The Missing Half of Preventative Health
It goes without saying that more effective prevention requires earlier screening that is accessible, affordable and available at scale. Saudi Arabia is an incredible example of translating this from theory into practical implementation with Taakkad, a preventative screening programme combining metabolic, cancer and osteoporosis screening, with an advanced package planned around genomics, proteomics and lifestyle.
The next question that needs to be addressed is, what happens after people receive their risk profile?
I've spoken to many people about whether they would choose to undergo this type of screening. Some say yes, but many say no. In almost every case, the reason isn't because they don't value prevention. It's because they fear seeing a risk, or a potential future, written in black and white.
You could argue that knowing is always better than not knowing because it gives you the opportunity to do something about it. Yet too often we see diagnosis become prognosis. The way information is communicated to patients is incredibly important because it can be the difference between leaving someone feeling powerless or helping them believe that a different future is possible.
Fear and chronic stress have profound effects on human biology. When someone leaves a consultation overwhelmed, frightened and convinced that their future has already been decided, we have to recognise that their emotional state becomes part of their health journey too.
So people go for screening, receive their results, and then what?
The support infrastructure has to be every bit as robust as the screening programme itself. Firstly, information needs to be communicated in a way that empowers rather than frightens. Secondly, people need practical guidance and ongoing support to help them make meaningful diet and lifestyle changes that genuinely alter their health trajectory.
We already know that fear rarely creates sustainable behaviour change. If it did, nobody would be smoking! This new era of earlier screening, personalised risk profiles and predictive health information is enormously exciting and an essential part of the future of prevention. But it also needs to be handled with extraordinary care, appreciating the human being behind the data, our psychology, our emotions, our beliefs, and the remarkable influence these have on our biology and health experience.
One of the common arguments against communicating with greater optimism is the concern about creating false hope. Yet there is a significant difference between false hope and helping someone recognise that they have agency. There is growing evidence that the way diagnoses and prognoses are communicated can influence patients' psychological wellbeing, engagement with treatment and, ultimately, aspects of their health journey.
I would encourage every doctor and nurse to read the work of Dr Bernie Siegel, author of the bestselling book Love, Medicine and Miracles. As a paediatric and general surgeon working with patients facing life-threatening illnesses, he challenged many traditional assumptions about the relationship between hope, healing and medicine.
National preventative screening programmes represent an extraordinary leap forward in preventative health infrastructure. But they should be accompanied by an equally robust framework rooted in the wisdom of health and healing, something quite different from a healthcare system that is primarily designed to respond once disease has already developed.
I would go as far as saying that it is not enough to give someone potentially life-changing information without also giving them the knowledge, tools and support to respond to it. Nutrition, movement, sleep, stress management, breathwork, mindfulness, social connection and purpose all have a role to play. Prevention should not end with information, it should begin there.
Looking through another lens, this represents an extraordinary opportunity. An opportunity to help millions of people develop a much deeper understanding of themselves and become more empowered participants in their own health journey.
Perhaps the future of preventative health lies not simply in helping people understand their risk, but in helping them understand their capacity for healing. When we combine the wisdom of ancient medicine traditions with the extraordinary advances now emerging from systems biology, longevity science and precision medicine, prevention becomes something far more powerful than early diagnosis. It becomes an invitation to create a different future.
About the author
Dr Laura Holland is an advisor in preventative health and human capability, with a background in economics, nutrition and integrative medicine. Through BeU, she works privately with individuals, advises organisations, and writes about the future of health, behaviour and human flourishing.