That’s a bold question. But we’re not talking about immortality here – we’re talking about preventing premature death. Data from the NRC tells us that 48% of premature deaths are actually preventable. Think about that for a minute – almost half of premature deaths in the United States are preventable. And, although America spends more money on healthcare than other high-income countries, the life expectancy here is lower than many of those other high-income countries.

Okay, so maybe you can’t prevent death forever, but you can significantly reduce your risk of premature death by engaging in a continual program of preventative healthcare. Your future is in your own hands. Yes, there may be a few barriers such as availability of health services, a lack of cost transparency, or problems with insurance coverage – or the whole thing can just seem so daunting you don’t know where to start, but don’t despair. Take a deep breath and start making positive choices.

Right now, most of us are stuck in this archaic cycle of reactive sickcare. We wait until we have worrying or debilitating systems, and only then do we seek medical care. This is backwards. What we should be doing is doing everything we can to stay healthy – engaging in preventive healthcare. Yes, that means having regular physicals and diagnostic screenings. Did you know that people who have regular colonoscopies reduce their risk of colorectal cancer by 65%?

Conversely, in spite of what you may think, engaging in preventative healthcare saves money, too. A flu shot costs around $25, for example. If you don’t get the shot and end up with influenza ends up with a bill of, on average, $130 for doctor visits and medication, that’s without accounting for missed days of work.

We came up with Healthdom to help everyone take charge of their health. Don’t know where to start? The Healthdom app can help. Remember, you’re in control of your health, and preventative care is better than reactionary care, where you seek help because you’re suffering with what was a preventable disease. You don’t want to find yourself among the 60% of Americans who have chronic diseases. Many of these preventable conditions cause irreversible damage, can be life-long, and life limiting.

We all want to love long, healthy lives, and the only way to do that is to participate in preventative care.

Now you know what to do, you’ve got to learn how to do it.

Healthdom’s app helps you schedule preventative care appointments so you never miss a routine checkup. It also walks you through an initial assessment that identifies risk factors for preventable diseases and uses this data to provide you with a tailor-made preventative healthcare plan. It shows you all your key health data so you’re in control of your health. Our app also sends you personalized suggestions to help keep your body in peak condition.

Healthdom makes preventative healthcare simple and accessible and, because we’ve employed gamification, it’s engaging and motivating, too.

Get Your Checkups

Make sure you get regular annual checks for basic biometrics like blood pressure, BMI, triglycerides, and cholesterol levels. Also go for screenings for common diseases like cancers, diabetes, and osteoporosis. If it transpires that you do have some abnormal cells or something that indicates you are in the early stages of ill health, finding it early with these screenings nearly always leads to better treatment outcomes. And getting yearly checks on your basic biometrics gives you a solid overview of your general health.

Get Active

Nowadays, we all engage in lots of sedentary activities. We’re just not as active as previous generations – lots of us sit at our desks for long periods for work, we come home, go online, watch TV, or relax with our devices. This means we don’t move around as much, which leads to a variety of health complications in the long term. So it’s important that we make the effort to get up and move more. Take a walk. Set an alarm and get up from your desk every hour to stretch and walk around. Instead of going home and getting cosy on the couch, get outside, go to an exercise class, walk the dog – whatever gets you moving. Start small and build on it. Just 30 minutes of brisk walking every day greatly reduces your diabetes risk. And how about this: People who do 150 minutes of exercise a week reduce their overall mortality rate by 20% – that’s a big number.

Start to Make Better Food Choices

Make healthier food choices. Cut down on heavily processed and refined foods and eat fresh, nutritious food. You don’t have to throw away every bag of chips and your favorite snack foods all at once – just start making better choices. Cut down a little. Start with small steps – making a conscious effort to make one healthier food choice every day, and build from there. If you’re hungry, instead of reaching for a candy bar, have an apple instead. Interestingly, those who eat nuts regularly have a 24% lower risk of death than those who don’t.

Add Antioxidants to Your Diet

Antioxidants fight free radical damage to our cells. Eating antioxidant-rich foods like blueberries, pecans, strawberries, beets, and kale, among others, can help reduce risk factors for some chronic diseases such as some cancers, heart disease, and diabetes.

It’s never too late to take your health seriously and to start taking preventative measures. Preventative care is the key to a long and healthy life. Getting regular health screenings and annual physicals let you see whether you need any preventive care services. And there’s plenty you can do to mitigate your risks on a daily basis, too. Start making more positive choices, from eating better to moving more. Take a 30-minute walk, switch that candy bar for a bowl of fruit and yoghurt, or switch that greasy takeout for a homemade Chinese-style stir-fry. Remember, you’re the one who is in control of your preventative health care. Maybe you can’t beat death, but you can beat premature death.