Chronobiologic perspective of international health care reform for the future of children.
The realization of the implications of splitting the atom ended a tragic war. The nuclear age ensued. Likewise, a devastating escalation of health care costs could be ended by realizing the implications of splitting the normal range. Our currently disease-cure-oriented health care system does too little too late. Chronobiology could change this status quo into a system that recognizes risk early; it would gain new information from the resolution of predictable variations that take place within the physiologic range. Investment into vaccinations leads to returns in the form of savings in suffering and cost. A relatively modest investment into a 'Blood Pressure Health Start', pursued while chronobiology is being taught as an integral part in primary, secondary, higher and continued education, may not only drastically and in some respects promptly reduce the health care bill, but it would help the economy of the country that invests into the development of instrumentation for a chronobiologic systems approach. On the one hand, reducing the number of cases of catastrophic diseases, via improved diagnosis (to start with) of the blood pressure status, is likely to substantially reduce the budget deficit by reducing the legitimate and essential costs of care (to start with, of strokes and heart attacks, that kill more people than all other diseases combined and that have blood pressure disorders as their major risk factor). On the other hand, by implementing a novel health care system which also involves new technology that can become in demand worldwide, any trade balance will be improved.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Halberg
F
F
Chronobiology Laboratories, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Cornélissen
G
G
Carandente
A
A
Bakken
E
E
Young
E
E
D002648:Child; D002909:Chronobiology Phenomena; D005060:Europe; D017048:Health Care Costs; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014481:United States