting for this article because I am tired of dealing with the Spam. If you feel inclined to get in touch with me regarding this piece, I would love to talk to you! I can be reached by DM through Facebook, or email me here.

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KJ Aartila grew up in a small, rural community surrounded by animals and family. She, along with her husband and daughter, horses and other pets, now live on 40 acres in Northern Wisconsin, surrounded by forest and wildlife. She earned a degree in biology and also loves to read, research and write. She has spent her life reading about, writing about and working with animals, her goal always to be as reliable, trustworthy and honest as a horse, but her innate humaness keeps getting in the way. She remains determined to keep trying, though.