Healthcare savings via prevention of chronic disease

A new study which examines why American spending on healthcare has shown little growth over the past few years, reports that a key reason is healthier hearts among Seniors.

Between 1999 and 2012, American per capita spending on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (heart attack, cardiac arrest, stroke, etc.) declined by $827 per person. Spending on a related category called cardiovascular risk factors (high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes) also fell $802 per person below the trend line.

This cost reduction contrasts with spending growth in many other chronic diseases such as COPD, diabetes, and cancer.

So what’s the secret with these savings on cardiovascular disease? Successful use of preventive measures — greater use of statins, anti-hypertensives, diabetes medications and aspirin has helped prevent lots of expensive health events and contributed to outright declines in hospital admissions for heart disease and stroke.

This accomplishment applies to the most costly and most common chronic disease — poor oral health. Why? Poor oral health is primarily an imbalance of bacteria in the dental plaque called oral dysbiosis. Adjust this imbalance, and people go for years without bleeding gums, inflammation and dental decay. That’s the experience of high risk patients on Prevora over many years.