Staff photo by Fritz Busch Dr. Bradley Burger, MD, of New Ulm Medical Center said prevention is the best medicine at a 2024 Home & Health show at the New Ulm Civic Center Saturday.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Medical Center OB/GYN and primary care Dr. Bradley Burger shared his thoughts on what’s health care today during a the 2024 Home and Health Show Saturday.

“We don’t focus as much on prevention as much as we do on treatment in this country,” Burger said.

“It’s really a disservice. It’s a lot easier to prevent disease than by treating and trying to reverse it,” he added.

Burger said primary prevention is intervention before a disease occurs for someone who is healthy, has no illnesses and maintains a healthy lifestyle with good diet, exercise and sleep patterns.

“Secondary prevention reduces disease progression such as a person diagnosed with diabetes treating it with medication and physical activity to prevent a disease from getting worse,” he added.

Tertiary prevention deals with intervention with established disease such as a diabetic with kidney issues or heart disease and keeping a person from going on dialysis and decreasing mortality such as heart attacks.

“In the United States, secondary and tertiary prevention is medical industry advertisements for diabetes and heart disease medications. We do a pretty good job of that, but why not try to prevent someone from getting that far before they need medications,” Burger said.

He said general health of the U.S. population is in decline.

“Our lifespan has decreased in the last few years, which is unheard of in advanced countries like the U.S. I see this daily in the younger generation. I see people in their 20s and 30s that are so unhealthy, they are on more medication and have had more surgery than older generations,” he added.

If that trend continues, Burger said it will create a national catastrophe in the coming years.

“Quality of life will continue to diminish, lifespan will decrease, more people will have huge medical bills, be on public insurance and it will be harder for them to see a doctor,” he added.

“I see 40 and 50-year-olds who literally look like they’re 90. I see 90-year-olds who look much younger,” Burger said.

“Prevention decreases the two most common disease risk factors in the United States, which are malignancy (the tendency of a medical condition to become worse, such as cancer tumors) and cardiovascular disease,” he added.

Burger said lifestyle is part of the problem.

“We’re becoming more sedentary. Machines do more of our work,” he added.

Burger said he believes in patient education to help prevent illness.

“Watching your diet and getting exercise is important. Health insurance gives discounts for people to join health clubs. Nationally, it’s been shown to save about $100 billion as year by preventing chronic disease. Last but not least, prevention will help as the population rises and provider numbers decrease,” he added.

Burger said it’s frightening to think about, but there will be serious shortages of physicians and providers.

“By 2030, more people will have trouble even getting to see doctors. Providers are retiring, getting burned out and medical bureaucracy is becoming worse,” he added.

He advised people to maintain a healthy lifestyle for primary prevention to help them cruise along through life instead of suffering from ailments.

Burger urged people to get screened for diseases, some of which are easy to reverse.

“A lot of people don’t do that. It’s really a shame,” he added.

Burger urged people to get regular clinical appointments for things like health screening with things like vaccinations and blood tests.

“Preventive exams and follow-ups are very important. Even things like answering a doctor’s questions are extremely important to stop disease early. It could create a clue to disease,” he added.

Burger said family medical history is also very important to help prevent certain types of cancer, heart attacks and stroke by screening for future ailments.